Your Role

Tax advisory is experiencing a wave of consolidation: thousands of firms are looking for successors in the coming years, and only a few buyers examine them with the same diligence as a professional transaction team. Here you will learn M&A from the buyer's side, on real transactions, and from the initial contact to after the closing.

Vogel advises several thousand medium-sized companies on tax, commercial, and strategic issues and acquires independent advisory firms to further develop them. We are constantly examining new targets, evaluating, negotiating, and closing. Unlike with a financial investor, our work does not end at closing; it begins there.

You are studying economics, industrial engineering, or a related field at an advanced Bachelor's or Master's level and want to fully understand the transaction process, not just a part of it. The internship lasts three to six months full-time. You will work in the Finance team and directly with management on ongoing transactions.

Your Responsibility

Target Search and Market Analysis

• You will build longlists and shortlists of potential targets, research markets, competitors, and succession situations, and prepare initial contacts.

• You will evaluate teasers and initial documents and briefly assess whether a deeper examination is worthwhile.

Valuation and Due Diligence

• You will create valuations based on multiples, transaction comparables, and earnings value, normalize annual financial statements, and calculate purchase price mechanics and sensitivities.

• You will structure data rooms, coordinate question lists with the seller and our consultants, and identify discrepancies for negotiation.

• You will also calculate the financing side: debt service, earn-outs, payment structure over time.

Negotiation and Closing

• You will prepare presentations and decision proposals for management: a recommendation with justification, not a collection of key figures.

• You will work on letters of intent, term sheets, and negotiation documents and accompany discussions with owners.

• After closing, you will help integrate the acquired firm into our reporting system and make it visible whether the valuation assumptions are being met.

Your Perspectives

What you will have delivered after 3 months:

• You will have worked consistently on at least one transaction, from analysis to negotiation.

• A valuation model created by you will have been incorporated into a decision paper, and a third party can continue to work with it.

What you will have delivered after 6 months:

• You will independently conduct the initial examination of a target, from the teaser to the recommendation.

• You will know the process so well that you could structure the next examination.

Where the position can lead:

Those who perform well during their internship have an open door for entry into Finance & M&A. Both expert and management career paths are open afterward, decided by contribution, not by years of service.

What You Bring

Experience & Track Record

• Advanced Bachelor's or Master's degree in Economics, Industrial Engineering, or a related field with a specialization in Finance, Corporate Finance, or Accounting.

• Initial practical experience in M&A, Transaction Services, Corporate Finance, Private Equity, or management consulting is a plus, but not a requirement.

• Profiles that do not fit this mold are explicitly welcome. Specifically: tax assistants with ongoing studies who know annual financial statements from the inside, mathematics or physics students with an interest in valuation, founders of their own small businesses. We evaluate based on contribution, not label.

Skills & Work Style

• You are proficient in Excel and PowerPoint and build models that a third party can understand and work with.

• You read an annual financial statement in such a way that you identify what needs explanation, rather than just copying key figures.

• You use AI as a self-evident tool for research, data room preparation, and drafting.

• You speak and write German at a level suitable for negotiation documents.

Mindset & Personality

• You naturally treat confidential information with discretion and are interested in the company behind the numbers.

• You strive to set the highest standard in everything you deliver, not because someone is checking, but because mediocrity personally bothers you.

What You Won't Find With Us

• No second fiddle. Your work will be used in a negotiation happening this month.

• No deal romance. We buy to keep. Those who lose interest after closing miss the best part.

• No practice cases. You will work on real targets with real owners.

FAQ

1. What is Vogel – and where do you work?

Vogel is one of Germany's leading medium-sized advisory firms – since 1959, owner-managed in the second generation, with its own capital – and is building it into the leading advisory platform for medium-sized businesses. We work at three locations: Aalen as the established headquarters, Bopfingen in the core business, and Munich as a new hub. At all three, we are looking for people across all functions – from tax advisory and consulting to the teams that build the foundation beneath it.

2. How should the salary ranges be understood?

Intentionally broad – and indicated at each position before you apply. We differentiate by track record and market value, not by degree: scarce, highly sought-after profiles at the upper end, less scarce ones at the lower end. The indicated range is not a negotiation margin, but a profile scale – two people with similar experience can earn differently with us. What determines the upper end is maturity, not the number of years of experience, nor negotiation skills.

3. How much – and how – is worked at Vogel?

The measure is what you achieve, not hours. However, it's also true: those looking for a 9-to-5 are not our first choice. We are looking for people who work intensively out of their own drive because the tasks are worth it. How you manage your time is largely up to you. What we share: we work collaboratively in person and typically see each other in the office daily – culture, sparring, and the best ideas arise from daily proximity. We are not a remote company and do not have extensive home office policies; individual remote days are not a problem.

4. How does the application process work?

Lean, fast, transparent – and tiered by profile. Typically, there are four steps: a written assignment where you take a position on eight questions – AI is explicitly allowed, we just ask for a brief self-disclosure on it; a half-hour interview; a joint working session on a real problem from our daily work; and an on-site meeting with the team and a joint meal. How many steps there will actually be depends on the role: for internships and working student positions, the on-site meeting is omitted; for student jobs, a conversation is sufficient; for senior roles, a joint work afternoon is added. In advance, you can book a ten-minute call where only you ask questions. Usually, you will hear back from us within 48 hours after each step.

5. How does variable compensation work?

Tied to performance quarterly, evaluated qualitatively. The scale increases with the level: up to 20% Associate, 27.5% Manager, 35% Senior Manager, 42.5% Director, 50% VP. The expected value with good performance – you meet the requirements, set your own priorities, pass the keeper test – is around 50% of the maximum; the maximum bonus is not the norm. The focus is on a holistic assessment by your manager based on six criteria: Impact, Judgement, Communication, Execution, Growth, and Values.

6. How do I develop myself – what career paths are there?

Two active paths: the IC career (professional depth, expert career) through the stages Expert, Senior, Lead, and Principal – and the Management career (leadership, personnel responsibility) through Manager, Senior Manager, Director, and VP. Both are compensated equally, and neither necessarily leads upwards: those who stay at one level and continue to deepen their expertise are just as welcome with us. You choose the direction after onboarding, usually in years 1-3. Starting your career is not a separate path, but the early part of the same journey – from working student or intern to Associate, for the best without a new application process.

7. Team, Culture, Vacation?

Joint lunch is the daily anchor point – those in the office eat together; it's expected, not controlled. Dinner is the same offer without any expectation. Both without personal contribution. In addition, social events and offsites at regular intervals – not as a mandatory program, but because a good team also shares time outside of work.

Benefits with us are not the icing on the cake, but what makes intensity sustainable over years: exam support with a €25,000 qualification budget and three months' leave, 100% coverage of childcare costs, EGYM Wellpass, company pension scheme, job ticket with 90% subsidy, home office equipment and a device of your choice from our catalog, one book per month from the Vogel canon – and AI tools without token limits and without budget caps. Vacation: 28 days.