Exciting topics, secure job: research at DLR
At the German Aerospace Center (DLR), everyone has been pulling together, simply from home since mid-March. The majority of DLR employees have switched to working from home as part of the Corona protective measures. Normally 9,000 people, including over 4,000 researchers, work at 27 locations across Germany. These include many young scientists and students who started directly after or during their studies and are just starting their research careers. The great commitment of everyone involved and the necessary infrastructure guarantee that research in the areas of aerospace, energy, transport, security and digitalization can also be advanced remotely.
In the meantime, employees are initially returning to the locations in reduced numbers - while maintaining high safety measures for each individual. The preferred workplace remains the home office, but DLR makes different offers to employees depending on their individual situation. Here, researchers from various areas report on the last unusual weeks and how they experienced the new situation:
This is how research works from home...
Carina Haupt also has a good rapport in the home office
With her team, the Software Engineering group at the Institute of Software Technology, Carina Haupt supports researchers in software development. “We advise on implementation, develop guidelines and carry out training. Chat, telephone and video conferences have always been part of my everyday life, as my team is spread across Germany in Berlin, Braunschweig, Cologne and Oberpfaffenhofen." She now does all of this in her home office. She says: "My good rapport with my colleagues Colleagues are helping me a lot right now. I am very communicative and like to pass on my knowledge. That's why I'm always committed to networking between scientists who work on related software development issues in different institutes." In her private life, she is involved in communities - for example, she organizes conferences on the topic of free and open source software.
Working at home is no problem for them – if the infrastructure is right! VPN access was available to everyone in the team at short notice. The institute now offers training courses online, implemented spontaneously. This should be maintained in the future. “Once again I can make use of the great scope and freedom of decision that I have at DLR.”
Business development at home at your desk
Michael Meyer zu Hörste is an engineer at the Institute for Transportation Systems Technology. His job is business development - he plans projects and coordinates content and budgets. At the moment he is preparing the Shift2Rail project X2Rail-5. DLR is leading this project with 22 partners from all over Europe. He has telephone conferences with over 30 participants every week – an interesting challenge. The content must be well structured so that nothing is forgotten.
Because of the European cooperation in Shift2Rail, he always communicates a lot via telephone and web conferences as well as email. Working from home isn't a big change for him: in his opinion, a team that knows each other well doesn't have to fly to Brussels or Madrid for every vote. It is important to him to physically separate work and leisure time with his family so that he can switch off more easily. What does he miss at home? His sitting ball, which he left in the office, and his books - he has the literature in his home office that he is missing at the DLR.
Despite the Corona crisis: apply to DLR as usual!
Things work at DLR not only for employees, but also for applicants. Interested parties apply as usual - the institutes and facilities will contact you for the interview in a suitable format based on available options. The current job advertisements now include many that allow entry directly after or during your studies.
As a public research institution in the Federal Republic of Germany, DLR is secure even in times of crisis. All employees tackled the crisis together, and we are now all looking to the future together - to help shape it through groundbreaking research.
Getting started at the German Aerospace Center? You can do this during your studies or immediately afterwards. You can find out about various entry opportunities on our career portal:
- Internship
- Student activity
- Study/thesis
- promotion
You can also find our current job advertisements here.
Photo copyright: DLR/Carina Haupt.
At the German Aerospace Center (DLR), everyone has been pulling together, simply from home since mid-March. Research @ Home is the motto.
