Why did you decide to pursue a training course as IT Specialist for Systems Integration in the first place?
Actually, I’d been interested in technology and IT topics for quite a while before I decided to make it a career. It began when I was part of a small team (there were three of us altogether) that organized and operated the event technology at my high school. Digital and analog mixing consoles, amplifiers, instruments, all sorts of things.
Later I also got involved in small-scale IT tasks. The more I did that, the greater my curiosity. Then when I went to vocational guidance, the idea of going for training as an IT specialist for systems integration came up pretty quickly.
But joining CENIT needed a certain twist of fate. At the time I had signed up at the Azubiyo portal for prospective trainees. CENIT found my profile and invited me to submit an application. That’s what I did, and after an assessment center event and an interview here in Hannover I received my training contract.
Would you say that your vocational school achievements helped you in your professional life as well?
Indirectly yes, in some ways. For me, my school grades were a motivation to keep it up. They also showed me that the effort was worth it.
But I’m happy that my work as a trainee at CENIT was separate from what I was doing at vocational school. It was always a lot of fun spending time here at the company, and vocational school was just vocational school, so to speak. Of course, both are very important aspects of professional training, and I learned a lot at both places.
In hindsight, what hints would you offer your first-year trainee persona?
Honestly, none at all. Looking back there are a few things that I might have done differently, but in the end, everything turned out just fine. I think everyone knows those movies in which well-intended people change the past, and everything ends up in an absolute mess.
So, here’s the question that’s got us all on the edge of our seats: 1.0 – how does one manage such a great result?
I was simply interested in many things, and I can easily get excited about new topics. That made it a lot easier for me, and it was a mindset that my teachers always promoted. I think many people in my course felt the same way.
We also had a very strong class community in which we all supported each other. Sometimes topics are easier to grasp if a fellow student explains them to you. And if I’m the one doing the explaining, it also gives me a good sense of how well I’ve understood a certain topic.
The combination of these two factors already makes a big difference. And before starting the course I promised myself that I would learn harder and in a more structured way than I did for my high school exams. I was quite upset with myself after those.
So, what’s next for you, how do you see your future?
At first, I was an unfamiliar situation to not have to study so much after school or after my day at CENIT. After three years, it feels a bit weird to have no exams, tests or preparation to do. It took me a while to realize that I was actually done with all that. But it sure is a great feeling!
CENIT took me on as a full staff member, and now I’m in the onboarding process at the AMS-SMB 3DX infrastructure team and starting to support the team. We manage our internal servers for the 3DEXPERIENCE business platform. And when working with clients, our responsibilities sometimes extend to the entire IT infrastructure for this platform. We also take care of updates and migrations, planning, architecture and development of software landscapes – practically everything associated with the platform’s operation. Altogether, it’s a wide playing field that always holds new challenges and opportunities. This is a great area of work to get started as a permanent employee at CENIT!
