Apprentice Benedict is a big IT fan

Bene­dict Lohmeyer is in the third year of his appren­tice­ship and is about to grad­u­ate. In this inter­view, he reveals why he decided to join us and what he par­tic­u­larly likes about our com­pany.

How did you find your way to IP Dynam­ics?

I became aware of IPD through an online adver­tise­ment for an open appren­tice­ship posi­tion. After exten­sive research on the appren­tice­ship of an IT spe­cial­ist for sys­tem inte­gra­tion, I looked around for vacan­cies in Ham­burg. IP Dynam­ics was among the first hits of my search and the com­pany pro­file read very promis­ing. I sent my appli­ca­tion imme­di­ately and was promptly invited for an inter­view. After a nice con­ver­sa­tion at the com­pany head­quar­ters in Ham­burg, I received pos­i­tive feed­back just a few days later. With the con­fir­ma­tion of the appren­tice­ship, my jour­ney at IPD could begin.

Why an appren­tice­ship with us?

For my appren­tice­ship, it was impor­tant to me to be able to cover the widest pos­si­ble range of top­ics. I wanted to gain know-​how for work­ing in the IT sec­tor. IP Dynam­ics offers a wide range of ser­vices, which seemed to be ben­e­fi­cial for me as areas of respon­si­bil­ity. The longer and more inten­sive I was allowed to par­tic­i­pate in the projects at IPD, the more this assump­tion was con­firmed. You are always con­fronted with new chal­lenges. This strength­ens your con­fi­dence in deal­ing with new top­ics immensely. In addi­tion, IPD has its head­quar­ters in what I con­sider the most beau­ti­ful city in the world. I wouldn’t want to miss that.

How did you get started at IPD?

In my case, unfor­tu­nately, the start at IP Dynam­ics took place under dif­fi­cult con­di­tions. Due to the strict con­tact restric­tions in times of the Corona pan­demic, major team events and onboard­ing events could unfor­tu­nately not take place. Nev­er­the­less, I was able to get to know my most impor­tant con­tacts and ref­er­ence per­sons dur­ing the first few days and was quickly inte­grated into the work processes at IPD. I was assigned to the Uni­fied Com­mu­ni­ca­tions depart­ment and was able to directly con­tribute to larger projects in my depart­ment through cer­tain tasks (such as the con­fig­u­ra­tion of new hard­ware).

Do you already take on some tasks inde­pen­dently?

The fur­ther you progress in your appren­tice­ship at IPD, the more respon­si­bil­ity you take on in your day-​to-​day work as an appren­tice. You carry out hard­ware instal­la­tions at the customer’s site as soon as you feel con­fi­dent with such a task. The work requires coor­di­nat­ing appoint­ments with the cus­tomer and also sub­se­quent sup­port in the event of prob­lems. For some time, I also sup­ported our cus­tomers with hard­ware prob­lems, orga­nized replace­ments in the event of a defect, and processed ser­vice tick­ets inde­pen­dently. How­ever, you are never left alone in these activ­i­ties and always have des­ig­nated con­tact per­sons who are there to sup­port you.

What do you par­tic­u­larly like about the appren­tice­ship?

I come into con­tact with many dif­fer­ent spe­cial­ist areas here in my day-​to-​day work. Whether it’s work­ing in cus­tomer sup­port, tasks in inter­nal IT or sup­port­ing col­leagues, or set­ting up a com­plete IT infra­struc­ture for a new cus­tomer site. I always feel chal­lenged and have been able to gain new knowl­edge with every task so far. My affin­ity for work­ing with com­put­ers and hard­ware has always ben­e­fited me. If I’m inter­ested, I also always have the oppor­tu­nity to deepen my knowl­edge. I can take part in train­ing courses or con­tinue my edu­ca­tion on learn­ing plat­forms from well-​known IT com­pa­nies such as Microsoft.

What are your col­leagues like?

When it comes to my col­leagues, I can only report pos­i­tive expe­ri­ences so far. I’ve always been met with an open ear when I have a con­cern. The var­i­ous activ­i­ties in my appren­tice­ship make it nec­es­sary to get in touch with oth­ers and exchange ideas. In my tasks, all col­leagues from dif­fer­ent depart­ments were avail­able to give me advice and sup­port, and it always resulted in a nice con­ver­sa­tion. I also really appre­ci­ate the low hier­ar­chies in the com­pany. As a result, I have always found the work­ing atmos­phere to be very pleas­ant and open-​minded.

How are your work­ing hours reg­u­lated?

Even as an appren­tice, I work a reg­u­lar 40-​hour week. Since I pre­fer to fin­ish work early, I start my work­day around 8 a.m., like most oth­ers. How­ever, I am not restricted to an exact start time. As long as I achieve my work and hourly work­load, I’m flex­i­ble. So if the train goes on strike or I miss the bus, no harm is done. Meet­ings and cus­tomer appoint­ments are the main fac­tors that deter­mine my gen­eral sched­ule. In between, I divide up the time I need to work on my tasks myself.

How do you like voca­tional school? Does it take place in blocks or on fixed days each week?

I attend voca­tional school in blocks. Every 2 – 3 months I have a 3-​week school block. The tim­ing of these is not always ideal, but unfor­tu­nately that is unavoid­able. How­ever, the lessons are a good exten­sion of my day-​to-​day work in the com­pany. Here, basic knowl­edge of com­puter sci­ence is taught through a wide vari­ety of top­ics in the learn­ing fields. Later on, depend­ing on the course, cer­tain areas are cov­ered in greater depth and you work on specif­i­cally tai­lored tasks in the school block.
A neg­a­tive point for me is the pure assess­ment accord­ing to group work, which means that my aca­d­e­mic per­for­mance is also always depen­dent on the work of oth­ers. How­ever, the young and friendly team of teach­ers makes up for this.

As part of your appren­tice­ship, you’re work­ing on a fic­tional cus­tomer project together with other appren­tices. How are you doing so far? What are you get­ting out of the project?

At the moment, we are still in the plan­ning and devel­op­ment phase of this project. We will be pro­vid­ing the fic­tional cus­tomer with an all-​round renewed IT infra­struc­ture and are going through all the main work steps of such a large project. From set­ting up the servers and domain to con­nect­ing the tele­phone sys­tem and con­fig­ur­ing a con­tact cen­ter towards the end of the project, every­thing is included. In addi­tion, a fic­tional cus­tomer and sign-​off by our supe­ri­ors pro­vide room for error and improve­ment. We can strengthen our way of work­ing in a project of this scale. We can learn a lot from this for future, real projects of this kind.

What has been your high­light at IPD so far?

One of my high­lights was def­i­nitely the team event for the Ham­burg site this year, where we went kart­ing in Bisp­in­gen. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in one of those things and I’d for­got­ten how much fun it was. It was a wel­come change to be able to get together again for such an event after a long time. Efforts of this kind to bring col­leagues together are there­fore some­thing I can also high­light as par­tic­u­larly pos­i­tive in the IPD envi­ron­ment. New excur­sions and events are con­stantly being planned. This con­tributes greatly to the team spirit.

Can you rec­om­mend the appren­tice­ship to oth­ers?

I would give it a clear rec­om­men­da­tion. You should have a cer­tain enthu­si­asm for tech­nol­ogy and com­put­ers. As long as you have that, the appren­tice­ship offers a lot of pos­si­bil­i­ties and oppor­tu­ni­ties for fur­ther edu­ca­tion and devel­op­ment. The tasks are var­ied and you can try your hand at many top­ics. Dig­i­tal­iza­tion, process opti­miza­tion and gen­eral net­work­ing affect us all. The oppor­tu­nity to help shape these areas and acquire the nec­es­sary knowl­edge sparked great inter­est in me. And this inter­est is still alive today, shortly before I com­plete my appren­tice­ship.

What do you hope for your future at IPD?

First and fore­most, I would like to con­tinue to expand my knowl­edge and skills after my appren­tice­ship. I hope to be involved in more excit­ing and com­pre­hen­sive projects at IPD in the future. The­mat­i­cally, I will always be faced with new tasks with which I can fur­ther my edu­ca­tion and which will help me to grow. In the fast-​moving IT ser­vices sec­tor, you never stop learn­ing. And I hope that I will be able to con­tinue this devel­op­ment at IPD in the future.

Thank you very much for this excit­ing insight.