Hello, my name is Frank and I am a trainer working at PIEK for several years now. I perform training in electronics, certification training, and do this in four languages: English, French, German, Dutch. Because I do this in these four languages, I also travel a lot and that’s almost worldwide.
What does it mean to be a PIEK trainer? Well it means that of course you must have expert knowledge of electronics, in which we provide our courses. You must be certified, which obviously I am, this is covered for all courses, no problem with that.
Like I said I travel a lot. Some figures, 165 nights at hotels in 2018. That is without the holidays, purely hotel stays, that is for business. And at hotels in the Netherlands, in various countries in Europe, in countries in Africa, Asia. These are more or less the areas in which we provide our training courses. Very interesting, as a PIEK trainer you come into contact with various people, various cultures, and population groups. You visit companies that produce the most diverse products within the electronics industry. Consumer electronics products, but also products used in aviation and aerospace. We come into contact with products, departments and companies and sometimes the most interesting things are displayed there. There are times where you are confronted with the latest in electronics.
It’s a very dynamic life, a life where one week, one day you are training in the Netherlands. And doing a training on the requirements that solder joints must fulfil and the next day, maybe next week you are on the road somewhere in France and then maybe perform a training about design. A completely different language, different culture, different hotel. And yes, those are the aspects that are part of this job. It is a very special life, sometimes adventurous, you might go on a “mission” for a training in a country, at a company.
Sometimes these are completely new customers, new companies and you didn’t had any contact with them before. So you make the first contacts and in many cases a lot is expected of you and obviously the intention is that you make that happen. But with my experience in general it works.
We perform training based on IPC standards which are used worldwide. This means that you also have to stay informed. So in this case also you have to stay dynamic enough to respond to new developments. And indeed sometimes you visit companies which let you look into the kitchen of brand new developed electronics and maybe see things that are hidden from other people.
And, like I said, a lot of stays in hotels, so it is common to wake up in the morning and look outside and feel like you are on holiday because you are overlooking a beach somewhere in Asia, the Philippines for example. Or on the boulevard of a city in Portugal or Greece and that you really think that you are on holiday. Until you realize a few minutes later that “no, I have to work today”. The job we have is quite special, but it is very satisfying and you have many possibilities. Well for instance after the training has finished. You are in a foreign country and you can still get a bit of holiday feeling.
These things indeed are what I experience. In general spend more days in hotels than at home. And if that is something that could appeal to you, you might want to apply for a job with us and then maybe you will become my new colleague.
