Only in the rarest cases career is a straight path. Often detours must be taken, you end up in one-way streets or have to turn around again. This is exactly what happened to Matthias Grobarek. After eight years of permanent employment at another Karlsruhe-based company, he decided to return to virtual7 in 2019. In this interview, he explains how he was received by his colleagues and what his motives were for returning to the mother ship.
Cooperation with customers are characterized by dialog. On the one hand, you are directly confronted with requirements that need to be met. On the other hand, the dialog allows you to quickly guess in which direction the project should ultimately go, and you can advise the customer accordingly. At the moment, I’m working with the project team to migrate existing applications from an on-premise cloud to an AWS cloud. There are two reasons for this: cost and feature requirements. With different cloud providers you have different options in terms of flexibility and infrastructure. To ensure that the systems work efficiently and leak-proof, you have to consider different providers in this context.
For me, it means that we simplify things that affect us every day, such as going to the authorities. But that also includes areas that you have no direct contact with in your life. Especially in times of Corona, it is important to move all health data efficiently from A to B. For me, the digitalization of Germany means that all these things are being made as efficient as possible. Human errors, which are a daily occurrence in this context, should be eliminated as far as possible. I hope that the digitalization of Germany will make our lives easier. And this will create added value for everyone.
One thing that is very important to me personally is data protection. With the various initiatives, whether small, in a project, or legal initiatives, I sometimes have the feeling that the issue of data protection is only second or third in importance. But it is precisely such an important topic that should be considered from the outset. The Corona Warn App is a very good illustration of this. Originally, the intention was to collect data centrally from the health authorities. In the end, a data-friendly alternative was found by storing the data decentral.
During my studies I had to complete two internship semesters. When I looked around for internship semester positions, I quickly came across a free position at virtual7. At that time, virtual7 was focused on applications related to ORACLE software. After my internship semester, I continued to work at virtual7 as a student trainee. This brought me into contact with many ORACLE-based products, developed technical expertise and was already sent to customers as a working student. Even back then, I was able to try out and fiddle around a lot and I learned a lot.
I wanted to get a taste of a larger company for my second internship semester. I ended up at a well-known software company in Karlsruhe. The field of activity was very different from my tasks at virtual7. While at virtual7 I was more involved with technical aspects, I spent my second internship semester programming Java developments. At virtual7, I didn’t see how I was going to get the hang of becoming a developer, as my expertise was mainly developed in the ORACLE environment. After some back and forth considerations, I accepted a permanent position at this software company after my internship semester.
I returned to virtual7 at the beginning of 2020 after eight years of permanent employment.
What I appreciated before, not least because it is such a big place, is that I had a lot of job security. But these big places can often be very dull. Through a colleague who became a friend during my internship semester at virtual7, I was constantly informed about everything that happens at virtual7. As a result, I contacted virtual7 again in 2019 in this regard. From then on, everything went very quickly. As I started getting to know virtual7 again, I realized that a lot had changed at virtual7 and I felt like giving it a try. I immediately noticed that I was warmly welcomed and that I was offered the opportunities I was looking for as an application developer. I wanted to develop technologically and needed a change of scenery, not least because the changes at virtual7 were very attractive for me.
My return definitely means progress. I made the decision to leave my old job because I wanted to develop myself and take a step forward. My decision was the right one and I see my intention behind it completely fulfilled. The activities I am doing in my current project have enabled me to learn a lot about cloud infrastructures in a short time. Much more than I could have imagined in that short time. This means that after half a year of virtual7 I am much further ahead in my technological knowledge. I have the feeling that this friendly yet challenging working atmosphere at virtual7 is developing into a dynamic that is contagious and pulls me forward. This is a good feeling and I feel comfortable.
When I came back in January, I saw familiar faces from the past. I returned to the mothership. After all, virtual7 made sure that I became a computer scientist during my studies. While I learned rather theoretical things during my studies, I gained hands-on experience at virtual7. I also learned a lot of soft skills during this time. In this sense, “mothership” is also to be understood literally. It’s a bit like I was raised by virtual7. After all, I spent a total of five years here. It was a nice feeling to come back. I had the feeling that all the new colleagues I met at the kickoff in January also welcomed me well.
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