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Intern Abroad

Archive for September, 2021

Hilti in Liechtenstein: located in the middle of mountains, better views are hard to find!

September 17th, 2021 | by

©Victoria Jun

  • Construction Engineering B.Sc.
  • Liechtenstein
  • Hilti
  • 01.05.-31.12.2020

 

After a month of postponing the start of my internship due to Corona, I started it abroad in May 2020 in the Lean/ Smart Factory department at Hilti in Liechtenstein. I can spoiler that I really had a very cool time down there and. Quick info: Liechtenstein is the small country between Switzerland and Austria, not to be confused with Luxembourg 😀 Many thought I was there.

I applied quite normally via the job postings on the website. Since the group is very international and they have a very big intern culture, you can find postings there in many countries and in different divisions. I chose the headquarters in Liechtenstein. So you work in Liechtenstein, but you have to live in Austria or Switzerland. However, getting to Liechtenstein is not a problem, there are regional trains and buses.

The duration for processing the application is not too long and usually includes 2 interviews, with the HR department and with the head of the department. Once you have been accepted, the HR department is very helpful with all questions you ask them, be it contractual and organizational things for the internship or general information. You are added to a Facebook group where apartments or shared rooms are posted when someone has finished their internship, and there is also a WhatsApp group where interns exchange ideas and plan activities together during lunch break, after work or on the weekend. So you’re definitely not alone.

My day-to-day office life was very diverse and also very practical. The overall company organization is located at the headquarters, as well as a production line and a large R&D center. So you can get to know a lot of different areas and, at the beginning, you’re also given a tour of the entire site and production. I also worked partly in the home office, but that’s not a problem because you’re provided with a laptop and you communicate with your colleagues via teams and make phone calls. The company is very international, if you work outside of production, everyone speaks English and you can work with different national backgrounds.

When you work in Liechtenstein, most people live in Feldkirch in Austria or Buchs in Switzerland. It’s up to everyone to decide what they prefer, although of course it’s a bit cheaper to live in Austria.

From both places it takes approx. 15-20 min by train to Liechtenstein. Hilti itself has its own train station. If you can’t find an apartment in the Facebook group, you can also search for flat-shares and apartments via WG-gesucht. That’s also how I found my WG.

I already mentioned that there are trains and buses to Liechtenstein. In the province of Voralberg, which borders Liechtenstein, they sell a train ticket that is valid for the whole province, including Liechtenstein. It is available as a yearly subscription and costs only 100€ when applying for the first time and showing a driver’s license. This is really super cheap and helps with the daily trips to the office or the trips to Lake Constance or the mountains on the weekends. You can easily buy it at the mobility office in Feldkirch.

In general, the region down there offers lots of opportunities to keep busy after work. Lake Constance is very attractive for swimming, stand up paddling or getting to know different cities. The mountains, both on the Swiss side and in Austria invite you to many hikes. There is something for every level of difficulty: relaxed walks, longer summit tours or climbing routes can be mastered there. If you want to make a trip to the city, Innsbruck, Zurich or Munich are only 2 hours away by car or train. So there should be something for everyone. Since I was there during Corona, clubs and parties were closed, which is why I cannot say much about it. But they exist 😀

All in all, I can 100% recommend internships at Hilti and in the area! The company is very innovative and you get to know many different people and the daily work routine. The nature and the surroundings down there invite you to go on many different tours on the weekends. The intern community is really big, so you’re never alone and quickly find friends. By the way, you meet many employees who also studied at RWTH.

I hope my report could support you in your decision, and if you have any further questions about Austria, Liechtenstein, Hilti or other companies in Liechtenstein or Voralberg, feel free to contact me (via Shari Uszynski). There are a lot of great companies in the region down there.

Internship with Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team

September 17th, 2021 | by
  • M.Sc. Automotive Engineering and Transport
  • Great Britain, Brackley
  • Mercedes
  • 19.07.2021 – 15.07.2022

General tips for other interns

Prepare everything early. All processes are very slow and I’m afraid this has nothing to do with pandemic situation. Even though it is stated that it will take a certain amount of time at most to process, it will most likely take longer.

 

Preparation

After BREXIT everyone needs a visa to do an internship in the UK, this is a long process and you need to be very well prepared. For an internship you need a Tier 5 Government Authorised Exchange visa (link). To be able to apply for this, one must have a so-called Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS). This can only be provided by your employer or another company on behalf of the employer. Alternatively, you can get one through RWTH (contact Shari Uszynski). For me it took a long time to get my CoS. In general I would plan about 1-2 months for it. The processing time for the visa is 3 weeks, but you can shorten it to 5 days for extra fees. From my experience, it still takes about 7 days for the visa to be ready. Application process is very well described on the government website.

 

Internship search

LinkedIn is very popular in UK. One can find very much information and job opportunities in LinkedIn. For this, before applying, one can try to contact employees of the potential host company to find out more about the company, city, etc. If you search for a company in LinkedIn, it will also tell you how many people from RWTH work there, which would be a good reason for your cover letter.

 

 Now specifically regarding internship search in the Formula 1 industry:

I can warmly recommend the Formula Careers website (link). This is a website run by the mother of a girl who is very interested in Formula 1. You can find various useful information on the website, very interesting and motivating interviews and also job offers/internships. In addition, there is a so-called “Formula Careers Support Group” on LinkedIn (link), where many engineers and current/former interns from Formula 1 industry are present. I found my internship position with the help of this website/LinkedIn page.

 

Search for an apartment

For the apartment search I recommend the website https://www.rightmove.co.uk. If you can’t find an apartment, I recommend either renting an Airbnb or a room on https://www.spareroom.co.uk for the first few days of your stay.

 

Formalities on site

After arriving to the apartment (after quarantine, if necessary), one has to do some formalities:

 

  1. you have to register in a hospital. Sometimes you can do it online, but most of the time you have to go there in person.
  2. you have to pick up your BRP (biometric residence permit). You have 90 days to do this. However, this can change, so please pay attention to what will be written on the decision letter from the embassy.
  3. register for the tax ID (National Insurance Number).

 

Telephone/Internet connection

For students I recommend to take a sim card from VOXI (link). VOXI is a company of Vodafone, which is especially focused on students. The conditions are very good and there is no minimum contract period.

 

Bank/Account Opening

Since the UK has a different currency, you need a UK bank account to receive your salary. There are two options:

 

  1. you open a UK bank account normally at a bank located in the UK. This is only possible after entering the country, because you have to prove that you live in the UK.
  2. you can create a Revolut account (link). This is an app for the smartphone where you can change currencies. This app is very similar to PayPal, but is accepted as a payment option by many companies. For each currency you have a separate account in the app and you can exchange e.g. Euro to GBP. If you use the no charge version of this app and don’t want to pay monthly fee, you are limited with 1000 GBP money exchange limit per month. I myself use this variant. Bank account of Revolut is virtual, but you can order a bank card with it if you want. However, I have never seen that you can not pay with your smartphone anywhere in the UK.