From a simple email to a memorable internship

In my 21 years, I never left France before. And suddenly, I am driving a thousand kilometers to live in Germany for three months. How did this happen?

Soon after I began working with QF-Test at Thales, and since I am the only person on my team working with this software, I decided that it might be fun to learn more about QF-Test directly next to the people who built it. So, I sent an email, and a few days later, I got an interview with QFS.

It only took a week or two to get a definitive answer, and I left for Germany on the 30th of July. Of course – because I like stupid challenges – I decided to drive to Leipzig, from Paris, on my motorcycle. 14 hours of riding later, through rain and sunshine, I finally arrived in Leipzig. Two days later, I started working.

Working at QFS was a really enriching and weird (in a good way) experience. The work culture is completely different from what I am used to, whether it’d be at Thales or other smaller companies. Coffee break? 3 minutes. 3 minutes!? Fastest I ever managed was 10! Maybe we are a bit too much into coffee in France. Or is it just an excuse not to work? I’ll let you decide. Same goes for the lunch break. If we go out in France, at a restaurant, it’ll be for at least an hour and a half. In Germany, 30 minutes is all you need. These are only small things, but it shocked me how much we love not to work during working hours in France.

About the actual work: I have never seen such a good cohesion in a team as at QFS. Communication was smooth, not too many meeting, so we actually had time to work. And the team is awesome. Found a bug? Have an issue? A question? Just ask or talk about it, and you’ll get the answer, or the bug fixed. And even as an intern, a new person working at the company, the onboarding was pretty smooth. Everything is done logically and is easily understandable. It didn’t take me more than a week to understand most of my job and start working. This feeling of being ready and useful very quickly was extremely satisfying and gave me a lot of motivation to perform my tasks.

The tasks were satisfying as well. To be given a task, some time, and some liberties to do it, without having a strict deadline, is really comfortable. And when it is done, and everybody is happy about it, it feels even better. I don’t have the words to explain it better, but trust me, it was a pleasure working at QFS.

This internship also allowed me to visit and live in a foreign country. As a first timer, this was a bit difficult. Going to Aldi, the barber, or the bakery for the first time felt like I had never done it before. But in the end, it is just like everywhere else. It is not that hard. I also got to visit the countryside, and I even made a rider friend along the way. I got to ride very fast, to see incredible landscapes (The Zugspitze with Gregor and Tina!), towns, to feel the german weather (not the best…) and to meet new people.

Maxime on his favorite mode of transportation

Even though I loved my stay in Germany, going back to France was a relief. I got my habits back, my birds, my cars, my gym, everything. But I would go back to Germany if given the opportunity, no doubt.

In conclusion: QFS is an amazing company, leaded by amazing people, and I understand why it is considered such a great place to work. I learned a lot, and am ready to get QF-Test operational at Thales very soon, as well as making it more widely used across our different teams.