One year at WERK II/Priint

The start at WERK II/Priint was a bit bumpy. We both come from areas that at a first sight have nothing to do with print media. Therefore, we missed specific industry knowledge. As usual, the first few weeks were scheduled as a period of familiarization. So we were armed with a few simple tasks and sent off to work. The first barrier was already visible in the early conversations with other employees. Technical terms, which are part of their everyday vocabulary, sounded like a foreign language to us. In addition to many abbreviations, such as “PIM”, “DAM” or “B2B”, the term “database publishing” appeared again and again, which now accompanies us daily through the priint:suite.

Our first assumption was that only IT specialists and maybe one or two project managers work here, since this company is after all active in the IT industry.

With a physicist as Head of Quality Assurance & Delivery, a psychologist as Senior Developer and many other employees with “non-specialist” degrees, a diverse and interdisciplinary team is put together. The company is also very familiar. During the lunch break we often go for a curry sausage in a small group next door or play a round or two of table football to clear our heads. When you walk through the corridor in our company headquarters, you can actually always hear someone laughing. Whether it is our boss sitting at the end of the corridor in a meeting or employees who happen to run into each other at the coffee machine, the mood is always relaxed.

A little more than a year and a half ago, I got to know WERK II/Priint at a job fair at my university at the beginning of my master’s studies and quickly decided to work there. The following points in particular convinced me to accept a working student position:

On the one hand, I have the opportunity to get a taste of several areas in this company. I was able to participate in internal and external meetings at a very early stage and thus get to know the company and its working methods better. Since then, my tasks have been very different: from plug-in development to project management and REST-based web services to the conceptualization and development of innovative ideas, I have been able to try out and learn a lot. As a student, this is a great opportunity, as I am not yet sure in which area I would like to work later.

On the other hand, the company is very understanding of my studies, so that I can schedule my lessons flexibly and in exceptional cases, such as an exam, I can postpone them. In addition, there is flexitime, so that I can come to work a little later or earlier and can therefore also attend morning or afternoon events on working days.

In my opinion, WERK II/Priint is particularly well suited for a career start due to its familiarity and interdisciplinarity. However, you have to be able to work independently, as the carrying wheels are quickly taken off your back and you are considered a full member of staff. Typical for an IT company, it can be a bit chaotic from time to time, so you have to show initiative and not be afraid to ask for something twice.

I also got to know the company at the mentioned job fair and through the hashtag #NoMoreCopyPaste and the Touchpoint Travel Map the communication between WERK II/Priint and me has just started.

Even though the company focuses on print media, the offline touchpoints, I entered the digital touchpoint sector and started to take care of the social media accounts. But what should you post if you don’t know that much about the product?

So the next step was to understand more and see how I could support the marketing team.

The only challenge is: You have to actively approach everyone yourself and ask specific questions or suggest ideas that you can realize yourself. If you then have an idea or a suggestion, you can always count on the support of WERK II/Priint.

The longer I work in the company, the more I noticed how often I deal with offline Touchpoints in my own everyday life. How often have I opened a personalized offer, a printed voucher or similar and used it? In contrast, how many times have I deleted a advertising mail directly without even looking at it or swapping over an advertisement on Instagram?

Since our work here, both of us have been asked why we work in an industry that is “dying”. We as ” Millenials ” stand for the pure, digital future according to different definitions.

One of the first things we both learned is that print doesn’t die at all, but it does change.

Print and publishing are becoming part of the digital strategy of many companies, as they stand out from the information overload of the digital world.

Whether it might be catalogues with the latest products, posters for e.g. our favourite bands or labels on e.g. packaging, each of us is confronted with a lot of offline media every day. And we both agree:

Digital comes and goes – Print lasts longer.