I started as a developer. At that time, there was no distinction between different levels. To get in, I programmed in a few projects. When I had been at virtual7 for 5 years, I joined as a Senior via the career model. In the meantime, I’ve become a Principal Technical Consultant. It doesn’t change that much. I do less programming now, advise the customer more, and take care of architecture and all the other stuff a bit more. What has changed is that I teach technology to others and am on training courses a lot rather than using it myself. I became a Principal at our conference 2 years ago. Not many at virtual7 have that yet, which is related to the fact that you have to have 10 years of work experience.

The title is not important to me at all. It’s much more important that I’m recognized in the projects and that I do my work well. Whether I’m a Senior or a Principal, the title doesn’t change the quality of my work. I always try to do my best and do a good job. Actually, you only see the title in my email footer or on my business card, and I hardly use those at the moment anyway.

I have a whole lot of Roles. Especially the Roles that are related to the customer are important for me. There are the Roles Customer Developer and Customer Communicator, who are responsible for building up projects further and coordinating and organizing everything related to the customer and the project. At the same time, I became a Mentor for the Presenter Role. This came up at the last conference, where I won the “best presenter award”. I would like to get more involved in internal projects and workgroups. I enjoy working internally on different topics, but at the moment I am very busy at the customer. I used to give a lot of workshops, travel around and try to introduce people to our technologies. That’s how I know that I enjoy it. Unfortunately, I just don’t have the time at the moment.

I understand people and their problems very well. That is why I am able to respond to them. I do not only receive it, but also try to grasp the background. Over the years, I have built up this understanding and sensitivity in projects. You can’t always take everything too seriously. I lead a development team that consists of 20 people. It’s important to me to spread positive vibes. In stressful situations, I try to take the pressure off instead of creating additional pressure. That doesn’t add any value and doesn’t contribute to productivity.

There actually were two stages of development at virtual7. When we reached a certain size, heads were first introduced for the individual departments. At that time, I perceived this as a positive development. As time went on, the teams and tasks of the Heads became more and more. It quickly became clear that this could not be the right way. In the meantime, this first solution has been thrown overboard and the responsive company organization has been introduced. This means not much more than that responsibilities have been handed over to the employees who perform a certain role within the role concept. At the same time, it also means that people are allowed, but not required, to take on more responsibility within the company. There are many ways to be involved in shaping the company. I would describe the responsive company organization as: Progress and development combined with self-interest.

I would apply for a job at virtual7 all over again nowadays. Today, I wouldn’t look for a large company with thousands of employees. I don’t think I would feel comfortable in a large corporation. I really enjoy what I’m doing now, I wouldn’t have thought that before. In my studies, I focused on other areas. Sure, I studied computer science and you have a wide range of possibilities, but I never really enjoyed software development in particular. I actually majored in operations core architecture. The people you work with on a daily basis have to fit together in order to work effectively. virtual7 clearly has a good intuitive feel for it.

I like the introduction of the responsive company organization. Still, I take my work just as seriously as before. There is a lot of freedom and the work is based on trust, so there is no need for additional regulations. The number of Roles I perform means that I can be found more often in meetings lately. As an employee, you are asked for your opinion more and more often and are expected to participate in addition to customer work, which is also very positive on the whole, but sometimes additional meetings are just too much. I think that with experience, it will become clear which meetings are important and which you can cancel. Maybe that is also a matter of personal preference.

It’s been bugging me for ages that doctors can’t exchange information. The Federal Government wanted to launch an encrypted super system two years ago, but it still doesn’t work. It can’t be in 2022 that you have to request medical records by phone and then get them sent by email. You can’t even look at the central office to see what the medical records look like and then you have to get it all somehow and request it, I think that’s really annoying. It has to be secure, I understand that, but the exchange should be possible. Digital communication between doctors is not good in Germany. I’m looking into blockchain right now and that would be a great fit. Why not put the medical record on the blockchain, where not everyone has access, but everyone still has insight when they get access from you. That’s where you store it centrally and securely. That would be a super use case. And it would be a huge project, we couldn’t do it alone of course, but smaller packages are distributed when projects are awarded, why not collaborate? Such a project would be very interesting and an added value for everyone. And correspondence in general is an issue for me. I hate letters.