Maic has been working as an ABAP developer and SAP consultant at Inwerken AG since 2002. But what specific tasks does he have? How did he come to Inwerken and what has he experienced in over 15 years at the company? To find out, Melissa who is an intern work student at Inwerken, conducted a short interview with Maic:
Melissa: Hello Maic, I am very glad that you took the time to give me this interview. Let’s get straight to the first question: In which area do you work at the company and what tasks do you have?
Maic: Hi Melissa. Well, basically I am a developer and I undertook the leadership of the developer-team a few years ago. Additionally, I am a consultant and look after the training and the basis area.
Melissa: Why have you chosen this profession?
Maic: I did not want to study directly after school, instead I wanted to gain practical experience in a company first. I then completed an apprenticeship in data processing and stayed in this line of business.
Melissa: What skills should someone bring with them in this line of work?
Maic: People always say that developers are logical machines, so you have to bring along some logical thinking skills. This alone, though, is not enough. In addition, you have to have a lot of creativity because not every solution to a requirement results purely from logic. It’s a creative process. You have to put together what you have and the possibilities you have so that you can find a solution to a customer’s problem. Furthermore, developers should be able to interact well with people because consultants tend to be more often with the customer.
Melissa: What possibilities do you have at Inwerken?
Maic: Basically, you have all kinds of possibilities. Once you have a good idea you get the opportunity to implement it or to pursue it further. At Inwerken, I have never experienced that someone had an idea and this idea was rejected from the outset. Of course, there have been times and some cases where the idea came to nothing. Then again if you followed the idea to a certain point most of the time it would eventually be implemented.
Melissa: How did you join Inwerken?
Maic: That was in 2001. At the time I had been working for a consultancy company and I was based at Volkswagen in Wolfsburg. At that time, my job got a little rough. In the project, I got to know one of the former managing directors of ComBridge. I asked him whether they could use employees in their company and I then sent him my documents. At the end, we met for a job interview and to cut the long story short, I signed the employment contract that same evening.
Melissa: What made you decide that you wanted to stay at Inwerken?
Maic: There are a lot of things. On the one hand, it is the relationship with the boss and on the other hand, the relationship with the colleagues and the way of dealing here is always fair. There are, of course, stress situations where it sometimes gets loud. This is a short lived and at the end everything would be fine again because here no one takes matters personally.
Melissa: What are your three most exciting experiences at Inwerken?
Maic: An experience that stayed in my head was still pretty much at the beginning. At that time, we had a go-live at a customer. A week later, we discovered that we had been producing the wrong data. We then spent a whole day analyzing the data and trying to identify the error and where it came from. The following day we dealt with the situation once again, but we nearly broke the whole thing off. I then looked at all the data again and I recognized the pattern and thus we could still rescue the go live.
On another occasion, the go-live was at a weekend. The problem here was that we had to look in the system at least once per hour. We started on a Friday and knew we had to be ready by Sunday morning. That meant we had to cover about 36 to 40 hours. Then we were in the office in threes, ordered pizza, played cards and passing time as we only had to look into the system once an hour. We even slept in shifts. Of course, the whole thing sometimes broke down, but at the end we managed to see the go live through.
Another exciting experience was at a corporate event at the Filmpark in Babelsberg. After the show you could attend a workshop with a stunt team. In the workshop, we ascended from a tower using ropes, made show fights and at the end we were set on fire (free willingly of course!!). We had to put on a thick suit we were then flamed and ran 30 to 50 meters. The outside temperature was already at 32 degrees and you could feel the intensityfire even more easily. One was glad when it was deleted.
Melissa: What’s the best thing that has happened to you in this company during these last 10 years?
Maic: Between 2009 and 2011, the company was split up and it was indeed a very critical time for the company. If the key employees had left, the company would not have existed today. Fortunately, the key colleagues stayed on and we managed to rebuild the company. It was and still is one of my greatest pleasures.
Melissa: Are there any things you would do differently in terms of looking back on your career at Inwerken?
Maic: No, there is not. I would definitely do it again.
Melissa: In your opinion, why is it worthwhile to work at Inwerken?
Maic: Because as a person, you are highly valued in this company. Every employee at Inwerken, will always do their best and this is good for the company. This commitment is greatly appreciated. As an example, say you spent a whole weekend working and trying to rectify something that did not work, then you know for sure that this will not go unnoticed.
Melissa: Hypothetically, would you start again at Inwerken?
Maic: Yes absolutely, I would always opt for Inwerken.
Melissa: That was my last question. Thank you for your time and answering my questions. I have definitely learned a lot of new things.
Maic: It was a pleasure!
