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Logistics and IT – two forward-looking fields that simply belong together and offer many exciting opportunities. We talked to our IT apprentices Lukas and Michael about what these are. Both are completing training as IT specialists for application development at Rhenus Warehousing Solutions. Here you can find out everything about their start with us and what they get up to in their daily work.
Michael: I was interested in IT topics from an early age and already programmed small things in my free time. So it was relatively easy for me to decide to train as an IT specialist because I wanted to turn my hobby into a career. I became aware of Rhenus as a result of the numerous trucks – I was curious to see what kind of company was behind them. When I was researching on the internet, I came across the apprenticeship as an IT specialist for application development and applied straight away.
Lukas: I first studied Business Informatics, but it was too business-orientated and theoretical for me. I preferred practical tasks and active programming. That’s why I looked around on Ausbildung.de and came across the offer from Rhenus. After I applied and was accepted for the apprenticeship as an IT specialist for application development, I was allowed to start as a trainee at Rhenus in advance. This gave me a chance to take a look at the company and learn the basics.
Michael: In the first few days, we also got to know the other trainees during onboarding. Together we learned important information about the core competencies of Rhenus. In the following weeks, we alternated between two weeks in warehouse logistics and a training course for Oracle. This time was really important to get to know the work of a logistics service provider, but also the basics of programming. Even though it was really exhausting and you saw a lot of new things – it gave us a super basic understanding of the core tasks in logistics. After the first month, we started in our first department, and I’m currently working in the interface department.
Lukas: That’s exactly how it was. When we started in the departments, I was allowed to work actively right away, you were sort of “thrown in at the deep end”. But I really liked it, because we could ask questions at any time and really learned a lot. I also had direct contact with the internal customers at Rhenus. We deal with their enquiries, notify them about changes and explain what is new or what they have to pay attention to. It’s just great that we get to do so much ourselves.
Michael: What I like most about my training is that we are allowed to work independently from day one. We are given a task and can first think about how to solve it. I like to exchange ideas with another apprentices from the department about which approach is the best. And if we don’t get anywhere with a task, there is direct support from the more experienced colleagues. The flexible working hours are another plus point for me – we can flexibly arrange when we start work in the morning.
Lukas: I usually start my working day around 08:00. Then I look at our ticket system and see who I can help directly with small things. After that, I get a coffee – that’s part of it, of course. Then I work on my tasks, which were assigned to me in the weekly planning meeting. Between tasks, I check the ticket system every now and then to see if there are any more open requests. It may also happen that I have to take on a task spontaneously, but in the team we can always rely on each other, even at short notice.
We are currently processing a change request for our system, which we received from an internal customer. After processing, we discuss the changes with the customer. Such change requests take various amounts of time – it can be minor adjustments to views and interfaces, but also major optimisations to our database.
Lukas: The colleagues are really nice and great. Everyone is on first-name terms here and there is great teamwork. The feeling of togetherness also came very quickly, I can talk to everyone about everything. Sometimes it feels like you’ve known each other for a long time, even though it’s only been a few months.
Michael: The colleagues in my department are also really nice. Within the department, we have our freedom concerning the tasks themselves – we can work through them in a way that suits everyone best. That makes it productive and relaxed at the same time.
Lukas: I would tell a student/applicant that it is very important to be open to new things. And not only that, a certain openness to different people and their different cultures is also very important because Rhenus is also represented internationally.
Michael: I would also say that openness to new things is very important. You shouldn’t be put off by the first few weeks in warehouse logistics. They tend to give you a good feel for logistics and you understand the core business of Rhenus much better straight away – the exciting IT tasks are then added to the agenda very quickly.
