Field report by Carina B.
My name is Carina Becker and I work in sales in the XL Manufacturing Systems division and am currently studying mechanical engineering in my Master's semester. During my A-levels, I applied to ELHA as a technical draughtswoman. After I was accepted, I started my apprenticeship.
In my first year of training, I was given the opportunity to enrol on the Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering degree programme at Paderborn University. This meant that I started a dual study programme, i.e. during the lecture period I studied normally like any other student, but during the semester break I gained practical experience in construction and wrote exams at the same time. At Paderborn University's mechanical engineering degree programme, all exams are written during the semester break, so the semester break was always more strenuous than the lecture period in the semester.
After the first 4 semesters, I was granted a full year's leave of absence to take my final examination as a technical product designer. The job description of technical draughtsman was replaced by technical product designer. After completing my training, I did a 3-month internship with a cooperation partner of ELHA in the USA. During this time, I lived in a student residence in Ann Arbor and worked in Plymouth, Michigan. During my stay abroad, I was able to gain a lot of new experiences and improve my English.
In the last two semesters of my bachelor's degree, I completed the remaining exams and was able to work in various departments during the semester break, such as work preparation and assembly. For my Bachelor's thesis, I chose a practical task, namely the design of a clamping device. During this time, I was supervised by ELHA and a chair at Paderborn University.
After completing my bachelor's degree at the University of Paderborn, I decided to work in sales in the XL Manufacturing Systems division for two years to gain professional experience. Working in sales was new territory for me at first, but I have to say that I really enjoy it because of the different activities and requirements. After receiving an enquiry from a customer, e.g. for a special machine, my first task is to create a layout using a 3D CAD system in order to get an idea of the layout of the machine. Then a calculation has to be made and a written quotation prepared. Communication with other departments, such as the design, electrical and purchasing departments, is particularly important when preparing quotations. Customer visits to discuss the quotations and to present ELHAs are also part of the sales tasks.
After 2 years of professional experience in sales, I enrolled on the Mechanical Engineering Master's programme at Paderborn University. I currently have a 20-hour contract at ELHA and am studying for a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering. I am particularly pleased that I can continue to work in sales and still organise my time for my studies very well.
In addition to my two years in sales, I took part in two projects, including the "MINT-Mentoring Plus" project, in which experienced mentors from other companies support female career starters with their career development and positioning in the company and with their professional and personal life planning in general. My mentor actively supported me as a mentee with all my questions and was not only my first point of contact during the project. We have stayed in contact and continue to meet and exchange ideas at regular intervals even after the end of the project. The various workshops, discussions with other mentees and my mentor helped me get off to a good start in my career.
I also took part in the project "MINTrelation - girls, women and companies shape future professions" during my bachelor's degree. The aim of this project was to inspire more young female talent for STEM professions and to improve career opportunities for women in technical professions. Together with my work colleague, we supported schoolgirls by showing them our day-to-day work and sharing our own experiences.
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