Venturing into a different world

“Oh, you’re from North Rhine-Westphalia. So what brought you to Krones?” A question that I heard quite often in the last weeks of my internship in Product Management. And it’s not a totally unjustified one.

Most of the students from Aachen have probably never heard of Krones. But luckily I am not in this category. Although I have to admit: one year ago I most definitely was.

Back then, I was wandering aimlessly through the “bonding company contact fair” in Aachen, and collecting not only corporate prospectuses, of course, but also ballpoint pens and confectionery. This latter didn’t bring me any closer to Krones, true, but it cheered me up on a grey, rainy November day. It was only the fair’s full-to-bursting catalogue, with an overview of all the company profiles involved, that brought the name of KRONES AG to my attention for the first time.

At first it was just one of many companies that had an interesting profile and was offering remits that matched what I’d been studying. But when I looked more closely, I was convinced the opposite was true. Simply a comparison between the firm’s website, with its information for interns and students, and on the products themselves, already revealed significant differences from other companies. I’m still particularly enamoured of the numerous videos! Not only so as to understand what Krones actually does, but in order to get to know Krones from the viewpoint of other interns and trainees.

That’s why I applied for an internship in product management at Krones.

And now, after almost five months, I’m lucky enough to be sitting here and writing a report from an intern’s viewpoint.

The first weeks rushed by in a flash, and my initial uncertainty vanished. In the first few days, I was lucky enough to get acquainted with lots of nice, helpful colleagues, whose South German friendliness made everything a bit more familial, even though as a newcomer from far away you have a few difficulties with the linguistic idiosyncrasies at first.

There wasn’t much time for familiarisation, which didn’t really matter, because I was integrated directly into the daily workload. I was shown how to find my way around the facility, of course, and acquainted with the specialised facets of the firm’s filling technologies. Overall, I gained plenty of initial experience in the everyday remit and the work environment of a Product Manager.

And one thing is clear: here in Product Management, you’re kept on your toes. Every day, the priorities shift, new tasks have to be tackled, you have to keep up with the latest state of the art, and stay properly organised. No time to get bored during these six months! I’m really looking forward to finding out what else is in store for me. But I can already say that I have not regretted my decision to embark on an internship at Krones!