Starting a career - Matthias Dupak is training to be a foreign trade clerk at automotive supplier VIEROL in Oldenburg

by Matthias Dupak

I have been an apprentice at Oldenburg-based VIEROL AG for 14 months now, training to be what in Germany is called a wholesale and export clerk focusing on export, and can honestly say that this is perfect for me. The company is great; they challenge you but also provide support and I enjoy the job.

VIEROL AG is an international automotive supplier active in over 125 countries. Meaning that we deal with people from lots of other countries. I am currently getting to know the key processes in the accounting department.

But first things first. I did my Abitur (similar to British A-levels or a US high school diploma) at the Herbartgymnasium grammar school in Oldenburg before performing alternative national service in the community with the Red Cross. I had already started to think early on about what could be right for me following this and eventually chose the export trade, where you deal with the big, wide world; with commercial issues and with English. Things I’m good at.

Automotive parts are interesting
In the Oldenburg region only a few companies offer traineeships as wholesale and export clerks. So I soon came across VIEROL and obtained more information. I found the field of automotive parts interesting – as well as the fact that this company is growing so dynamically.

At VIEROL AG the right personality is more important that an above-average qualification!

After completing an aptitude test I was first invited to a one-on-one interview later followed by a group interview, at which the candidates had to try to stand out from the other applicants. In the end I was one of the lucky ones who were offered an apprenticeship.

In December 2009 I had already signed the trainee contract to start in August 2010. I found it great that everything had been settled so early!

The apprenticeship began with an orientation week, during I was introduced to all the employees in the administrative offices and the warehouse. The trainees went for a meal together and we also went on a canoe tour. This year, for example, we all went to a high wire forest adventure course and played football golf.

In addition to this, there is an etiquette training course for everyone: The trainees learn about appropriate behaviour in the business world, including business meals. Everyone also takes part in a telephone training course. That’s good since in the export trade lots of things are taken care of by telephone and email.

Rotation plan
The apprenticeship is organized according to a rotation plan: You spend a few months in every field. My first stint was in the “Export South America” department. It’s amazing how quickly you learn the tasks and are assigned your own duties.

In concrete terms it’s often, for example, all about a customer making an enquiry, say about when we can deliver a product and at what terms. The goal of the subsequent discussions and calculations is, of course, to conclude a successful deal. It’s very exciting and involves lots of individual steps, meaning that you’re involved in putting together a quotation; checking the availability of the goods; negotiating with the freight forwarders and taking care of processing issues right up to the customs papers.

Experiencing success
It’s exhilarating to communicate with customers from really diverse countries, also on the phone. I suppose everyone finds that a bit difficult to begin with, but you get better and more experienced all the time. You really get to experience success! In addition to this, VIEROL supports its trainees with extra English lessons.

Parallel to this, we trainees are continuously working on projects. For example on a trainees’ homepage on Facebook; as “scouts” at the “job4u” fair or on our company’s exhibition stand, just like last week. We attracted attention when we took part in the national foreign languages competition, at which we presented the “Aspects of the Export Trade”.

The apprenticeship is very wide-ranging and I would go for it again every time. The issues are just so interesting and future-oriented.

What you need here are definitely team player skills; an interest in international processes and, above all, in other cultures. VIEROL AG is a good start to a career in this context!