Franziska, Chemical Engineer

I made a lot of contacts through the trainee program. And I've been benefiting from that network ever since. My mentor at the time always had time for me – and still does – whenever I’m working through an issue involving my personal development.
During the program, I also got regular feedback from my various sponsors and managers.

• Professionally: shortly after I completed my trainee period, I found myself standing in front of a water treatment plant that I had designed and procured as a trainee. The feeling of being able to offer my colleagues something of real value, even in just a short period of time, was fantastic.
• And personally: the five other trainees in my cohort were totally awesome! I still have a lot of fun with them when we attend events together.

My international assignment was canceled because the rates of COVID were high. But I've since made up for it: after I finished the trainee program, I spent a total of eleven months on assignment in the Netherlands working as a project engineer. I came away with a lot of practical experience from a construction site and pretty respectable Dutch language skills.

• Variety
• Visibility
• Lots of opportunities

I was taken on by the Project Engineering department that I'd supported for several months as a trainee. We plan and build new chemical plants all over the world and modernize existing plants. There's a lot of variety in the work we do – everything from the engineering design of individual plant components to classic project management. My first assignment was to support a subproject at our Biotech site in Amsterdam. Now I head up a number of smaller modernization projects at WACKER’s research facility in Munich.

As a trainee I met a lot of helpful colleagues that I can still call on whenever I need support.