Career portal of GEA Group

My name is Jessica-Iris Grudt. I’m currently in my 3rd year as an apprentice Industrial Commercial Assistant at GEA Air Treatment GmbH. My most recent apprentice work has been in the Accounts Receivable Management department, so an internship abroad in Accounts was appropriate for me.  

Everyone has a life-long dream. GEA Air Treatment GmbH fulfilled my greatest dream of working in a foreign country.

I was extremely excited after being told that I’d be going to Hereford (England) to do my internship with GEA Denco Ltd. All sorts of questions came to mind: “Will my English be good enough?”, “Will my colleagues like me?”, “Will I do my work well there?”, “How do English people click?”, “Will I like the English food?”

I flew from Düsseldorf to Birmingham and then a really nice tax driver picked me up at the airport. He took me to my future colleague. I was able to live in my colleague’s house, which I thought was really positive. Her name is Jennifer Tipton. She allayed a lot of my fears and introduced me to British culture. We had great fun together. It was also nice to have someone to talk to and half a laugh with after work instead of sitting alone in a hotel room.

The department I worked for at GEA Denco Ltd. was Accounts, so my daily work involved booking payment receipts. One really exciting task was to call customers and ask for a payment date. Some customers didn’t stick to the agreed payment dates. I was really nervous before my first call and hoped the customer would understand me. Rachel, a lovely woman from Accounts, gave me some tips on how to make the call easier and I managed quite well. After a while the calls became easier and I enjoyed calling customers and talking to them in English.

After the first week I was thinking in “Denglish” and sometimes I got confused, but after the second week, speaking English became a normal thing for me and I sometimes forgot some German words, since my head was so full of English.

My internship abroad allowed me to overcome my insecurities speaking another language and am now more confident communicating with people I don’t know. Naturally I now have a lot of new contacts, which will no doubt serve me well in the future.  

I only can advise every apprentice to go for such an internship. It’s amazing and a great experience that makes you stronger and develops you further.