MY INTERNSHIP HERE AT VOLKSWAGEN ARGENTINA IN BUENOS AIRES
Judgement of the internship from the professional point of view
Having arrived here in Argentina almost 2 and a half month ago and started my internship at the 10th of May here at Volkswagen Argentina by now I have accomplished half of it.
When I had arrived here I was expecting the German company Volkswagen to be run in an organized and strict way like someone would imagine a German company would to be run. After tow months of my internship I realized that Volkswagen Argentina is more like an Argentine company with a German name. Although the CEO and other key personalities are expatriates, most of them of Germany or Austria, the organization structure is adjusted to the Argentine culture. In any case the greatest difference probably is the step hierarchy according to the power distance index, unlike to Austria.
Working in the controlling of the financial department gives me insights into the whole organization, not just Volkswagen Argentina but also into the Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft group. My supervisor is Austrian too. However he occupies one of the key positions within the financial department in the controlling. Speaking German is one of the great advantages he has working for Volkswagen here in Argentina. Moreover he is the speaking tube to Germany’s headquarters and therefore all the information has to pass his position.
Working next to my supervisor Maximilian Pehr gives me the opportunity to get to know the company as well as he does. During the first two months he gave me some kind of introduction into the reports he is working on which are directed to the German headquarters. Nowadays I am working mostly on these reports. On of them is the “History Report” which contains main macro economic data of the forecasts of each month and furthermore primary data on Volkswagen Argentina.
In the second place I am working on the KPI - Key Performance Indicators report which is done every month as well. This report compares the intern Budget and the forecasts of each month of all business areas of Volkswagen Argentina and is one of the most important reports done for the Argentine executive board and CEO of Volkswagen Latin America Viktor Klima.
The last report I was given charge of is named the Hilmes Report. This report however is dedicated to all the different car, lights and trucks models sold and produced by Volkswagen Argentina. The exact fix & variable costs are shown by each model and compared on a month and year basis. Furthermore the contribution margin and other indicators are analysed within this report.
During my stay I was given various official and confidential messages from the German executive board to be translated from German into Spanish for the CFO and other managers and supervisors.
Furthermore I had been involved into preparing the primary speech for CEO Volkswagen Winterkorn for the main event when he had been visiting Argentina. My co-patriot Maximilian Pehr who is my tutor as well, we have been put into charge to prepare the speech for the German CEO in May.
During the next weeks I will be working on the Financial Review Forecast (4+8) & Presentation which will be presented by the end of May by CEO Viktor Klima and CFO L. Merens to the executive board in Germany.
Judgement of the internship from the social point of view
First of all I must say that I am pretty glad to have an Austrian tutor. In the first place because of the language this makes it quite easy for me to get the work done. Being just surrounded by Spanish speaking colleagues would have been quite a challenge. Furthermore my tutor is willing to spend lots of time introducing me to quite a lot of topics and reports. As I have recognized I am doing an unusual work for an intern. In any case I need to mention that all the other interns who are Argentine do not have such difficult and interesting tasks to work on and to solve. Furthermore they are not pressed a lot of attention by their supervisors and are often not really taken care of. Therefore they spend most of their time doing useless stuff.
In any case I am fortunate to have very nice colleagues and I get along with all them very well. The team’s supervisor is an easy going person who everyone can talk. As I had to get lots of papers for my visa and furthermore I encountered some difficulties to apply for it, there had never been any problem to get some days of to do the necessary stuff. The supervisor of our team is a passionate football fan as everybody else in my team. Therefore during our 1 ½ hours (approx. 90 min or more) there is lots of talking about football and Argentine women involved. After finishing lunch there is also a game called “el Palito” played. Everybody’s toothpick is stuck into a piece of bread while on of the toothpicks is broken. However the one he is about to pull out the broken one has to get coffee or Mate (Argentine tee) for all. Not having lost for almost 2 month everybody had been very angry waiting for my first turn.
Last but not least the Austrian connection does help me a lot as I have close contact to Herbert Prock who is just below the CEO Volkswagen Argentina Viktor Klima.
Having arrived here in Argentina almost 2 and a half month ago and started my internship at the 10th of May here at Volkswagen Argentina by now I have accomplished half of it.
When I had arrived here I was expecting the German company Volkswagen to be run in an organized and strict way like someone would imagine a German company would to be run. After tow months of my internship I realized that Volkswagen Argentina is more like an Argentine company with a German name. Although the CEO and other key personalities are expatriates, most of them of Germany or Austria, the organization structure is adjusted to the Argentine culture. In any case the greatest difference probably is the step hierarchy according to the power distance index, unlike to Austria.
Working in the controlling of the financial department gives me insights into the whole organization, not just Volkswagen Argentina but also into the Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft group. My supervisor is Austrian too. However he occupies one of the key positions within the financial department in the controlling. Speaking German is one of the great advantages he has working for Volkswagen here in Argentina. Moreover he is the speaking tube to Germany’s headquarters and therefore all the information has to pass his position.
Working next to my supervisor Maximilian Pehr gives me the opportunity to get to know the company as well as he does. During the first two months he gave me some kind of introduction into the reports he is working on which are directed to the German headquarters. Nowadays I am working mostly on these reports. On of them is the “History Report” which contains main macro economic data of the forecasts of each month and furthermore primary data on Volkswagen Argentina.
In the second place I am working on the KPI - Key Performance Indicators report which is done every month as well. This report compares the intern Budget and the forecasts of each month of all business areas of Volkswagen Argentina and is one of the most important reports done for the Argentine executive board and CEO of Volkswagen Latin America Viktor Klima.
The last report I was given charge of is named the Hilmes Report. This report however is dedicated to all the different car, lights and trucks models sold and produced by Volkswagen Argentina. The exact fix & variable costs are shown by each model and compared on a month and year basis. Furthermore the contribution margin and other indicators are analysed within this report.
During my stay I was given various official and confidential messages from the German executive board to be translated from German into Spanish for the CFO and other managers and supervisors.
Furthermore I had been involved into preparing the primary speech for CEO Volkswagen Winterkorn for the main event when he had been visiting Argentina. My co-patriot Maximilian Pehr who is my tutor as well, we have been put into charge to prepare the speech for the German CEO in May.
During the next weeks I will be working on the Financial Review Forecast (4+8) & Presentation which will be presented by the end of May by CEO Viktor Klima and CFO L. Merens to the executive board in Germany.
Judgement of the internship from the social point of view
First of all I must say that I am pretty glad to have an Austrian tutor. In the first place because of the language this makes it quite easy for me to get the work done. Being just surrounded by Spanish speaking colleagues would have been quite a challenge. Furthermore my tutor is willing to spend lots of time introducing me to quite a lot of topics and reports. As I have recognized I am doing an unusual work for an intern. In any case I need to mention that all the other interns who are Argentine do not have such difficult and interesting tasks to work on and to solve. Furthermore they are not pressed a lot of attention by their supervisors and are often not really taken care of. Therefore they spend most of their time doing useless stuff.
In any case I am fortunate to have very nice colleagues and I get along with all them very well. The team’s supervisor is an easy going person who everyone can talk. As I had to get lots of papers for my visa and furthermore I encountered some difficulties to apply for it, there had never been any problem to get some days of to do the necessary stuff. The supervisor of our team is a passionate football fan as everybody else in my team. Therefore during our 1 ½ hours (approx. 90 min or more) there is lots of talking about football and Argentine women involved. After finishing lunch there is also a game called “el Palito” played. Everybody’s toothpick is stuck into a piece of bread while on of the toothpicks is broken. However the one he is about to pull out the broken one has to get coffee or Mate (Argentine tee) for all. Not having lost for almost 2 month everybody had been very angry waiting for my first turn.
Last but not least the Austrian connection does help me a lot as I have close contact to Herbert Prock who is just below the CEO Volkswagen Argentina Viktor Klima.
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