One Year at Continental – A Year Full of Impressions
My name is Lea and I am a dual student of Business Administration in the second year at the location in Hanover/Germany. Almost one year ago we had our first day as a trainee or dual student at Continental. With our group, we cover all three areas from commercial to IT and technical. The new trainees and dual students started at the beginning of September and we would like to review our first year.
In September 2018, the apprenticeship/study for each of us started. For me as a Business Administration student, there is a rotation where we change every three months between university of applied sciences and work in the company.
Right at the beginning, all students and commercial trainees of the Hannover location went to Bad Salzdetfurth for a seminar together with the vocational and training academy, where we could get to know each other as well as the professional world. Through self-presentations, tips on time management and a lot of feedback, we were optimally prepared for the start. The week we spent together showed us that we harmonize very well as a group, despite the different work focuses and backgrounds. This increased our anticipation for the coming year and the coming years even more!
Followed by the first phases at vocational school and university, we were now equipped with our first theoretical basics. After the successful exams a few weeks later, we were finally able to use them in the company for our first practical assignments. Each of us was assigned a department – our practical training could begin. Now, we can look back on many exciting moments in the past year…
Especially the various events, where many of us supported actively, we will not forget so quickly: Starting with the support at the IAA Commercial Vehicles in autumn 2018 in Hanover, where our help was in demand during the first two weeks, or a creative pitch event “Let’s Cook” in Stöcken. This gave us an insight into many innovative and creative business models that Continental Industry employees around the world have been working on.
The calendar year was rounded off with a joint Christmas party at which we had a lot of fun and were able to celebrate our first successes and experiences.
At the begging of the new year, we joined our departments within the company. Some of us took part in the Continental Tire Award ceremony, while others could help as election assistants in the election to the supervisory board. All in all, these were exciting events, at which we were happy to support and gain valuable experience.
In addition, exciting tasks were added within the departments, where we were given trust and responsibility. Be it customer visits in the field service or even a business trip to Romania, we were able to get many different insights. Otherwise, we are closely involved in the day-to-day business of the departments during our practical assignments. For example, Luis who was in product marketing for winter tires and Henrike who got to know the processes in credit management. The creation of customer data, the creation of a dashboard with special IT tools like Power BI or the creation of competitive analyses are our tasks. Depending on the department and its day-to-day business, we work on smaller tasks or support long-term projects. Many departments also give us our own projects, which we then implement on our own responsibility. However, due to the interdependence between the departments, there are also various meetings on our daily schedule.
Networking, which is particularly important at Continental, sometimes went beyond working hours. For example, we took part in the Hanover Marathon together for Team Continental or enjoyed the Maschseefest with our colleagues after work.
We are happy to look back on a successful and exciting year. Now it’s the turn of the new students to gather their first appealing experiences. We look forward to bringing the world and working at Continental closer to them as their mentors and wish them all a great start!
This article was written by our employee.
Lea Pesler
