My on-the-job practical work is very diverse and varied. Nevertheless, there are routine tasks that shape the course of my working day. Before I started my degree, I found it difficult to imagine what the future held for me. I wanted more information to help me know what to do. So I hope that my blog post will help you and give your a clearer insight into the working world. Come with me on my journey!
My areas of work
Before I describe a typical day at work, I’m going to explain a bit about my tasks. I work in the Recruiting and Employer Reputation department. The tasks I do are partly for HR Marketing and partly for the Reporting unit. That means my job covers two very different areas. The workload changes from time to time, so the two units use me very flexibly. I work where I’m most needed. Reporting is all about delivering figures to the Recruiting department. This may be, for example, how much time we need to recruit a candidate. We develop and improve our systems constantly. I create reports for our recruiters to support them and make their day-to-day work easier. In the Marketing unit, I help out on different topics that focus on women, for example the Women’s STEM Award. One of my other tasks is to work on our job boards and ads. I also get given tasks that have nothing to do with my main focal areas. I take these on too, because everyone helps everyone out here when time permits.
My start to the day
I have flexible working hours, i.e., flexitime. That means I can decide when I start and end work and how I reach my total number of required hours per week. I begin at 8 a.m. every day because I prefer to have an early start.
First I boot up my laptop and check my emails. I answer them and flag the ones where there are still things to do. Then I check and process the new invoices received. They can then be approved by my colleagues. Every morning starts with a short team call, where everyone in Reporting gives a brief update. Everybody explains what they did yesterday, what’s on today, and whether they need help. This ensures the team has an overview of everything that’s going on. Once a week, I have an HR Marketing team call, where we discuss the current projects. Plus, twice a week I take part in e-learning sessions in the mornings. They cover current topics that relate to my Bachelor’s degree.
I use my Outlook calendar to complete my different tasks. I plan out when I will be completing which task on the calendar, which gives me a good overview. Today I have written an article on developing our reporting system. It is being published on Deutsche Telekom’s intranet.
Lunch together
My lunch break starts around midday. I spend it with my colleagues in the canteen. I can get something from the canteen, which offers different meals every day, or heat up something from home. The variety and having a good chat with my colleagues is a nice break.
What happens in the afternoons
I often have a wide variety of calls over the day. I have regular calls, such as the team calls that take place every morning and others that take place once a week. Then there’s an editorial planning call for the career blog. This is when we organize who will write about which topic and when, and when the blog posts will be published; we also give each other tips. Often, calls have to be rescheduled at the last minute because something has come up. All calls enable me to work together with different people in different locations and on different topics, and to stay up to date at all times. We use WebEx – a web conference call service. It allows you to share your screen or make notes together, for example. Using video calls, you can directly see colleagues who are in a different location. It makes working together very easy and convenient, even if you’re not sitting in the same office together.
I haven’t got any more calls today. I am working on a project. The task is: How to design an attractive job advertisement. I have rewritten different job ads that are currently live and have created a PowerPoint explaining the changes I made along with some tips. I will present these to my colleagues at our next meeting and we will then think about which of them we can implement.
After I have worked more on that and written this blog post, my work will be over for the day. I will ask my mentor whether he has any other tasks, will note them down, and will then leave work.
I hope you can benefit from my insights. I have found out for myself that I made the right choice. For me, working at Deutsche Telekom is a successful mix of routine and new challenges. It’s worthwhile, because I’m learning more every day.
