Ava Hartman, Business, Technology, and Engineering: The Germany Way Summer 2024
During our two weeks at HM Munich, we attended multiple lectures mostly concerning topics associated with my major, industrial engineering. One of the most interesting aspects of this trip was having the opportunity to observe my major being taught with the values of a different culture and city in mind, and to compare these concepts with the ones that I am learning at Pitt.
One aspect that stood out to me about this academic program is that we interacted with many students in the same classes who were a variety of different ages. Some students had taken some time off of school to do apprenticeships, which seemed to be similar to a co-op or internship in the United States. Some students spent more time doing apprenticeships than others, and some students seemed to have not taken any time off of school yet. Students were also taking a variety of different numbers of courses. Some students took less, while others took more. There seemed to be more flexibility in their programs when it came to the availability of courses. The students also shared with us that their academic program is technically 7 semesters long, but students typically end up doing 8 semesters for some flexibility.
Another aspect that stood out to me is the application process for jobs and apprenticeships. During our two weeks at HM Munich, we saw a career fair come to the university one day. The setup and organization of this event was very similar to the career fairs that we have seen in the United States, but one aspect that was different was their resumes. The format of their resumes is very different from ours, as theirs will often be colorful and include pictures with a creative design. Apart from the design of their resumes and applications, the application process seemed to be fairly similar to the process at Pitt, with career fairs offering an opportunity to network and build professional connections.
It was also surprising to me that they had a variety of different majors that seemed to be similar to industrial engineering. They had the industrial engineering major itself, but they also offered courses for business engineers, who had a bit more of an emphasis on the business side of operations compared to the industrial engineers. I thought that this was an interesting distinction, and we had the opportunity to work with students in both majors in one of our classes.
Overall, while many of our courses were similar, there were also many differences between the academic programs themselves that were really interesting to learn about. I enjoyed the opportunity to learn about their major program and to share ours, and to hear about how similar industrial engineering concepts can be organized and taught in a different way. It has changed how I perceive my major, and it has broadened my knowledge on the contributions that this major can have in a variety of applications.
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