Name: Fernando Luiz Goi Bacchin

                    University: Escola politecnica de Sao Paulo

                    Internship at Continental in: Brazil

"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.