February 16, 2022 How did you discover the profession? To be honest, it was just a coincidence. After school, I was looking for an apprenticeship at a large company with a high-tech environment. That’s how I applied to GlobalFoundries. My apprenticeship was, among other things, that of a mechatronics engineer, but since I could not imagine it for me to assemble and maintain systems, I decided to become a microtechnologist. What did you expect from your training and did your wishes come true? I expected my training to be a very exciting working environment with many varied tasks, but also with many practical activities. Relatively quickly it turned out that I have to perform fewer practical tasks in my profession. In my training, I mainly use computers and systems to control the plants and processes and therefore usually sit in the office instead of in a production hall, which I no longer regret. How did the work in the cleanroom feel? Working in the cleanroom is very impressive. I didn’t just like the idea of dealing with million-dollar plants, but the whole atmosphere. The cleanroom at GlobalFoundries is like another world, with completely different sounds, different light, people dressed all in white and permanent movements of the transport system on the ceiling. This is just madness! What distinguishes GlobalFoundries from other employers? What I learn from conversations with other trainees from other companies is that GlobalFoundries has a very high degree of automation compared to other companies of this magnitude. Of course, this entails a completely different responsibility for me as a trainee, as I control and monitor 60 systems in production instead of perhaps only 4. Of course, the challenge of keeping an overview makes the work particularly interesting and challenging for me. Which tasks did you particularly enjoy during your training? Were there also things you didn’t like doing so much? Of course, I particularly enjoyed it when there were no 08/15 tasks to solve, but when you had to implement solutions that were supposed to end stressful situations in the department, for example. Plant bottlenecks, for example, the shortage of production capacity, in which I had to work very quickly and particularly focused, or even had to consult with our engineers, which is otherwise rather rare. The nice thing is that the work does not only consist of standard work, but of various activities, all of which have to be done. So far I can and have been able to learn something new every day. I wouldn’t have enjoyed working at GlobalFoundries if there were only simple, stupid and trivial work to do. Were there moments of success? Particularly impressive was a shift in which my training department was staffed only by me and another technician. In this shift, I was able to prove to myself what I have learned and that I can handle this extraordinary stressful situation well. Although we were understaffed, everything went relatively well, which strengthened me enormously. How were you treated as a trainee? Did you feel sufficiently cared for? At first I didn’t feel very noticed, which was very hard, because I came fresh from high school and had a very big motivation. But perhaps the problem was on the one hand my wrong perception of the working world, that I am immediately someone with the Abi. That was just a very instructive experience, that as a high school graduate I still have to start from point 0 and can’t do everything right away. On the other hand, we trainees in the 1st year of apprenticeship were also very rarely in the company, because of various seminars or vocational school weeks, which meant that our department could not impart much knowledge to us. After the first year of apprenticeship, however, this has changed significantly. As a trainee, you already had initial experience, were able to support the department and also knew which construction sites there were. So I would say that all beginnings are difficult. What tips do you have in store for everyone who is also interested in an apprenticeship here? Looking back, I would recommend anyone who is at the point to ask around what there are for companies and professions in Dresden or the region. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice so much about the variety of companies, especially the companies that work for Silicon Saxony, during my high school years, perhaps also because my interests were not yet directed in that direction at the time. Now I’m amazed at how many people around me have something to do with chips or GlobalFoundries, either directly or indirectly. In addition, I can only recommend writing several applications and not burying your head in the sand after a rejection. Were there any special challenges in training? Initially, of course, the biggest difficulty was the conversion to work in the shift system. But the initial starting difficulties have soon subsided due to the advantages of shift work, namely that you can sleep properly for 4 days after two early shifts or have 4 days off after a work block. At the beginning, I was also really overwhelmed with the violence of the new things that came my way. All the new programs, the technical language, the thousands of data that I have to evaluate every day have really pushed me to the limits. It all felt like I was learning Chinese. But with increasing routine, this has also subsided and the learning began to be really fun. What are your goals after your training? Are there further training opportunities? My goal is definitely to study something scientific. In addition to my studies, however, I will continue to work for GlobalFoundries. Internally, however, I also had the opportunity for a dual course of study with GlobalFoundries as a practical partner or training as a state-certified process technician. So further training opportunities are clearly available at GlobalFoundries. The paths after the training can also be very diverse.
