Stephan Pflaum, Guidance Counsellor and Artist, Thrives at Atlantic

Stephan Pflaum is the Deputy Head of Career Services at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany. Day-to-day, he supports students during their career choice process, outlining options and providing guidance counselling. We spoke to him after his Erasmus+ course participation here at Atlantic, discovering more about his work and motivations. The conversation also turned to his art. It was fascinating to hear about his artistic endeavours, what drives him, and about some of the projects and collaboration he is involved in.

On Work as a Guidance Counsellor

Dr Pflaum has been a career counsellor for over a decade, yet his passion for his work has not waned as he told me when introducing himself:

I’m a career counsellor at Ludwig-Maximilian University Munich, which actually is the biggest university in Germany at the moment. I counsel students from all faculties on how to start their career in an optimal way. A lot of students come to us asking, What should I study? Where should I go after my studies? Which internships should I do? What I really love about my job is that it is becoming more and more international. And that was one of the reasons why I joined Atlantic Centre of Education.

When asked whether most students pursue a career in their field of study, Stephan said:

I think it’s a 50/50 experience. There are some students who start their field of study, proceed, and finish with a clear vision of where they want to work. On the other hand, there are students who choose a course and finish it. But only during their studies or at the end do they decide where to go. Some want to work in business, some with an NGO, some for a political organisation or similar. I think they have a broad variety of plans or non-plans. But in the end, everything works out.

Stephan went on to describe his department’s approach:

We have an open-door policy, which means students can come anytime they want to. They can also book a personal counselling appointment with us anytime.

Mostly, we meet our students at our career events. We have around 100 career events at LMU each year, with between 5,000 to 7,500 students joining them.

That’s the major focus of our work, because all the businesses, mentors, and organisations attend these events.

Since starting his role in 2012, Stephan has observed numerous changes in the student population, with English becoming increasingly indispensable.

I see the students from generation to generation and the slight differences between the generations. I’m not a fan of generation bashing because I’m convinced that every generation has its own qualities.

I always meet students who are highly motivated and want to have a purpose in their job and career. I think that’s what makes my job very varied and amazing day to day.

At LMU, between 20 and 25 % of students have an international background. In the German economy, an increasing number of companies are from overseas.

I see this change over the past few years, meaning I need English more and more in my interviews and not only with people from English-speaking countries, but also with people from other EU countries and from countries like India.

This need to communicate in English motivated Stephan to attend a course at Altantic. Although his English is excellent, he wanted to raise it to another level:

My dream was to speak more sophisticated English because I can understand a lot. I read a lot of English literature and things like that. But I think my speaking skills are not as good as I would wish them to be. Attending a course at Atlantic was a first step to move forward or beyond my actual language skills.

This week at Atlantic, conversing with many different people, native-speakers and people from other countries benefited me greatly. What I’ really find’ve found brilliant was the great mix of levels and abilities. You’re not only with people who are native English speakers, but also talking to people from other countries where English is not the second language.

It was a great exercise to have fun with people who don’t speak sophisticated English, to talk with your hands and feet and head, as you would say in German. That was a lot of fun. It was a deep dive into the language from many viewpoints and perspectives. And, it was a great deep dive into Irish culture as well.

Stephan Pflaum Art

Stephan’s art is not only fascinating but also inspiring, hence I had to ask him about his motivation and beginnings:

It’s a bit of complicated because it’s a hobby, but it’s not a hobby. I’m not a professional drawer or sketcher. I do my very best, but I’m convinced that in the future the most important thing in art will not be what you can do but about how you express what you see. So for me, there’s no ugly in art, and I feel very self-confident when publishing my work. Some people might like it and others might not, but I don’t care.

Why is is not just a hobby? I often combine my artwork with voluntary work or with a donation project. I am queer and very active in the LGBTQ community. I also do a lot of work for refugees in Germany. Whenever I sell my pictures or postcards of my pictures I don’t earn anything. The money goes directly to voluntary organisations or social organizations fighting against discrimination.

Schweinwelten.de is Stephan’s domain, a name combining his heritage as a butcher’s son selling pigs (Schwein) and a wordplay on “Scheinwelt” meaning “‘make-believe world.” Besides, as he explained, drawing animals is more his forte:

I think I’m quite good at drawing animals, but I’m very bad at drawing people. Then again I used to draw people in Irish pubs. It happened three times that I’d go into a pub and start drawing only for the the waiter to approach me and ask if I could draw them. And now three of my pictures are hanging in three Galway pubs.

One thing he loved about Ireland and Galway in particular was the warmth and interest shown to him whenever he was sketching somewhere:

I’m a little bit introvert. So I’d sit in a calm corner where I could draw. The only thing is that there’s no calm corner in Ireland because, people come over and want to know what you are doing. A lot of people asked me to draw them, and I did it very well.

Ireland is a great place for introverts because Irish people have a gentle way of making conversation and drawing you in while making you feel comfortable.

Dr. Pflaum made the most of his Galway stay, taking in the sights in the vicinity and making the most of what the City has to offer.

You can discover more of his are on Instagram @schweinwelten.de.