AVM was founded over 30 years ago in 1986 by four Berlin students. Their goal was to make the then new ISDN technology universally usable. With the FRITZ! products, AVM offers versatile devices for fast broadband connections and intelligent home networks and has become one of the leading manufacturers in Germany and Europe over the years. FRITZ!Box is the best-known brand of WiFi routers in Germany. All AVM products are proprietary developments and are largely produced in Germany.
AVM is one of the top companies in the telecommunications market. More than 1,200 awards and millions of satisfied customers confirm our success. The company owes this primarily to its employees, who devote themselves every day to developing new, innovative products with passion and creativity.
Work on high-tech with personal responsibility
Florian Westphal is one of the 810 employees who works on the FRITZ! products at AVM with enthusiasm for high-tech and innovative technologies. He is pleased that the products are in daily use by so many people and that his work can help to continually improve FRITZ! products.
Florian has been working at AVM as a software developer since 2013. As a bachelor's student in applied computer science at HTW Berlin, he already completed his mandatory internship at AVM and continued his work as a working student. Finally, he wrote his master's thesis in the company. As soon as he was handed over, Florian signed his employment contract and was immediately taken on as an employee. That was three years ago. Today Florian still works in the same area in which he started as a student.
Florian develops software for automated WLAN function tests. This discovers errors in the WLAN of the FRITZ!Box and the FRITZ!Repeater. For this purpose, he independently builds and develops the so-called test towers, which are equipped with special hardware, PCs and FRITZ!Box devices. So that the frameworks are as close as possible to the work of colleagues from WLAN software development, the test specifications are created in joint work. The test towers continuously generate reports, which he analyzes in order to then make decisions about further steps. They provide an important basis for decision-making in order to identify and correct errors in the FRITZ!OS operating system at an early stage.
From the beginning, Florian had a variety of tasks and projects. As a student, he was initially the only one at AVM who repaired existing tests in WLAN software development and further developed the framework software. Today, Florian is responsible for making all decisions relating to the software and hardware of the automated WLAN function tests. The area has now grown so much that Florian has now received support from two other colleagues.
Getting started at AVM
In order to get started in software development as a developer like Florian, a completed degree in an IT-related course is recommended. According to Florian, “you don’t have to be Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg” to work at AVM. What is important to get started is a good understanding of tools and concepts as well as a confident use of programming languages such as Perl, Java and C#.
Finding creative ideas and solutions, having the courage to take new paths and a dose of curiosity and openness are also Florian's tips for a smooth start at AVM.
AVM's corporate culture is characterized by collegial cooperation at eye level. The first-name interaction and the direct exchange – simply walking past or picking up the phone – not only made it easier for Florian to start at AVM. He still values this very much about AVM today.
In addition to the area of WLAN test automation, there are other entry opportunities in software and hardware development for students, graduates, young professionals and experienced professionals.
The areas of sales, marketing, internal IT, logistics, administration and customer support also offer exciting challenges. More information can be found here: jobs.avm.de
You can find out more about Florian's test towers and his everyday work at AVM in this video.
