“Colleagues have become friends!”

Hello everybody,

my name is Tobias, I am 23 years old and since September 2016 I have joined the big Continental family as a dual student in business and computer science. The dual study program is structured as followed: I regularly study in Germany at the Regensburg University of Applied Sciences and during the semester breaks I work in various IT departments at our plant in Regensburg. Thereby I am able to gain new valuable practical experiences beside the theoretical knowledge at university.

Honestly, I must admit that in the beginning I did not really have Continental on the radar as an employer. Like many other people I knew the company only for producing tires. In addition, this dual study course has been offered at Continental in Regensburg, Germany for the first time. After sending my application, informing myself about the company and then successfully completing the application process, I realized that Continental was more than just “tires”. I had the great opportunity to start a successful career and, in addition, it has enabled me to help shaping the mobility of the future.

During my first two years, I worked at the Corporate IT organization where I got to know various IT departments. There I was able to work on department-specific tasks, improve my own hard and soft skills and expand my network. Apart from all IT Infrastructure topics, IT-Security and IT Service Management were also very important.

During the dual study program, we are given the opportunity to work abroad up to 3 months at a location of our choice, where we could further our professional and personal development. I was drawn to Manila in the Philippines. Some people were asking me about the reason for spending one part of my practical semester there.

The question was quite easy to answer. I was very interested in this extraordinary, diverse country. It is not always possible to get to know a new country with a different culture, way of life and standards and, at the same time, develop your professional skills. With the request of my IT training supervisor at his colleagues in Manila an interesting project task arose.

After a certain preparation time with some “ToDo´s”, the stay abroad started at the end of September 2018 and ended shortly before Christmas with the return flight to Munich, Germany. At the selected department in Manila, Philippines I was allowed to support a work package of a project and work on it mostly on my own responsibility. The task contained working out all IT-services offered by Corporate IT Infrastructure in the Asian region. In addition, it was crucial to describe the interdependencies of the IT-services, as well as, the basic requirements that a customer has to meet in order to obtain an IT-service. 

A personal highlight of my stay was definitely the extraordinary Christmas party, which does not take place in the same way at any other Continental location! Furthermore, I was also able to enjoy a two-week holiday on-site.

Based on my previous experience I can recommend to pupils and students who are interested in a dual course of study, but also anyone else, to apply for a job at Continental and take a closer look at the company. Continental has everything that an employer can offer. In addition to an exciting industry, that is currently changing so much that a completely new business model is emerging, the company offers a future-oriented working environment, with motivated and committed colleagues, that fulfills the needs of its employees.

At the moment, I am back in the summer semester at my university in Germany and, at the same time, I am looking for suitable and interesting bachelor thesis topics that would be available at Continental. After my Bachelor´s thesis, which will start in September and finish in February 2020, I have planned to do my Master´s in Regensburg and then continue my professional career at Continental. Parallel to my Master program, I want to gain further experiences by working as a working student.

This article was written by our employee.