Building Professional and Personal Skills
I have been an intern at BMW TechOffice for just over a month now and it has been a wonderful experience. I wasn't sure how I would like working in a major company like BMW, fearing it would be too formal or too intense. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the majority of the TechOffice is made up of friendly software engineering interns and PhD students, working on cool projects in an office decorated with 3D prints, Nerf bullets and a chess set that gets daily use. So far I have been utilising skills in animation, 3D modelling and some light coding for some really interesting tasks related to the SORDI.ai project. This has suited me perfectly as someone wanting to move away from traditional industrial design into more digital creative work.
I did an internship with the BMW Group + QUT Design Academy back in 2020, and while I have used Blender in both internships I have been using it in different ways. The skill I have found most transferable between the internships was actually the technique of learning new software rather than the software itself. I always bring a notebook with me to work and take notes on all of the new tools and processes I have been using in Blender and in other new software I have been learning and it saves me so much time when I need to reuse those tools and processes.
Although I started my internship in late March I have been living in Munich since the 11th of January, so have had quite a while now to get used to the city. Myself and 3 other QUT interns have opted to share a house instead of joining the queue for the BMW apartments which has been really nice. Its quite easy to get around Munich as the public transport is fairly reliable (apart from the frequent strikes) and Germany has just introduced the Deutschland ticket - €49 per month for unlimited travel on buses, trains and trams across the whole country. It's also a very safe city compared to many other European cities where you would usually have to be on high alert for pickpockets. Unfortunately the weather has been quite gloomy and cold for most of my 3 months here, but I have been assured many times that the summer and autumn months are beautiful, so I will reserve judgement on the weather for now, and I am glad I got to see some snowfall. You also may or may not be pleased to hear that alcohol is equal or in some cases cheaper than water here – a few days ago I was shocked to see that water cost a staggering €5,50 while a shot of almost any alcohol on offer was a mere €2,50.
There are many things to see and do in Munich, with lots of museums and galleries, restaurants, markets and historical sites to explore. There have been two major festivals since I have been here too – Fasching and Frühlingsfest (Spring fest). People here are very enthusiastic about their festivals and they are great fun. There are also many day trips you can do around Bavaria and countries like Czechia, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and France are just a train or bus ride away. I travelled to southern Italy with a bus company called Flixbus - honestly 13 hours was a bit long for a bus ride but it was easy and cheap to book and I'd happily take the bus again for a shorter journey.
In my first month here I studied German at the Goethe institute, and while it has been very helpful for reading signs and labels at grocery stores I wouldn't say it is essential and it has been of no use to me in the office - everyone speaks good English and I actually hear more Lebanese spoken in the office than German. The camera function on Google Translate is really effective for reading German when out and about and pointing to items on menus and in store windows while awkwardly struggling to pronounce the words usually gets the message across. Often the people you are trying to communicate with will quickly identify you as an English speaker and speak back to you in English if they can.
Even though I daydream about sunny Brisbane as I put on my heavy winter jacket in mid spring, I really am enjoying my time here and am happy to go to work each morning. I'm so grateful to have this opportunity and am developing both my professional and personal skills so much as I experience an amazing internship on the opposite side of the world. If you think this opportunity sounds even slightly appealing I highly encourage you to apply.
Thank you for reading,
Emily Boehmer
BMW Group Intern (Tech Office Munich) 2023