Bosch Talent Camp

Bosch is a German-based technology and engineering company, that has manufacturing factories in Turkey. I was lucky to meet the Bosch Turkey family at Bosch Talent Camp in 2017. In this post, I will share my experiences. 

Bosch gives undergrad engineering students an opportunity to learn more about Bosch’s culture. We were a group of five engineering students in 2017. You can also watch the video from Bosh Talent Camp in 2017.

The process has two steps. First, you answer some basic questions on Twitter. Then, the representative from BOSCH interviews you over the phone in English. After being selected, BOSCH arranges transportation and accommodation. A bonus was we were gifted with many traditional things from each city where we visited. For example, we got Mesir Paste from the Bosch Manisa team, Candied Chestnut from the Bosch Bursa team.

The camp lasted four days: 

First day in Izmir and Manisa: 

The journey began in Izmir. We stayed there one night and visited the Bosch Thermotechnic plant in Manisa. We got informed about the conventional and condensing combi’s manufacturing processes from the Research and Development department. At the end of the day, we participated in the Innovation Break and presented our case studies, which was about increasing a water heater’s efficiency.

Second day in Bursa: 

BOSCH is a German-based company so it is common to move to Germany because of the work. The Human Resource department explained to us how they manage the process for their staff to make the adjustment easier for them and their families.

Then, we had the Industry 4.0 workshop led by an expert and he taught us BOSCH’s perspective about the Industry 4.0 trend. We presented how to apply Industry 4.0 trends to different departments in BOSCH, such as Quality Control, Human Resource, Production Planning, Marketing.

At the end of the day, the BUP1 music club surprised us and we sang songs together.

Third day in Bursa:

The day began with a career chat with Tanju Ozkonuk who is the Vice President Plant Commercial Manager at BOSCH. He started talking about his education and career path. Then, he gave us advice: ‘Please go abroad and have experienced. Don’t be stressed about the money, you just need to buy flight tickets. That’s all. You’ll figure out other things when you arrive there. Don’t be afraid of going abroad, it might change your point of life’. This speech inspired me a lot because I previously believed you should have the financial stability to go abroad. He totally changed my thoughts about going abroad and gave me the courage to study abroad. 

We had two workshops on that day: 

Thinking Outside the Box taught us we should not limit our thoughts in terms of solving problems. At the end of this workshop, we made a presentation titled “Design your future Bosch workplace in 2025”. 

The Design Thinking workshop taught us the practical and creative problem-solving approaches. We presented our dashboards which were about increasing User Experience for two types of customers.

Fourth day in Istanbul:

The last day of the camp started with breakfast and a view of the Istanbul Bosporus. The first workshop trained us to make candle holders from the wood using BOSCH hand tools. We also learned about Digital Marketing trends and the projects at BOSCH.

We chatted about careers with the directors of BOSCH: Arda Arslan, Asuman Buyukyildirim, Kivanc Arman, and Zeynep Calin da Silva. They talked about their career and education path from their undergrad to the present. They went abroad for an MSc degree and faced some challenges while living in other countries. I was inspired to study abroad because of the challenges they experienced changed their perspectives on life. I’m really grateful for the chance to meet them.

At the end of the camp, we had a meeting called “Round Table” with Steven Young, the CEO of Turkey and the Middle East. I was expected to speak in English because he was born and raised in Australia but he communicated with us in Turkish! His Turkish was not only fluent, but it was also native and I was double shocked! He was so warm, it made me feel comfortable. I noticed the difference between being a boss and being a leader. His life and career journey were interesting, and so were the journeys of the directors. At the end of the camp, we had a plaque ceremony with Steven Young. 

Talent Camp 2017 is still so meaningful for me. I made valuable connections with friends and professionals. I really want to thank Can Avci who was responsible for the camp. Also, I really want to thank all of the people I met during the camp who gave me the courage to go abroad. I’m glad to have met the BOSCH Turkey family!