Hello, I’m E(u)mily, 19 years old and from Bad Hersfeld.
My hobbies are reading and strength training.
Why did you choose this apprenticeship?
In January 2023, I did an internship at Wetech to find out which profession might interest me. At that time, I was still unsure whether I wanted to work in a technical or commercial field. That’s why it really helped that I got to see all areas and departments and was also allowed to do a lot myself. During the internship, I realized that I was more interested in the commercial side, so I ultimately decided to pursue an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk.
I was especially interested in management and e-commerce. I also think it’s cool that you can continue to grow and develop in various directions with this career. Plus, my work is always very diverse and I get to be involved in every department.
What are the contents of your training years?
In my first year, my main focus was on purchasing and management, although I’ve already worked in all departments. In the current year, I’m working in sales and quality management. I’m also involved in some HR topics—particularly strategic personnel management, which will become a major and interesting area in the future. However, I can't contribute too much in this field because I have only limited access to employee data.
What does a typical day during your apprenticeship look like?
First, I water the bonsai trees in our office in the morning. Then I grab a coffee. After that, I usually enter incoming invoices into an Excel spreadsheet so we can conduct a supplier evaluation.Otherwise, every day is different for me. My tasks are very diverse and varied: sometimes I update the instruction manuals for our devices, sometimes I cover for colleagues on vacation in the sales department, help organize and prepare for trade shows, work with my IT colleagues on the new software, prepare and conduct monthly staff meetings, help my marketing colleagues with marketing stuff, and sometimes—classic—I make coffee. I’ve already been able to see many areas of work and there’s always a lot of variety—which is great, because after just one year of training I already know which departments and topics interest me and where I want to develop further.
What are you working on right now?
Right now, I’m transferring our internal knowledge management into our ERP system (sounds complicated, but it’s mostly just copy & paste), and I’m also helping plan a trade fair we’ll be attending in May. I’ve also been preparing for my midterm exam.
Is there any room for improvement?
At the beginning of my apprenticeship, I had to do a lot of things on my own and was often thrown into larger topics because my supervisors weren’t always available due to personal reasons. That was quite challenging at first, but it helped me learn how to work independently very quickly. For future trainees, it might be helpful if the training were more structured from the start, to make the transition a bit smoother.
Due to the additional family challenges my supervisors faced—things they couldn’t really plan for—I was also given opportunities I probably wouldn’t have had otherwise. For example, I got to test our new ERP system in IT and regularly help out in marketing, like printing T-shirts for employees. That definitely gave me some interesting insights into areas I normally wouldn’t be involved in.
Is there somethig you particularly like about WeTech?
Lots of things: First of all, the flat hierarchies that allow me to call my boss “Brudi” (bro). It’s a relaxed work environment, and I have a lot of fun with my colleagues every day. That doesn’t mean we can’t be serious when things get critical—we absolutely can. But overall, it’s a warm and family-like environment where I feel very comfortable.
I also get a lot of opportunities to learn and grow. I can also work on things that interest me, even if they aren’t directly related to my apprenticeship. I think that’s really nice because it means you’re not just stuck at a desk scanning documents all day. I also love that we’re encouraged to contribute our own ideas and the bosses/IT team actually consider them. It gives you the feeling that you can really make a difference.
And on a completely different note – it’s not just free water, coffee, and tea here. We also have a bunch of other benefits: for example, we have a 3D printer and a plotter/large-format printer, lovingly called “Roland,” which we can use for a small donation to the coffee fund. Plus, there’s an in-house gym that every employee can use for free.
So those are the main things that make me want to stay on here even after my apprenticeship.