Students Testimonials
“Youngsters are the future of the world”
Please describe your experience during the internship at Continental?
"It was fabulous and will never be erased from my memories. In the first months, the hands-on training and the rotation in different departments provide me a clear picture of the organization as well as of their daily operations. Nice colleagues and a friendly working environment guaranteed a highly quality internship.
During my 11 month internship, I had the opportunity to gain my professional knowledge, to enhance my communication and interpersonal skills as well as to build a network to support my further career. Besides gaining working experience, the internship gave me an opportunity to experience the culture diversity inside Conti and offered me to work in a multicultural team. This is the Cont-Spirit!
Above all, thanks to GEIP, now I have a better global understanding to a lot of things and I’m one step closer to be a Global Excellence Engineer."
Why was your internship important for your further professional development? How does it help you to be successful in a global working environment?
"This project-oriented internship helped me to build many professional skills and core competencies, which you never can obtain from the theoretical input of a university.
For graduates it is very important to gain international work experience, to learn how to adapt to a team as well as an effective communication with internal and external stakeholders. That’s exactly what GEIP gave me!
My team consisted of many different people from the US, Mexico, Germany, Poland and China. Due to the different cultures we had some negotiations at the beginning. I learnt to adjust to the melting pot and to appreciate different cultures. At the end it was a great experience for me to work in a global company."
How do you see Continental as an employer? What is the Employer Brand Image of Continental that you have in mind?
"Continental is a very promising company which can be characterized with long term strategies, the willingness to develop talents at an early stage of their career and transfer know-how and best practices to everyone.
From my point of view, the company plays and will play a big role in the fast growing world, due to their strategy to attract, recruit and bind graduates with programs like GEIP and Explore, etc.
Youngsters are the future of the world. With this idea in mind, Continental will always be successful and fast growing. Now I am working as an intern for Continental in Shanghai again and will continue my career path with the company. Last but not least, thank you to Continental!
The Global Engineering Internship Program (GEIP) is a unique partnership that provides students opportunities that are not available in traditional internships or even in most work abroad programs. Being involved with a consortium of schools around the globe and industries that provide challenging work assignments enables students to go beyond inter-cultural experiences to cross-cultural immersion. The GEIP lives up to its name and makes our work abroad program more than international, and truly global."
Name: Hui Jiang
University: Shanghai Jiao Tong
Internship at Continental in: USA
E-Mail: cathyjiang8310@hotmail.com
“Working abroad is a very important experience”
“I spent my summer at Continental for the same reasons most students want to work abroad: to see the world and gain experience working somewhere other than Home . . . wherever that may be.
In studying mechanical engineering, I’ve wanted to work in the research and development part of an engineering firm: working at Conti gave me the experience of being involved in the product development process first hand, moving a CAD image on a computer screen through the manufacturing process, to make a product that will end up on a sales floor halfway across the world.
Most important was the experience gained from working internationally; few people can doubt the influence that globalization will have over the engineering careers of the future. With the outsourcing of not only manufacturing, but engineering as well – the experience of working across geographic, political and cultural boundaries is not something that can be learned from reading a book.
In a shameless plug for Conti, I can honestly say that working in Hannover was a positive experience. The management structure was relaxed, and everyone in R&D was more or less in charge of their own project. Coming into work was relatively relaxed; people came late or left early as needed, as long as the work got done. However, the time used there was extremely efficient; I remember taking lunch breaks with my boss where we would leave the office, walk to the cafeteria, eat and talk with all of the other R&D guys, and be back in my office within 25 minutes. Almost a year later I still keep in touch with my boss to discuss management theory and the tire tread patterns that will emerge on efficiency-stressed electric cars . . . the concentration of my current work and an area in which Conti is one of the largest global suppliers.”
Name: Radu Gogoana
University: MIT
Internship at Continental in: Germany
“The intercultural atmosphere during my internship was a great experience”
Please describe your experience during the internship at Continental?
"During my 6 months Internship in Frankfurt in the Software Development Department of Daimler Break Systems, I was in charge of two main projects.
At the beginning of my internship, I was responsible to develop a new application tool (computer language Perl) to extract information from the customer specification document and to create a excel sheet with these information. In addition, I wrote new scripts and improved the existing ones for the DOORS tool, which is a requirement tool for many Conti projects.
Besides the experience of managing the projects from the basic concept to its final implementation, I also had the opportunity to learn more about car engineering and its concepts. This was a totally new aspect in my education and helped me to broaden my horizon.
Germany is known as one of the strongest engineering countries in the world. In fact, the German engineering industry is the number one exporter of machinery and industrial plants in the world.
This internship was a perfect combination for me, both as an engineer and as an admirer of the German culture. It was very useful to experience the work routine inside a leading global company as well as to experience the daily work routine of the German people."
Why was your internship important for your further professional development? How does it help you to be successful in a global working environment?
"The two projects were of great value for me because I learnt how to deal with unexpected situations and short deadlines. I strongly believe that both challenges will occur in my career as a professional engineer again and again.
Regarding the experience outside of Continental, Frankfurt is an international city. I could easily get in touch with people from all over the world. Now, I have good friends in Germany, Spain, India, Colombia, Equator, Mexico, China, Korea, Italy, etc. The international aspect was one of the most important experiences which I ever could have done in the internship.
Nowadays you can easily do business with people from all over the world, so you must know their point of view and understand their culture. This will help you to do business and to form business relationship easier and of course more successful."
How do you see Continental as an employer? What is the Employer Brand Image of Continental that you have in mind?
"I see Continental as a company who gives you an opportunity to do and show your best, regardless of nationality, culture or social condition. During the 2008 GEIP there were students originally from China, Ukraine, Rumania, India, USA, Mexico, Equator and Brazil. After many conversations with my colleagues, I realized that, with some economic crisis exception, Continental´s employee can keep their job for a very long time, conditional a good performance. Compared to other companies you don’t have to worry about your future too much."
Name: Fernando Luiz Goi Bacchin
University: Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo
Internship at Continental in: Brazil
E-Mail: flgbacchin@gmail.com
"I'm glad to be one of the students to be chosen to make part of the GEIP. The experience lived during three months was unique. I have learned a lot and, for sure, it exceeded my expectations. This international experience provided me not only a professional, but also a personal, intellectual and cultural growth.
During these three months was possible to live and understand the real meaning of the world globalization. Travelling and living abroad with people from different cultures showed me that we are all connect and we have a lot of in common. Now, i can see the world with other eyes.
The environment that I worked in the Continental was very professional and friendly. I had the opportunity to work and learn with a lot of competent people. With the Conti team was possible to discuss a lot about new ways to solve the same problem and understand new technologies. I could verify how important the processes controls are in a big company, something that I didn't have experienced yet.
In the workshop I also had the opportunity to meet different people and it was possible to change and still changing ideas about engineering, studying and cultural differences. In these days were possible to know better the Continental company and its way of work/think. It increased my will to stay working with.
I'm writing this letter to thank everyone about the effort to make this Internship program happen. You made it possible and changed my life in a very good way.
Thanks for the opportunity.
Thanks / Danke schön / Multumesc / Obrigado
Flávio Henrique de Freitas"
Name: Flávio Henrique de Freitas
University: Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo
Internship at Continental in: Romania
E-Mail: flaviohenriquecbc@gma.com