Dr. Ralph Miarka, MSc
Senior coach and trainer for solution-focused leadership & communication as well as agility and scrum,
Master of Science in systemic-constructivist coaching,
PCC, CSM, CSPO, CSP, CTC, zPM
I knew very early on that I would become a coach. As a young boy, I was already tutoring my classmates. At school, I was allowed to teach a math lesson myself, and at university, I even took over an entire accompanying seminar for my fellow students. But let’s start from the beginning…
I was born in Rostock and grew up in Leipzig and Berlin. At the age of 16, I left home and went to Magdeburg for an apprenticeship (vocational training as a skilled worker in communications engineering with A-levels at the Deutsche TELEKOM vocational school, 1988 – 1991). I then studied in Leipzig (a computer science degree course at the University of Leipzig, 1992 to 1998) and England.
So my roots are not particularly deep, but quite extensive, you could say. I have learned to feel at home in many places and to make good connections with people quickly. For me, change is not a buzzword but a lived necessity to move forward in life.
Ralph Miarka has always specialized in technology. In particular, software development.
Studying and living in England (1998 to 2004)
I lived in Canterbury (England) from 1998 to 2004 and studied at the University of Kent until 2002. During my studies, I created concepts for lectures at the university and ran seminars myself. It was a great honour and a great opportunity to learn.
In 2004, I became a Retention Project Officer at the Unit for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching, which meant that I was responsible for student support and retention tasks, developing a WebCT-based virtual learning environment, running workshops on presentation techniques, learning methodology, and specialist courses, and maintaining and developing the UELT websites, including general IT support. There was no lack of courage and self-confidence, and I am still proud of the great trust that was placed in me then.
My career at Siemens (2005 to 2009)
During my studies, I visited a friend and fellow student in Vienna. By chance, or rather by his sister, I was offered an internship at Siemens Program and System Development Austria. From then on, my boss at the time kept bringing me back to my current hometown.
After completing my Ph.D. studies, he offered me a permanent position in 2005 – and I accepted. From then on, I had a truly picture-book career at Siemens. I started as a subproject manager, soon rose to project manager and then took all the steps from junior project manager and project manager (2006 to 2008) to internal agile consultant and finally head of the project management support centre (2009).
The step into self-employment (2010 until today)
Economic changes prompted me to consider self-employment. I was fascinated by agile work and wanted to make my knowledge available to other companies from then on.
Since then, I have been able to conduct Scrum introductions, coaching, meeting facilitation and training for well-known companies in Austria, Switzerland and Germany:
- Symena Software and Consulting GmbH (10/2010)
- Deutsche Telekom, T-Systems (07/2010 to 07/2011)
- Agfa Healthcare (01/2010 to 11/2011)
- Atos IT Solutions and Services GmbH (09/2011 to 02/2012)
- Bison AG Switzerland (01/2012 to 10/2013)
- Adcubum Switzerland (12/2013 to 09/2014)
- Paysafecard Vienna (11/2013 to 05/2014)
- Moelia, Spain / Megadon AG, Switzerland (02/2015 to 03/2015)
- EVVA Sicherheitstechnologie GmbH, Vienna (09/2014 to 01/2016)
- Greentube Internet Entertainment Solutions, Vienna (12/2014 to 06/2016)
- Robert Bosch AG, Stuttgart (05/2016 to 03/2017)
- finnova AG Bankware, Lenzburg (09/2017 to 12/2017)
Language
I train in German and am passionate about training in English.
Further training and certifications
From 2006 to 2008, I completed a project manager training program at Siemens AG Austria. Since then, I have also:
- Certified Project Manager (zPM) according to IPMA and
- Certified Project Manager, according to PM@Siemens
During this time, I also went through various certification processes of the Scrum Alliance on agile working:
- Certified Scrum Master (2006)
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (2007)
- Certified Scrum Professional (2008)
- Certified Team Coach (Dec. 2017)
- Scrum Foundation Educator (Oct. 2020)
From 2010 to 2012, I trained as an MSc Systemic Coach at the European Systemic Business Academy in Vienna. The focus of the coaching taught there is on systemic, constructivist and solution-oriented content. The training also enabled
- certification according to ISO 17024 as a coach,
which I claimed for myself.
A highlight in 2011 was the seminar “Training from the Back of the Room” with Sharon Bowman, in which I was able to learn and try out many helpful tools for coaches.
In 2012, I attended the seminar “The High School of Coaching” with Peter Szabo – where I met Veronika – and the seminar “Team Coaching – A Solution Focused Approach” with Evan George from the BRIEF Institute in London. In 2013, I also attended a seminar with Gunther Schmidt, “Systemic Solution Focused Counseling for Difficult Cases”
Since December 2017, I have been a Scrum Alliance Certified Team Coach.
My strengths
One of my particular strengths is my ability to inspire and enthuse others. I love giving training courses and sharing my knowledge and insights with the participants. I enjoy reading a lot – especially specialist literature. One of my strengths is transforming the content I find there into useful information and applicable tools for our customers. A lot of this also comes from discussions with Veronika.
I have a talent for overview and structure. In our training courses, for example, I also ensure that the content is visible and easy for the participants to remember. This allows us to respond to participants’ wishes repeatedly and deviate from the training guidelines without losing direction.
I am a good speaker. I manage to make even the most difficult content easy to understand and put it into the right context for those present. Yes, and Veronika says I’m also a good listener. I’m interested in the people I’m talking to and like to ask questions. Somehow, I seem to be easy to trust. I am happy about this gift and would like to mention it here as a particular strength.
Veronika Jungwirth introduces Ralph Miarka (German)
Certificates
Publications
