Greetings from Germany, everyone. I have been having the time of my life here and I am now approaching the last month of my internship with Heidelberg. I want to share with you what I have been up to for the past four months, the influences of German culture in Print Media and how this experience is shaping my career goals.
Working in the Prinect Product Management group keeps me extremely busy and every other week brings about a new and exciting project. I have gained a great amount of knowledge from my internship at Heidelberg because it forces me to become extremely well rounded and further my insight within the industry. You have to understand the current and forecasted trends, master the product/services you are working with and fully understand your customers’ current situations and future needs.
I have also had the opportunity to meet print shop owners and Heidelberg employees from literally all over the world. This has been a favorite experience of my mine, along with interviewing customers throughout Germany for an ROI project. Even through print shops greatly differ around the world, when the owners are together talking, it’s ironic how they all seem to be facing very similar problems and have a lot more in common than you would imagine.
Working in Germany has also allowed me to grow as an individual. Being outside the United States and in a new culture has helped me open up my mind to a different way of life and new ideas and philosophies.
In regards to print, I’ve seen first hand how the German culture helped develop Heidelberg into the world-renowned company that it is. The people in the company have such a strong passion for print and are among the hardest and most focused colleagues I have worked with.
A large part of the culture—and something that the company takes great pride in—is their engineering. Its equipment, in my opinion, is the highest quality in the industry and, after going 126 miles per hour on the Autobahn, I can say that German automotive engineering is not that bad either.
This experience has truly shaped my personal career goals and interests. Being surrounded each day by print professionals and experts has really made me want to continue to work hard and achieve that level. In my career, which will start in two years after I graduate from RIT, I want to start off by greatly contributing to a company and one day making a big impact in the industry. In terms of interests, I would like to explore business consulting, specifically relating to process optimization type projects.
Thanks for reading about my experiences, and if you have a question or would like to leave a comment, I would love to hear from you.
