My name is Carmen Pfeiffer and I come from the southern part of Germany, close to the Swiss and French border, an area which is called “Dreiländereck”. I have worked with Roche for 10 years now.

My hobbies are travelling (especially to Asia), cooking, and I am addicted to a lot of American TV shows.

I joined Roche Grenzach right after my studies in 2002, in Manufacturing Controlling. After two and a half years in this position, I decided to pursue a career outside of Roche, by working for one year at a local hospital in the finance department. I re-joined Roche just one year later as Finance Development Controller in Roche Basel, as I realized the development opportunities and international interactions are so much better with Roche.

Where did you study?

I studied “European Management and Controlling” at the University of Applied Sciences in Ludwigshafen (Germany). This degree program also included one semester of studies abroad, which I was able to extend to two semesters in order to get my Bachelor’s Degree in Business from Leeds Metropolitan University in the UK.

In which Roche location are you currently working?

I currently work in Group HR, at the Headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. The Global Servicing and Reporting team I am working for is located in an office around 5 minutes’ walk from the main site. But we will move to the Messe Tower in December 2013.

What can you tell us about that location?

As Basel is a small city with approx. 170,000 inhabitants, you can reach everything quickly and easily either with public transport or by bike and foot. So it takes me around 15 minutes to get to work in the morning, which is really convenient for me.

Roche Basel offers its employees a lot of services; I, for example, go to the Roche gym twice a week, make use of the Roche indoor pool now and then, and use the dry cleaning drop-off service.

If you are located on the main site, you can enjoy swimming in the Rhine during summer time and just drift down the river and have a nice walk back to the office afterwards.​​​​​​​

Why did you decide to join Roche?

Actually a lot of my family members used to work or are still working at Roche (e.g. my mom and grandpa used to work at Roche Grenzach, my uncle works in Roche Basel, and my cousin in Roche Kaiseraugst). So for me, Roche was already part of my life for a long time. Roche is an innovative employer, which offers opportunities not only to develop within your own area, but also to make lateral moves into other parts of the company.

What is your current job?

I recently changed my job and joined Group HR, after working for 10 years in various finance departments. As Global HR Management Reporting Analyst I am now part of the Global HR Reporting team, which on the one hand gives me the opportunity to expand my horizons and on the other hand to bring valuable finance, reporting and analytics know-how and experience into Group HR.

I really enjoy having the opportunity to discover a completely new area, which gives me a lot of joy and challenges in my new role.​​​​​​​

What makes it such a great job?

Being able to providing business partners with data and information to help them better understand the business and make decisions. Having a varied workload, which makes every day different from the one before. Working in an international environment, interacting with people from different cultures, and being able to learn more about HR and HR processes every day.

Can you pick at least three of the Roche attributes and explain in detail what they mean to you?

• Work/life balance: Having the option to work from home when necessary (e.g. when I have workmen at home). Flexible working times; during busy times you may need to work longer hours but then you can compensate for this on quieter days by going home earlier.

• Development opportunities: Looking back at my career, I was able to work at Roche Grenzach (Germany) and Roche Basel (Switzerland) so far. I have worked in Manufacturing and in Development Controlling. I have developed from a local to a global controller, and in moving to HR I have now been given the chance not only to work in the finance department, but also to get to know something completely different.

• Organizational stability: Roche is not only one of the world’s leading healthcare companies, but also a great employer in general. This is mainly due to the fact that it offers an open working environment, with various development and career opportunities. The Roche founder’s family is still involved in the business. This fact also influences the atmosphere within the company and has led to the expression “Roche family” for people working here.

Please complete the following sentence:

Roche is a great place to work because… it gives you the opportunity to follow your passion and interests by moving between sites, functions and jobs.

How would you describe the people working here?

At Roche we have many talented and motivated employees who are open, passionate, and great fun to work and socialise with.
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What would you advise job seekers who want to join us?

Keep your eyes open when looking for a job; opportunities sometimes come up where you would have not expected them. Be open and positive in your job interviews; do not try to be someone you are not.

You can visit our careers website www.careers.roche.com and take a look at our latest open positions. Plus, to hear about future career opportunities, I recommend that you register with our talent pool.