Carsten Schlichting began his career 1977 in an governmental  office in Hamburg. In 1980, he continued at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Industrial Engineering (IAO) in Stuttgart, and from 1982-1986 he was responsible for projects in the area of performance management, job evaluation/grading and compensation at the consulting firm Consulectra.
 
In 1986 he moved to Robert Bosch GmbH, where he worked in HR operations at plant level and at the company's head office. At Bosch he was responsible for group-wide executive development and compensation for a total of ten years until his contract came to an end in 2012. He also worked for several years for Bosch in the United States, and from 2005 coordinated the company's HR activities in Europe.
 
Carsten Schlichting has extensive experience in HR tools and processes and how they work together in international networks and matrix organizations. He believes that good concepts and valid tools alone do not guarantee successful implementation: corresponding processes and training, plus efforts to ensure acceptance on the part of line managers and HR business partners, are also required.
 
He is particularly interested in how talent management, grading and compensation models can be interconnected.