Your Role

The start of your career determines how quickly you can truly do something. At Vogel, you get more than just assistance right after your studies: you work on real client mandates from day one, get early direct contact with managing directors of medium-sized companies, and learn consulting where it matters most – close to the client.

Vogel is one of the most successful medium-sized consulting firms in Germany – several thousand companies trust us with their tax, commercial, and strategic issues. Our work is divided into three lines, each with its own responsibility: Tax Consulting, Accounting & Controlling, and Digitalization Consulting. That's precisely why we can offer you something that hardly anyone else can – you don't have to decide beforehand.

You have completed your studies or are about to – Business Administration, Finance, Tax Law, Business Law, or a comparable field. Your first twelve months are intentionally open: you will work for approximately four months each in Tax Consulting, Accounting & Controlling, and Digitalization Consulting – each with your own client mandates and your own responsibility, not as an observer. At the end of this year, you will decide together with us where your focus lies. Vogel will then support you with the appropriate qualification step – Master's degree, management career, or professional examination, depending on the direction. The path leads in both lines through your own client mandates to leading your own team.

Your Responsibility

Tax Consulting

• Assess where commercial law and tax law diverge, and prepare tax returns for companies and entrepreneurial families – with your own responsibility and review by your supervisor.

• Accompany assessment reviews, legal remedies, and tax audits, and learn where the actual points of contention lie in tax law.

• Participate in structural consulting – transformations, succession planning, structuring. Here you will see that tax consulting is fundamentally about intellectual work.

Accounting & Controlling

• Take on your own client mandates in ongoing accounting, investigate discrepancies, and participate in monthly and annual financial statements.

• Prepare the business analysis (BWA) meeting with the entrepreneur and explain what the numbers actually mean.

• Work on forecasts, planning, and liquidity analyses – where numbers begin to answer entrepreneurial questions.

Digitalization Consulting and Proprietary Tools

• Implement and set up systems for clients – interfaces, document flows, connection to their existing system. You are on-site at the company and get the technology running.

• Support clients who do their own bookkeeping and train their staff on the tools used.

• Use AI as a matter of course for research, analysis, drafting, and plausibility checks, and contribute your own ideas on how client work can be faster and better. Anyone who sees AI as a threat is in the wrong place here.

Your Prospects

What you will have delivered after 6 months:

• You have completed the first of your three rotations and are in the second – in both, with your own client mandates, not as an observer.

• You have actively participated in initial client meetings, with your own preparation and contributions.

• You are proficient in our work environment and use AI in your daily work.

What you will have delivered after 12 months:

• You have completed all three rotations and worked on real client mandates in each.

• You have chosen your specialization and can justify why – based on your own work, not on an assumption.

• You have formally started your qualification step, supported by Vogel.

What you will have delivered after 24 months:

• You have found your own specialized area – an industry, a technical field, a tool – and are building noticeable depth there.

• You independently manage a partial client portfolio; your manager is only the escalation point for complex special topics.

• You are a concrete candidate for the next level in your line.

Where the position develops:

After choosing your specialization, the path leads to the Manager or Expert level of your line – with development paths in both directions, a specialist career or a management career. The path to get there is determined by contribution, not by years of service; we do not have an automatic progression of "more experience equals higher level".

What You Bring

Experience & Track Record

• Completed or nearly completed degree in Business Administration, Economics, Finance, Business Law, Tax Law, or a comparable field – ideally with above-average performance.

• Ideally, initial relevant practical experience – an internship or a working student position in tax consulting, auditing, consulting, or a comparably demanding environment. If you don't have any yet, it's not a disqualifier – that's exactly what the open entry is for.

• Initiative outside the curriculum – a project, entrepreneurial engagement, an initiative that you not only participated in but also shaped.

• Profiles that don't fit this mold but bring substantial expertise are explicitly invited – we evaluate based on contribution, not labels. Specifically: trained tax assistants with a completed degree; law graduates with a focus on tax law; former founders with commercial substance. The stated range is not negotiation leeway but a profile scale. The lower end represents entry without relevant experience. Those coming from dual studies or multiple practical placements and independently handling standard cases in one of the three lines from the start will begin in the upper third. The range indicated above applies to the primary profile. Those with a different background will start at a different market rate and converge after twelve months of proven performance to the role level – the logic behind this is in our compensation principles.

Skills & Work Approach

• You work analytically and structurally – you break down a task into sub-steps before you start, and deliver results with a clear structure.

• You communicate clearly and reliably – both in writing and in initial client meetings. You are not afraid of topics you don't yet fully master.

• You use AI as a standard tool – for research, drafting, analysis, client communication.

• You work quickly without compromising quality – in a team without buffers, what you deliver is used directly.

Mindset & Personality

• You want to specialize professionally – but only when you know in what area. The openness of the first twelve months is an opportunity for you, not an uncertainty.

• You have the humility to learn from experienced practitioners – and at the same time, the ambition to make your own contributions that advance the team.

• You think entrepreneurially – you take responsibility for your client mandates, not for your hours.

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

What you will NOT find with us

• No trainee program with observer status. You rotate – that's the point. But in every station, you handle your own client mandates and deliver results that are used. No shadowing, no slide-making tasks, no waiting for the next rotation.

• No assistant job where you sort documents for your manager. You work on real client mandates, with real client contact, with real responsibility.

• No Big Four pyramid without client contact in the first few years. With us, you see clients from day one.

• No inherited business mentality without growth ambition. We build specializations and industry depth; we don't just manage.

• No corporate corset where you wait for promotions. Growth here comes from contribution, not from years of service.

FAQ

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

Vogel is one of Germany's leading mid-sized consulting firms – a family business since 1959, from Aalen – and is building the leading consulting platform for the mid-sized sector. We are growing at several locations: in Aalen/Ostwürttemberg as our established headquarters and in Munich as a new hub. At both locations, we are looking for people across all functions – from tax consulting and advisory to the strategic teams building the platform.

2. How should the salary bands be understood?

Intentionally broad – and indicated at every point. We differentiate based on track record and market value, not on the degree: scarce, highly sought-after profiles at the upper end, less scarce ones at the lower end. We calibrate exclusively on the market – two individuals with similar experience can earn differently with us.

3. How much – and how – do you work at Vogel?

What matters is what you achieve, not the hours. However, it's also honest: if you're looking for 9-to-5, we're not your 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 together in person – 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 staggered by profile. For entry-level roles (internship, working student, entry-level position), typically two interviews and a short work sample are sufficient; experienced roles are a bit more involved. For selected senior roles, we are considering incorporating a joint working day in the future so that both sides can get to know each other better. Always applicable: scheduled appointments, swift decisions, substantial feedback – regardless of the outcome.

5. How does variable compensation work?

Tied to performance quarterly, qualitatively assessed. The scale increases with the level: up to 20% Associate, 27.5% Manager, 35% Senior Manager, 42.5% Director, 50% VP. The expected value for 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 supervisor: ownership, quality, learning curve, collaboration, impact.

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

Two active paths: Mastery (technical depth, expert career) and Pioneer (leadership, management). You choose the direction after onboarding, usually in years 1-3. Entry-level position is not a special track 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?

A shared lunch is an open daily offer – not mandatory; whoever wants to join can, and everyone can eat whenever they want. In addition, dinners, social events, and offsites at regular intervals – not as a mandatory program, but because a good team also shares time outside of work. Benefits: well-thought-out and substantial, not symbolic. Vacation: 28 days.

8. I know someone – is there a referral bonus?

Yes – €2,500 for every successfully filled position (no internships). A brief context is enough: who you have in mind, for which role, why. It doesn't have to be perfect, but it should be substantial.

Compensation: €61.2K – €79.2K • Fixed: €51k – €66k · Bonus: €10.2k – €13.2k · EV: €58.14k – €75.24k

• • OTE €61.2K – €79.2K • Fixed: €51k – €66k · Bonus: €10.2k – €13.2k · EV: €58.14k – €75.24k

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