“I find the variety here interesting”

Martin Bauer, Electrical Engineer at Handtmann Service GmbH & Co. KG

“An industrial company like Handtmann has various advantages for me over a trade business: better pay, better social benefits, regulated working times and even flexi-time, a subsidised canteen and work in closed rooms. That’s why I applied for a position at Handtmann after training as an electrician and completing military service. Since 2003, I’ve been working in the Technical Services department of Handtmann Service.

I started out there as a network and telephone engineer. I installed telephone and data networks and connected telephones for about five years. Then the focus moved to the area of electrics and electronics again. I did my masters training between 2009 and 2012 while continuing to work. I was able to accrue overtime for this and use it for the full-time blocks at school. This arrangement helped me a great deal at the time.

Today, I’m a deputy group leader for electrics and electronics. We are a total of eight electricians, for whom I sometimes perform management tasks or allocate the work when the group leader isn’t available. My main tasks include eliminating faults and carrying out maintenance activities on facilities such as lighting systems, transformer systems, emergency lighting or cranes. I'm also responsible for our diesel power plant. I sometimes take care of projects that are assigned to external companies, or work on the planning of systems.

Above all, the variety is what I find most interesting about my job. I’m always working somewhere else – in the offices of the administrative building, under a machine, on a 15 metre-tall crane in the hall or sometimes for three days at a desk, when something needs programming or circuit diagrams have to be drawn. Then there are the internal and external training courses, at least twice a year. The seminars are pretty expensive, but the company pays for them, of course.

Despite its size, Handtmann is still very personal. The management isn’t as remote as it is at very large companies and everyone here knows their boss. Thomas Handtmann makes rounds of the halls and often asks about what we’re working on. Including, for example, when we were doing some remodelling between Christmas and New Year’s Eve. A lot has changed in the thirteen years I’ve been here. Handtmann is always on the up, a lot is being built and invested. So I’m really proud to be able to work here.”