The Wind Turbine Engineer who relocated from another continent

Yasser Arafath is an Associate Wind Turbine Technology Engineer at RWE Renewables in Hamburg, Germany, and an amazing example of the dedication to green energy that populates the business. Why such an amazing example? Well, consider this: Yasser upped and relocated 7,000 miles from his home in Tumkur, India to Flensburg, Germany to pursue his passion for Mechanical Engineering with a focus on renewable energy. We caught up with him to ask him: what drives that level of dedication to a sustainable future?

“It was actually my father who wanted me to do a Master’s in Germany,” he tells us. “However, that’s because I already had an interest in renewables and he knew that Germany was a hub of activity in that field. So, after completing my Bachelors’ Degree in Mechanical Engineering, I learned German and successfully applied for a Masters’ Degree at the Hochschule in Flensburg.”

Not that learning another language wasn’t enough to busy himself with, Yasser entered into his graduate degree programme with a dedication to quickly building himself a career within his chosen field. He found an internship working alongside two friends on a Wood recycling project, but after the Covid-19 pandemic spread across the globe, he found himself looking for an alternative placement. It was at this point that he applied for an internship with RWE.

“I like to socialise with people”

“I got a call from Julia Wonneberger, RWE Renewables’ Talent Acquisition Expert, and it went from there,” he says. By July 2020, I’d moved to Hamburg and begun my Internship and now here I am in another German city and settling in, here.”

Clearly that takes a fairly bold personality, not to mention a degree of single mindedness, we wonder out loud.

“Well,” muses Yasser, “I really like to socialise with people. I can be sitting at the train station, for example, and will just start chatting with someone. So, acclimatising for me wasn’t so much of a challenge. I wanted to make friends and I did – I’ve met some really good people, both here at RWE, and around Hamburg, since moving here.”

Strong support during lockdown

Such was Yasser’s dedication to developing a social life, he along with his friends actually launched a social start-up in August 2020 to enable people from different backgrounds to bring people together socially. Restlessly hardworking as that demonstrates him to be, his heart is very much in his Engineering career and, after returning to his Internship, post-lockdown, he floated between tech and offshore, using his time with RWE Renewables to commence work on his graduate thesis.

“My manager Günther Fenle actually suggested the topic,” he tells us. “And I had amazing support from everyone at RWE regarding my thesis. During the lockdown, my manager would call me, asking how I was doing and that time helped me to realise I really wanted to stay and develop here. So, when Holger Berndt asked me to interview for the Associate Wind Turbine Technology Engineer role, I was excited to do so.”

New job with high-impact

Yasser finished his thesis in July, then, a month later – on the same day that he presented his thesis defence – interviewed for that Engineering role. The next day, he was offered the job and he is now developing his career as part of the RWE team.

“Working life is different here in Germany to India,” he reflects. “But relocating to a new place is exciting. The work I’m doing is important and high-impact. I think that, if you have ambitions – whether it’s in Engineering or an entirely different career – it’s important to do what you need to do and go where you need to go in order to achieve your goals in life.”

To find out more about Engineering & Technician opportunities within the RWE Group, visit our website.