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After Daniel Malenkovic successfully completed his apprenticeship as a dialog marketing specialist at the IT Center in February 2024, we were delighted to welcome another graduate in June: Yasin Kalem.
After three years of hard work, he too has finally achieved his goal. But what was it like for him? What did he do with us, how did he feel and what’s next for him?
That’s exactly what we asked him and we take a look at his journey with us in a one-to-one interview.
Presentation and Review of the Apprenticeship
“Hello Yasin. Please introduce yourself to our readers. Who are you and what do you do at the IT Center?”
Hello everyone. I’m Yasin Kalem and I’m 23 years old. You may already know me from previous blog posts in which I gave you an insight into the DiMA apprenticeship or from the reports on my internship abroad in Malta.
After starting my training as a dialog marketing specialist at the IT Center at RWTH Aachen University in 2021, I successfully completed it in June and have been working here full-time ever since.
My main tasks as a permanent employee include the redesign (and implementation) of the communication training for our trainees and new employees to professionalize internal and external communication as well as the development & research of sustainability at RWTH Aachen University. I am also an IT-ServiceDesk expert at the Front Office Desk (FOD) and SuperC and responsible for optimizing processes and documentation for personal support.
“That sounds exciting and like a lot of responsibility. But let’s start at the beginning. What made you decide to train at the IT Center? What did you hope to gain from it?”
For me, there were a few requirements that had to be met for a potential apprenticeship.
Working and communicating with people was very important to me and I wanted to combine this with my interest in IT. I also attached great importance to quality training and a recognized institution, which is how I became aware of the RWTH IT Center and applied directly. Fortunately, I was hired shortly afterwards.
Above all, I was hoping for a structured daily routine with set working hours and established processes as well as a secure job and, of course, a lot of new knowledge that I could acquire. I had really high expectations of myself and the training.
Strengths and Weaknesses
“And how did it go during your apprenticeship? What tasks did you have during your time as an apprentice and what did you enjoy most?”
My tasks were a mixed bag. There were the basics, which were the order of the day the whole time, such as writing reports and providing customer support in person and by phone/written correspondence. But I was also able to sit in on the various groups, such as the Marketing & Events team (Marie) and IT-Administration. I was also involved in the “About IT-module”, the revision of individual pages of the IT Center help documentation and the maintenance and digitization of learning materials for trainees. In the meantime, there were also projects I was involved in, including the marketing campaign to promote the apprenticeship on social media and the internal “magazine project”.
Throughout my time as a trainee, I was also the trainee spokesperson and acted as an intermediary between the trainees and the management. In short: there was always something to do.
But what I still like most is working in customer support. This is where the technical and communicative components come together, which is the most important thing for me personally. It gives me a good feeling to be able to apply the knowledge I have learned and help people.
“Did you encounter any obstacles along the way? And if so, how did you deal with them?”
Oh, yes! As far as apprenticeship is concerned, I would consider the initial period to be the biggest hurdle.
Because I started during the coronavirus pandemic, I was initially only able to work from home. However, as I can work better on site, I shared my concerns directly with my manager and, after consultation, it was possible to work in an office on site, subject to compliance with the conditions. This took a lot of pressure off me and also showed me that I could share my concerns openly.
But the induction and the technical content were also a major challenge for me, as a lot of new knowledge and internal processes had to be processed in a short space of time. Learning my own work structure and time management was another challenge at the beginning.
These were major challenges that I was able to overcome slowly but surely during the apprenticeship, but above all WITH the apprenticeship. During these three years, I learned to work on myself and with myself and got to know my limits.
All in all, Yasin has been able to learn a lot of new things over the last three years and complete his apprenticeship with complete success.
Congratulations to him!
Find out how he achieved his goal and what comes next in the second part of the series!
Responsible for the content of this article are Sara Erdem and Yasin Kalem.
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