My experiences in the Group IT Graduate Program
Liza is a former IT Graduate, who shares her journey of the IT Graduate Program. The program helped her to find the position which suites her interests and skills.
My name is Liza and I’m a former Group IT Graduate at Continental. After graduating I wanted to do a trainee program in the automotive industry with a job guarantee and a stay abroad. I found what I was looking for in the Group IT Graduate Program at Continental. The Group IT Graduate Program is a two-year program that includes four assignments six month each. Between assignments, I switched between locations, division and department which allowed me to learn a lot about Conti’s core businesses and build a broad network.
The program is structured in four assignments. Three out of them are normally based in Germany. For the international assignment the Graduates go to one of the Continental locations in Asia, Europe or North America. Having gathered hands on experience in different areas and teams over the two years helps to find the position most suitable to one’s interest and skills as they enter the program.
During the program, I have worked in different Group sectors: Group IT, Automotive and Rubber Technologies. My first assignment was in service management in Group IT in the headquarters in Hannover. For the second one, I worked for two departments simultaneously, IT Infrastructure Architecture Management and Cybersecurity. For my third assignment, I went to Automotive IT in Auburn Hills, Michigan, where I was working on project management optimization with the engineering applications team that was in the middle of migrating from one data management system to another. One of the main challenges at the start of the program, was understanding the engineering processes the system was supporting. Experiences in the US work culture which was different from what I got used to in Germany, was another interesting part of the assignment and a valuable learning for me. My fourth assignment brought me to the Tires division, more specifically to the IT Competence Center R&D.
I’m very grateful for the experiences I was able to make during the program and welcoming and supporting colleagues that surrounded me in every assignment. But the main success of the program is how much you learn about the different IT and business areas of Continental in only two years. This experience helped me tremendously in finding out where I wanted to work after the program ends.
After the program I found my final placement in a team where I did one of my assignments at and work now as an IT Solution- and Project Manager in eRecruiting.
If you prefer videos instead of text please watch my thoughts in this video interview
This article was written by our employee.
