Till, electronics technician for industrial engineering in the corrosion protection team
„I have always been interested in electronics. Now I’ve turned a hobby into a profession.“
First to the office, then out to the measuring points in the field
Let me take you on a typical working day. It starts at seven o’clock in the office and ends at a quarter past four. That’s a long time, but every other Friday we have a full day off. When I arrive at the office, I go through the jobs that need doing, which include maintenance and repair of the corrosion protection systems. I then map out a route with the sites I want to visit that day. At around eight o’clock, I go to the measuring points to do the troubleshooting and carry out any necessary repairs. For example, if a protection system has failed.
Despite GPS, it’s sometimes not so easy to find the measuring points. Some can be a bit overgrown, or sometimes access routes have changed. So if you like geocaching, you will have fun!
When I started in this job for the Corrosion Protection department, I received a lot of support from experienced colleagues. That always worked out very well because the team spirit is really great. You quickly get the chance to prove yourself and take on additional responsibilities. I now have a new apprentice working alongside me to whom I pass on what I have learned, and we often go out together.
Further education: Distance learning course for “Electrical Engineering Technician”
There are many further education opportunities at OGE. My next professional goal is a big one: to become a state-certified technician. The degree is equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in a technical field. To achieve this goal, I plan to study at a private university by distance learning, with relatively few attendance days and a lot of self-study time. There are a lot of technical positions in my current department. After extensive training, you are given the responsibility for the cathodic protection (CP) systems of individual pipelines and pipeline sections. You are then the first point of contact for your colleagues, draw up evaluations and reports, and organise all of the maintenance and repair work. Since corrosion protection of our pipelines is required by law, CP technicians are very much involved in a lot of construction projects, so you always know what the company is up to at any point in time. For me, it’s a really exciting job.
How it all started
I come from a family of tradesmen; my grandfather was already an electronics technician, which is a predecessor, so to speak, of my apprenticeship. So my interest in electronics began quite early, and I enjoyed building circuits at my grandfather’s house at the weekend even while I was in primary school. After graduating from high school, I wanted to learn the same craft – which basically meant turning my hobby into a profession.
I applied to several companies for an apprenticeship. OGE was on my shortlist because somebody I knew already worked there and had only good things to say about the company. He put me in touch with OGE through the company’s “Employees recruit employees” referral programme. The friendly interview and the career prospects I was offered made the organisation so attractive that I quickly decided to join OGE. Fortunately, the company chose to offer me a job.
Setting sail for the new phase in life
Even before I started my apprenticeship, all the new apprentices went on a trip to the Baltic Sea where we spent a week on a sailing ship, which was very exciting of course. It was a great start to our working lives and a good opportunity to get to know the other apprentices. OGE does this trip with the new apprentices every year – but unfortunately it was not possible during Corona.
Training workshop, vocational school and many other stints
Electronics technicians plan modifications and extensions to existing systems, install power lines, machines, drives and switchgear systems. They also program, configure and test technical systems. You learn all of this from scratch during your apprenticeship at OGE. In the first year, we spent most of our time in the company’s own training workshop equipped with new iPads – which we were even allowed to keep after the apprenticeship. We learned all about the basics of electronics, which was really good because when vocational school starts, the OGE apprentices have a head start. Not every company has such a training workshop.
In the second year of the apprenticeship, you then gain more and more insights and practical experience. After all, it’s a job. At first, we worked on test racks where complex systems were simulated. For this purpose, we used simulation circuit boards. In addition, there was the field station period, during which we got to know the different sites, plants and company divisions in a very practical way. This work sometimes included assignments over several weeks at remote locations with hotel accommodation. In this way I was able to get to know many different areas of work at OGE.
At the end of my apprenticeship, I benefited from the works agreement at OGE, which says that if you do well in your exams you are offered a job. And if you get an A, you even get a permanent job. I really wanted to stay with the company, and here in Essen, and after my apprenticeship I started working for the corrosion protection team.
Cathodic protection with impressed current stations
This was an exciting new technical field for me which very few people know about. It was this specialisation I was particularly interested in. Our main job is to protect our buried pipelines from corrosion in order to ensure safe operation over several decades. For this purpose, about 700 CP systems are installed alongside our pipelines, and they ensure that a direct current flows in the direction of the pipeline. In order ensure effective cathodic protection, the CP systems are also monitored remotely, complete with regular measurements.
What applicants should know
If you have a real interest in technical things, if you enjoy working with electronical gadgets in your spare time, then this is the right place for you. You should also enjoy being on the road as part of your job and be able to organise your own working day.