Let's talk about… Apprenticeship at PIABO
In our "5 questions with…" section, we regularly introduce you to our PIABO colleagues. Today: Nico Wilczek, trainee in office management at PIABO. Nico is PIABO's very first trainee and talks about his training and what he would do as CEO for a day.
1. Nico, you are training to become an office management professional at PIABO. Why did you choose us for your traineeship and how are you doing after the first half?
When I was looking for an apprenticeship, no other place suited me like PIABO. The feeling here was so free and natural, everyone got along great and when it comes to openness and collegiality, I can only say that from the very beginning I was treated as if I had always been part of the team. That really is something special!
After the first year, I can say that nothing has changed in terms of openness and friendliness. It's really fun and I always enjoy talking to our colleagues because you can just be yourself! In addition, this training, office management, is absolutely what I want to do in my professional life, and I get every opportunity to prepare me for the future. I am allowed to set the pace for my learning path and my way of working myself. In addition, I get help from every side when I need it. The best thing, however, is that I am treated with a lot of consideration and understanding.
2. What are your daily responsibilities at PIABO? What does your everyday routine look like? Is there even anything like that for you?
My responsibilities include everything for which the team needs support. Designing and organizing the office are also a big part of my tasks, which I handle together with my colleague Mi Phan (Officer Manager). I also make sure that the fridges are always stocked, both for our colleagues and for visiting clients. From time to time, business trips have to be booked as well. I also support our accounting department when it comes to receipts. As a contact person for almost all technical, organizational and general questions, I feel like I’m right where I belong.
3. Do you have any projects or tasks that you particularly enjoy? And what could you do without?
So far I enjoy everything and to be honest I really don't have anything I could do without. However, I am about to give up several tasks to primarily focus on accounting, because I can still learn a lot in this area. I always find it great that PIABO gives me the opportunity to find my own path and that motivates me to continue to work.
4. You are said to be very open and communicative. Can you tell us something exciting that you've never told before?
My favorite hobby back in the day was to visit lost places. Lost places are tangible old history and therefore really interesting. At the same time they are quite dangerous, because most of the time everything is broken and something can always happen to you – but that’s also what’s really exciting about it.
I've already been to several lost places in Berlin, but I'd also like to explore lost places outside of Berlin. The coolest experience I had was in a brewery in the Schöneweide neighborhood (district: Treptow-Köpenick), because from the roof there you had a really incredible view of the city.
5. Finally, a somewhat tricky question: If you could swap roles with our CEO Tilo Bonow for one day – what would you do first?
This is really not an easy question to answer, mainly because I can hardly imagine taking on a CEO role at some point in the future. I can imagine that as CEO of a company like PIABO, you always have to be available and that you travel a lot. Maybe that's why I would do exactly the opposite for a day and switch off. Or I would listen to the team to find out what ideas they have for developing the company further – in other words, exactly what Tilo does anyway.
