As a full-fledged team member at the end
Bachelor’s candidate at Vorwerk
Knowing how digital challenges are mastered at a major corporation – that was what tantalized Rahman Ünal when he applied last year as a student trainee in Digital IT at Vorwerk Services. That curiosity soon burgeoned into more. He recently signed a contract with us as a bachelor’s candidate and is now working on his research topic. I wanted to speak with him about his experiences in the past few months and his motivation for writing about Vorwerk in his thesis. We met for an interim debriefing.
Rahman, you already acquired IT experience in several companies before and during your course of study. What gave you the idea to apply to Vorwerk?
Having had the opportunity to become acquainted with IT at an insurance company and several small- and medium-sized companies, it was important for me to see how an established major corporation approaches digital challenges. Then I found the offer for a student trainee digital IT online on the Vorwerk site, as well as the information that it is possible to write your bachelor's thesis here. That’s what prompted me to apply.
Why are you especially interested in the field of digital IT?
Because it is apparent how digitalization has arrived in many areas of our lives, I want to be part of this development. That’s how I came to study business informatics, in which we discuss many topics having to do with digitalization as an interface between business and IT – and ultimately also why I came to Vorwerk.
What was your typical daily routine like while you were a student trainee at Vorwerk?
On the days when I was at the office, my day mostly began around 9.00 o'clock. First I handled inquiries from user management for our internal IT systems; this includes project management tools such as Jira and Confluence as well as Slack as a messaging service for cooperation in networked teams. Afterwards, we frequently helped the project managers adapt the business processes in the software, because every project has different requirements.
You decided to write your bachelor's thesis in cooperation with Vorwerk. How did that come about and what is your topic?
First I listened around internally to collect initial ideas. My interest in a future career as an IT consultant gave rise to current topic: “Entrepreneurship as a driver of digital transformation”. Essentially, I am comparing and contrasting the established traditional corporation Vorwerk with the joint venture Vorwerk Digital.
How is Vorwerk supporting you with your bachelor’s thesis?
I was immediately assigned an advisor to whom I can turn at any time with questions. In addition, I have the freedom I need in order to focus entirely on completing my degree.
What do you enjoy most about working at Vorwerk and is there anything you dislike?
I think it’s good that – both as a student trainee and now as a bachelor’s degree candidate – I am treated like a full member of staff. Every feedback is taken seriously; that is not the case everywhere. I also like being able to organize my own work and work at my own pace, because that encourages me to contribute my own ideas. What doesn’t work very well yet are the processes. Vorwerk Digital hasn’t been around long, so not everything has been defined yet.
So what does the future hold after your bachelor's thesis? Do you already have plans?
I am still vacillating between embarking on a master’s degree and starting a career or perhaps both at the same time. I’ll have to think it over some more in the next few months. For now I am focusing on completing my first degree.
Rahman Ünal (26)
studies business informatics at the University of Applied Sciences in Mönchengladbach. He has been employed since May as a bachelor’s candidate at Vorwerk Services in Düsseldorf, prior to which he worked there for five months as a student trainee digital IT. He came to Vorwerk because he wants to become familiar with several companies before committing to a future career path, and thus far he can’t imagine a better employer.