I am a freelance consultant for strategic communications & marketing, moderator and content creator. This is of course quite a broad portfolio, though it describes quite well the type of clients I work with: Large space companies who are settled and need an outside perspective in times of transformation; NewSpace companies who need an initial boost or a part-time marketing specialist in their team; and space events that have a demanding audience and need an engaging host.

After many years working for a space company in these fields, I realised that there are not many full-time positions for my expertise in the space sector - however hundreds of small space companies struggling with communication and marketing. So why not offer it on a case by case basis? It was ultimately the peace of mind that I gained during my sabbatical year to come to this conclusion. And then finally, in July 2023, I founded my own company, Crunch & Huntening.

One could say it was circumstance, courage and persistence. During my studies, a friend in my university theatre group noticed my passion for space. He was rather proud to share with me that a friend of his, from elementary school days, now worked at ESA and he could share the contact if it ever mattered to me.

For some reason I parked this thought until the end of my studies, because it did not occur to me at the time that space organisations might need marketing. Even worse, I decided to keep this contact "warm" because my little brother was considering at the time to study aerospace engineering and might need an internship contact in the future.

It took me two jobs after university, to realise that this was pretty dumb. One morning I woke up and realised that it was me who wanted to work in the space industry. Keeping a contact warm for somebody else was nice, but not necessarily best for my own career.

So, a couple of phone calls later I was talking to a few space companies in Darmstadt, who ultimately referred me to a vacancy one of them had: A full-time Marketing & Communications Manager. Needless to say that I applied immediately and got the job! After that, leaving space was never an option anymore.

If you are considering entering the space industry coming from a non-tech background, it helps building your network first. Join relevant space events, network and use networking platforms like LinkedIn. The people you meet at space events might not necessarily be the ones to offer you a job, but they can connect you to someone inside their organisation. It is a very small, family-like industry after all. We like to stick together.

I personally think in this phase, it is important to have your own "sales pitch" ready. Especially when approaching someone technical (and these are often the majority of attendees) about a non-tech opportunity, they might not know where to place you. Test different versions on how to present yourself to become memorable, to be referred and contacted again!

Most of all, I think it is important for us non-tech space enthusiasts to stick together and keep promoting platforms like weworkinspace. It is a first step to remove the common bias that space is only for technical roles. When you are reading this, you already know that this is not the case. Our industry needs more people like you to spread the message among those space enthusiasts who are still stuck in this common misbelief.