Arlinda Ujkani in interview
Source: Own illustration
On board in the Marie Group
Arlinda Ujkani has been working at the IT Center in the Service and Communication department since April 1. She supports the Marketing and Event Management group there with her knowledge of the field and is responsible in particular for the marketing of research data management. Her job interview was already conducted digitally and she was aware from the beginning that she would be trained digitally. In the interview Arlinda tells us in the interview what she experienced during her induction and how she got to know colleagues digitally.
Janin: Arlinda, please describe the Service and Communication department of the IT Center and especially what the tasks of the department and your group “Marie” are.
Arlinda: Our department is divided into three groups. Once “IT-SD”, which is the IT service desk. It is the single point of contact of the IT Center and provides advice and support for all IT Center services. In addition, some of the colleagues are responsible for the IT Center’s IT administration. The second group is “WiPro”, Knowledge Management and Processes. There, my colleagues are responsible for quality management, knowledge management and the internal organization of the department. This includes, for example, the instructions and explanations of our services on IT Center Help. The Marie group, i.e. Marketing and Event Management, is responsible for the external presentation of the IT Center. We report on everything that happens at the IT Center and is important for the individual target groups, such as students or employees.Blog posts, social media postings or articles are written and published about this. Event Management plans, coordinates, and oversees IT Center events.
In general, however, every employee of the Service and Communication department helps the IT ServiceDesk with support. In this way, we are always familiar with current changes and requests from customers and can plan communication in a targeted manner. Beyond that, however, the tasks of the individual groups are so varied that I can’t even list them all here in a nutshell.
Janin: How was your first day at the IT Center? What did you experience and how did you feel?
Arlinda: On my first day, I was on the ground to pick up my hardware. Ms. Kadansky, HR manager at the IT Center, greeted me and then took me to Benjamin in IT administration. There I got my laptop and Dunja, my colleague from the “Marie” group, welcomed me. The Service and Communications department has a mentoring program in which new employees are assigned a mentor during their induction. In this way, there is 1:1 mentoring during the first three months. Unfortunately, Jana, my mentor, wasn’t there on my first day of work, but Dunja did a great job filling in for her. She showed me around the IT center and we set up everything technical on the laptop. In fact, after that I was already sent home again. At home, I was really happy that the first group meeting via Microsoft teams was waiting for me. So I could meet all my other colleagues from the group “Marie”. I think otherwise I would have been a bit disappointed, because I wouldn’t have really gotten to know anyone else on my first day at work. But this way I really had a nice start.
Janin: How did you feel about knowing that you were being trained purely digitally and getting to know colleagues and managers online?
Arlinda: I have to be honest, before I started, I was kind of panicking. I was worried that I wouldn’t come across well. That I wouldn’t get into the new job well, that I wouldn’t get to know anyone and that getting to know them would be very difficult. But in fact, that hasn’t been the case at all. Of course, I wish that personal contact with colleagues were more frequent, but in the end the fear was unfounded. We had a lot of meetings right from the start, so I was able to get to know all my colleagues quickly.
Janin: How did you like the digital induction? Did you have certain expectations and were they met?
Arlinda: There I was also worried that it wouldn’t work out so well. I couldn’t even imagine what digital induction could look like, since I’d never experienced that before either. But I’m really excited. We really do have a very good structure in the department and a very good induction concept. The concept includes various people explaining individual tasks and, for example, support topics in detail in an “expert meeting. That’s why I was able to get to know a lot of employees in the first few weeks. In retrospect, I also asked myself whether a personal induction would have been so much better. If we had been on site, I would have sat with my PC next to my mentor and tried to recognize and understand everything on her computer. Now we were both at home, talking to each other via teams, and using the “share screen” feature, I was able to follow everything on my screen. So it felt like it was happening on my laptop and I already had the impression that I could remember a lot of things better. I thought it was really very cool!
Janin: Have you already experienced an induction at another company and if so, did you notice any differences?
Arlinda: I was previously employed as an intern or HiWine, so not as a permanent employee. Accordingly, the induction was not as comprehensive. The individual tasks were explained to me in a personal conversation and the structure of the induction was completely different. Here at the IT Center, the individual topics were defined in advance and divided into categories. We had a digital learning room with videos and explanations for the induction and also individual appointments with employees who were very familiar with the individual topics. I didn’t have that in my previous job. I thought that was really great.
Janin: When you look back on your first few months at the IT Center. How did the onboarding go? What went particularly well and where were there hurdles in your eyes?
Arlinda: I thought it went very well overall. Everything was structured and went according to plan. Some things, however, only come in the doing, when you do the individual things independently – in other words, “learning by doing”. For example, ticket processing or accepting certificates on site. I didn’t really internalize that until I did it on my own. I think the longer you work at the IT Center and the more practice you have, the better things go. It was really a very exciting time, a different time, but overall a very enjoyable time.
We would like to thank Arlinda for the interview and the insights into her first time at the IT Center.
Responsible for the content of this article are Arlinda Ujkani and Janin Vreydal.
