“My work is all about diversity”—Vector’s Welcoming International Environment
For proof that different nationalities working together can yield significant benefits, you need look no further than the company’s headquarters in Stuttgart. People from 64 different nations work together there in various teams of different sizes.
“My work is all about diversity,” says Thomas Stolz, who joined the Vector family eight years ago. For the past year, he has managed a team of 14 people in the Embedded Software department, a point of contact for customers that ensures that the products that Vector develops can be used successfully in practice. His team members generally work with customers on the front line in Support or Coaching, or in Software Delivery. As the first escalation point, Thomas’s role is to ensure that problems and conflicts are dealt with effectively and promptly in order to maintain customer and employee satisfaction. “Basically, when things get tricky, it’s our job to sort them out,” laughs Thomas Stolz, whose work involves mediating between cultures.
“Every culture has its own approach to work, its own learning processes, its own ideas. This is rewarding for me on a personal level, and something I don’t experience so much in my private life. Part of my work is to make people aware of the unique features of different cultures. And German culture also has its own specific features,” says Thomas Stolz.
Team member Essam Rizk has noticed some of these features himself: “In Germany, people strive for perfection in their work. They pay close attention to detail. And they all seem to love hiking,” says the 31-year-old Egyptian with a smile. The graduate electrician was looking for a new personal challenge and found what he was looking for at Vector in March 2022. He says that the company’s welcoming environment is one of the best that he has ever experienced. His mentor helped him to become familiar with specialist topics, and his colleagues continue to support him whenever he needs help to this day. For international skilled workers looking to do what he did, he advises: “Make sure that you learn German beforehand. Understanding people at work is not a problem, as everyone speaks English. But in your free time, things will be different. Having good German skills is a great help when it comes to being fully involved socially and culturally.” Essam will certainly have sufficient time to improve his German language skills. He has no plans to return to his home country within the next ten years. And to allow him to see his family and friends without having to wait for his annual vacation, Vector makes it possible for him to work from his home country for 30 days every year. On top of this, he has another 28 days that he can spend abroad as a “workation.” Essam mostly chooses to spend this time to extend his stays in Egypt.
Pratham Arora, another of Thomas Stolz’s team members, also has no plans to return to his home country of India in the near future. In September 2015, the now 33-year-old moved to Germany to complete his master’s degree in Automotive Software Engineering at the Chemnitz University of Technology. “In 2017 I moved from Chemnitz to Stuttgart to work as intern at Vector and then to write my master’s thesis. One year later I was offered a full-time job.” In his field, there are much better job opportunities here in Germany, says Pratham, who is clearly very at home in the Vector family. “Events involving the team and bigger groups—from going to the cinema to playing laser tag—make the integration process easier. Twice a week I am able to meet up with other people for free drinks after work and get to know new people,” he explains. There are also national get-togethers where employees can meet up with other people from the same home country. Special classes offered by the Vector gym, such as Zumba or yoga, are appealing but unfortunately not available in English. “If there were one thing I would improve, that would be it,” says Pratham. Essam und Pratham both found German bureaucracy to be by far their biggest challenge when moving to Germany. They have both had plenty of experience with the German authorities, so much so that they know all the German words for things like “foreigners’ registration office,” “residency permit,” and “settlement permit.” “If you turn up to the foreigners’ registration office without an appointment, you are in for a long wait. Some people even sleep on the street in order to be first in line the next morning. The situation is horrific,” describes Pratham. This is also the reason why he is not planning to apply for German citizenship. “The process would simply take far too long.”
The article was published in the Chemnitz magazine for skilled workers “Chemnitz zieht an—Living Neighbourhood”.
In May 2023 Vector Informatik took over the Chemnitz-based company BASELABS, which specializes in software for sensor data fusion in automated driving. As a result, a Vector development site for Embedded Software was set up in Chemnitz, offering various entry-level job opportunities for the region, including jobs for foreign skilled workers. The Chemnitz University of Technology offers various international courses such as Automotive Software Engineering and Embedded Systems. A number of colleagues have already joined Vector as a result of these courses.
66 nations - one team
What Vectorians from all over the world say about Vector: Watch 100% real talk videos