MINTIES: MINT Engineers Regulars' Table

Engineering regular's table

The ING-Stammtisch offers for ALL students of the engineering department (cross-curricular and cross-semester!) the opportunity to exchange experiences, impressions or make contacts in a relaxed atmosphere. Some meetings are accompanied by testimonials from former students from their everyday working lives or other small inputs.

The first meeting will take place on 16.10.2023 at 19:30 in the Karzer. Drinks and snacks will be available.

Contact: Amélie Oberdorfer and Johanna Rittweger

Amelie.Oberdorferhs-nordhausen.de

Johanna.Rittwegerhs-nordhausen.de

Term MINTIES

Date

Time

Location

16.10.2023

07:30 PM

Karzer

30.10.2023

07:30 PM

Karzer

13.11.2023

07:30 PM

Karzer

27.11.2023

07:30 PM

Karzer

11.12.2023

07:30 PM

Karzer

15.01.2024

07:30 PM

Karzer

29.01.2024

07:30 PM

Karzer

Report of the last meeting

Freddy at the online MINTIES

The first online MINTIES evening was attended by Frederike Nielsen, aka Freddy, the Santa Claus/elf, who graduated in 2018 with a bachelor's degree in Renewable Energy Technology (RET). Her bachelor thesis dealt with the potentials of power-to-gas plants in Germany. During her studies at HS NDH, Freddy impressed us with her acting skills from her first professional training: as the best presenter, she remained in our memories - if there were ever any Christmas parties again, she would come back for a revival, she promised us.

After her bachelor thesis, her career path took a dramatic turn. After round about 60 applications without an invitation to even one interview, neither she nor her job recruiter knew a reason. One guess was the forbidden question about wanting to have children as a woman in her late 20s, as well as the switch from acting to engineering, which unsettled recruiters. After a long job search and several short-term jobs that were more or less related to her career aspirations, she finally landed at a safety engineering company. Her tasks were to set up the measuring equipment and then to test the system. Even after a longer period of technical leave, she did not find it difficult to familiarize herself with electrical engineering, for example. She answered a question from the audience: "You don't forget the basics. Thanks to her open, inquisitive manner, the old hands at the company were happy to explain background information about the system technology to her. What we learn from it: Who, how, what? Why, why, why? If you don't ask, you stay stupid!

As much as she liked the position at this company, it had little to do with her personal sustainable orientation, which is why she continued to look around. As soon as the right job came along, she moved to a new company, where her application was accepted straight away: She has now been with GTK Schwerin for a year. Here she was finally able to develop holistic concepts with renewable energies. In her main project, she is creating a concept for a community near Schwerin. This would like to become 100% renewable with electrolysis as its main component. Electrolysis is existential for Power to Gas, for which she already had the necessary know-how through her bachelor thesis. On the side she is working out exploratory expertises for wind power plants, heat and mobility concepts. When asked, she explained a few of the bullshit arguments used by opponents of wind power for entertainment purposes. One thing she would like to give to current students after her experience with concept designs: Soft skills in simulation software are always valuable, if only because it greatly reduces the time it takes to learn similar programs. Compared to the safety systems company, the young company GTK Schwerin has a much higher percentage of women in engineering jobs (and not exclusively in administration), at 50%. Their experience was that some "old white men" as bosses held on to the stereotype of a man's job longer than a modern team - like in the current company - with an open group leader who is ready for change.