At the age of 12, Ahmed would take apart his parents’ computer to figure out how it worked. “This didn’t always agree with my parents. Sometimes it took me a bit to fit it all back together properly. If you needed the PC, you just had to wait,” he says. But you can tell from his smile that his family did so without too much grumbling. His homeland was less agreeable. At 19, Ahmed and his family fled from Damascus in Syria and eventually landed in Germany. This was six years ago. Once here, Ahmed’s first step was to take a language course.
Giving Bechtle a whirl.
With my B2 level language certificate, I wanted to move right on and learn a profession,” says Ahmed. His get-up-and-go was hampered slightly; it was simply too late in the year to get a position as a vocational trainee. An alternative opened up when Bechtle offered him an internship instead—just to give it a whirl. For me, this was an opportunity to get to know Bechtle, the job, the language.
He remembers his first day at Bechtle vividly. “It was in August, and my mind was awash with new impressions. It was also when I realised just how big Bechtle really is.” During his internship, it quickly became clear to him that Bechtle is where he wanted to do his vocational training, too. It was the distinct flavour of hands-on teamwork that won him over. “There’s no such thing as typical trainee work here. Everyone gets a chance to make a real contribution and take on responsibility. I was no different,” he remembers. Not much later, as a vocational trainee to become a systems integration engineer, he pulled off his first own project. He believed in himself and really pitched in, and always knew that his supervisor had his back, giving him support and advise when he needed it.
Sticking at it.
Besides putting his hands to work in the office, he also had to hit the books. Prepping for exams in the Bechtle Academy, the Trainee Camp or a seminar on business etiquette all helped him keep his performance top notch. Just the language was a struggle. Terminology and other language-heavy exercises were a big hurdle to leap, so he’d sit down after school to get his vocab up to speed. The shift in culture, too, required some getting used to. Using clear language instead of beating around the bush was new ground for him, as was the routine of openly discussing problems. “In Syria, when you criticise something you’ll typically do it in a roundabout way. There’s no clear-cut ‘No’.” But that’s also something that Ahmed has learned, and now he knows how to deal with it.
None of this put him off target, though, and he completed his vocational training as one of the best in his year. With his excellent grades as a springboard into a professional career, all the doors at Bechtle swung wide open for him. Ahmed’s mind is all made up, too, as he’s going to pursue an opportunity in the security team of the Bechtle system house in Neckarsulm—an area with a lot of future to it.