21.03.2025Christian Dinkel, CAS in General Management

Christian Dinkel, 37, lives with his family in Beinwil am Hallwilersee and is completing a CAS in General Management while working. With a doctorate in mechanical engineering, he currently works as a project manager at a Swiss nuclear power plant and is responsible for the interim storage of fuel elements. He finds nuclear technology to be an extremely exciting environment and as a project manager he has both technical and commercial/contractual issues on his desk. Christian Dinkel enjoys spending time with his family hiking in the mountains, where he can pursue his hobby of photography. He particularly appreciates the modular nature of the CAS, which allows him to combine further education, work and family life. He also likes the mixture of practical relevance and academic foundation.

I completed a traditional engineering education and continued to specialize in certain nuclear technology topics. Management topics only played a subordinate role. At the same time, additional skills are needed for successful projects: Communication and finance play an important role from my point of view, but it was also important for me to be able to continue my education in leadership and strategy topics.

When I made the decision for myself to complete a part-time continuing education program, I started with a traditional online search. It was important to me that the CAS was very broadly based, with many individual options. In addition, a certain quality was important to me, i.e. very good lecturers and a renowned university. After some research, I came across the program offered by the University of Zurich.

The CAS program offered by the University of Zurich was a perfect fit for me: I was able to choose the modules that most appealed to me individually. At the same time, it was possible to distribute these modules in such a way that my professional and private appointments could be reconciled with the time required for further education. It was also important for me to attend face-to-face events and to discuss, learn and make contacts with other students in small groups. I also received good advice from the program director in a personal meeting, which ultimately led me to choose the University of Zurich.

Very good! The first module was on strategic management and the very good lecturer found exactly the right mix of academic knowledge and practical application from my point of view. That was really great! In addition, the CAS participants were thrown in at the deep end and had to or were allowed to work out and present a lot themselves. That really appealed to me.

It's difficult for me to decide. On the one hand, I thought the Strategic Management module was great. It gave me a whole toolbox that I can use for a wide range of challenges. However, the topic of Innovation Management was at least as exciting. I'm at home in nuclear technology, an industry that you would probably describe as conservative and not very innovation-friendly if you look at it from the outside. However, the module was of course also about how you can create innovation-friendly environments and teams. That was very enriching.

I can't highlight any one thing in particular, I'm very happy with the entire CAS. It was a very good fit. You were challenged, but also had fun and still learned a lot!

It was always a great, open exchange with exciting people from a wide variety of fields. There were always good conversations during coffee and lunch breaks. If I need a capable person from the fields of banking, data analysis or civil engineering in the future, I now know who I could turn to.

That remains to be seen! I'm convinced that you have to keep on learning and I'm very lucky that further training also plays a very important role at my employer. The support of my employer naturally makes it much easier to complete further training alongside my job and I hope that I can bring what I have learned back to the company in return.

The biggest challenge is certainly “carving out” the necessary time for further education and establishing good time management alongside professional and private obligations. The advantage of this CAS is that you can put together the modules individually and thus take your own needs into account.

I have one more exciting module to complete: Change Management. I'm really looking forward to it! I hope I can put the content to good use in my everyday life. At least that's my hope. Of course, I also expect the last module to be at least as exciting as the previous ones.

Yes, definitely. I was really impressed by the lecturers in all the modules I attended. In particular, people who are looking for practical training with a strong academic foundation are in the right place here. Especially if you have a technical background, the modules are extremely enriching.

(Here you can find more information about the CAS in General Management.)

Text: Linda Betschart