“Hello, my name is Martina Thier, I’m 28 years young and a Head of Department at Kapsch Components. My parents were somewhat surprised when I switched on my degree course from business to microelectronics and studied production and automation engineering at the Vienna University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule), graduating as a qualified engineer. Women and engineering – do you really want to do it? Yes, I wanted it, perhaps because my father and brother also work in technical professions. At Kapsch Components, what attracted me was the fact that there are very good initial and continuing training opportunities, and electronics manufacture means working in an exciting environment involving traffic telematics and industrial electronics.

At Kapsch, I took the exam to qualify as an ÖVQ Quality Officer and took and passed the Small General Management Curriculum at Kapsch University.

I greatly value the good working atmosphere and the team spirit at Kapsch Components. Here I am given the chance of taking on new challenges time and again.

Now I head up a team of five in the department for “Assembly and Testing Road” at Kapsch Components KG, a subsidiary of Kapsch TrafficCom. Here, I am responsible for coordinating my staff and for the technical preparations for the work. Amongst other things, I produce the cost estimates for the technical part of projects, for instance the production of roadside equipment for toll systems, and plan the realisation of such equipment. Initially my age was a problem, because the others in the team are older than me, but we have grown together into a strong and productive team. I see my future as staying with Kapsch, because as a young woman I get every opportunity here to have a great career.”