Between data jungle and dessert dreams

Brian Jäger is a Data Analyst at Valora and a chocolatier. An interesting combination that was born from his thirst for knowledge. When going to …

Brian Jäger is a Data Analyst at Valora and a chocolatier. An interesting combination that was born from his thirst for knowledge. When going to a first-class restaurant, he always wondered how the sweet temptations on the dessert trolley were prepared. At Valora he juggles mountains of data and designs strategies. Every now and again, he sweetens life in the office for his colleagues with his sweet delights.

«I help people find what they’re looking for.»

This is how Brian Jäger would describe his job to a five-year old.
Data juggler and dessert lover at Valora
Data juggler and dessert lover at Valora

He has been working in Valora’s Customer Analytics team since February 2018. His simple explanation really means: «I help the Valora Group to advertise more efficiently through its various formats and to save money.» He supports Valora in performance marketing and provides specialist information on Google-related topics. He also collaborates on various analytics and data science projects. «I love my specialist areas and learn something new every day. Everything’s perfect!»

Wants to know everything

The urge to constantly learn new things and to develop further – this is what drives Brian Jäger every day. He’s someone who is always thirsty for more knowledge. «I love this sensation of jumping over a hurdle in my mind, as if a light is suddenly switched on and I can see connections which I couldn’t see before,» he explains. He has been like this since childhood. «My mother called me Snoopy, which means ‘curious’. I was such a nosy parker that I often irritated the people around me.» He is still just as curious as ever. He wants to understand everything around him and learn something new every day.

Data juggler and dessert creator

This urge for knowledge helps Brian Jäger in his everyday professional life. He usually sits behind his computer and juggles mountains of data. He plays around with strategies for optimising product ranges and inventories. Together with his team, he aims to deliver information on how Valora can organise itself to be even more customer-focused. In doing so he constantly has to educate himself further and live up to new challenges, which he loves. And now and again his colleagues see an unusual side of him: two to three times a year, Brian Jäger puts on his apron and his chef’s hat and, to the great enjoyment of all, puts wonderfully sweet dessert concoctions on everyone’s desks.

The sweet world of Brian Jäger

In his spare time, Brian Jäger is a passionate pastry chef. His love of cooking was nurtured from an early age: «I was allowed to help my mother in the kitchen, even at a very early age.» It soon became clear: Brian much preferred dessert to schnitzel. And this is still the case. When Brian Jäger goes to a first-class restaurant, he likes to order all the desserts on the menu rather than a main dish. As he has always been fascinated by these sweet creations, he was determined to find out how they are made.

Learning from the professionals

This was motivation enough for him to complete a chocolatier course. During a part-time training course at the Carma Chocolate Academy in Zurich, he learned everything he needed to know about chocolate couverture, ganache, draping and many others. He then did several practical internships in the kitchens of renowned restaurants and started a dessert blog, which he has since given up because of a lack of time. For Brian Jäger, creating desserts provides the perfect balance to the very cerebral and intellectual work he does every day. Although he needs a lot of time to do his planning and shopping and has to organise everything very well in order to create inspired desserts in the office without all his tools, «I don’t know a better way of giving so much joy to 60 people at the same time.»

Social commitment in his spare time

It seems to be important to Brian Jäger to make others happy or to help them. In his spare time he works as mentor at the regional labour office (RAV). He streamlines CVs, analyses job advertisements for the unemployed, and offers technical training. «I’ve advised several dozens of job seekers and helped some of them to find a new job,» says Brian Jäger proudly. His simple explanation to a five-year old that his work helps people find what they are looking for not only describes his daily work at Valora, but also his honorary commitment to working with job seekers.

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