Tom: The journey continues
I am currently CAD apprentice looking to grow and develop my career in Engineering. This blog series aims to take you through my journey by sharing my experiences at HARTING.
Last week I flew over to the heart of HARTING for a week of product training, it was a great opportunity and I was joined by some of my colleagues from HARTING UK. Here is an overview of what we got up to…
This was my first visit to Espelkamp, Germany, where our head offices are based. It was great to see the hub where everything happens. The week’s training consisted of presentations from the product managers for each of the product ranges, including workshops for Han-Modular®, plus various tooling and termination techniques.
I was lucky to know the basics before I went on this training, it helped to reconfirm a lot of things I already knew. Exploring the product ranges in more depth was great and will help me develop in my role going forward.
We carried out scenario based learning, where we worked through different sales and technical customer scenarios, to help understand how we can fully help customers. I built relationships with the product managers and with new contacts, and I believe the training has given me more confidence to answer customer enquiries.
My favourite part of the week was the plant tours. It was great to experience walking around the factories and seeing the whole production process. The highlight for me was the production of our Han® range, seeing the metal being formed, shaped and painted. The scale of the machinery and factories was something I hadn’t really thought about before, and they were very impressive, especially the automated processes.
This was a great opportunity to meet colleagues from across the globe, in various job roles such as sales, customer service and technical support. Personally, it was great to be able to meet the product managers and put a face to their name, as I email them on a regular basis. I got a better understanding of what the product managers in Germany do, and who looks after each range. We socialised in the evening and enjoyed meals and activities as a team; it was great to get to know people from other countries and experience the differences in cultures.
