“I went to the Handelsakademie (commercial academy), but in my second year I wanted to switch and decided to take a commercial apprenticeship. After a number of letters of application, I got the chance of an interview with Kapsch and received the offer of starting a commercial apprenticeship with them. In the first two years of the apprenticeship, I switched department every six months in order to get a good overview of the company. I started in Accounts in my 3rd year. Initially I was underwhelmed at this, because bookkeeping had not been one of my favourite subjects at college. But after a short while I learned better – because practical work and college work don’t have a lot in common. I was very pleased that at the end of my apprenticeship period I was taken on permanently in Accounts. At first, I enjoyed a life that didn’t involve studying. But as time went on I thought that there had to be more to it than this. And that’s when I took the decision to undergo further training in accountancy. After discussing it with my line manager and my colleagues, I accepted the challenge and committed myself to training as a company accountant, who is trained to draw up year-end accounts.

Those were three very instructive, but also very demanding years due to the dual stress of work and studying. Luckily I have really great colleagues who were very considerate of me and supported me in every possible way!

I’m pleased that I took this step, since this additional training has meant that my field of work has continued to expand. I now have the opportunity of realising my potential through working with more specialised areas in the world of figures.”