Falk Kulawinski, former Head of Onsite Engineering

Falk Kulawinski

What did you do at cideon engineering, and how did you end up working with us?

I headed up the Onsite Engineering division, but I originally started as a sales representative at cideon engineering

Please tell us a little about your career with us.

I started in 2006 in sales and project management at the Chemnitz location and was tasked with expanding the temporary staffing division—with a focus on mechanical engineering, automotive, and rail sectors—both in terms of project scope and staffing—which our team successfully achieved by 2014, growing to approximately 100 employees. In the meantime, I also served as the QM representative for cideon engineering and established the QM system at both the Leipzig and Basel (CH) locations. At times, I also managed the Leipzig location concurrently.

Following the restructuring in 2012, I refocused on my core area of onsite engineering from the Chemnitz office, driving the department forward both in terms of personnel management and in project acquisition and customer service.

My time at Cideon Engineering was very interesting and exciting for me—the family-like atmosphere, the small scale of the projects, sales all the way to China, the business operations, but above all, the technical expertise of the “Pufferküsser” and the railway-specific procedures both internally and externally—these are experiences that I would partly describe as “bizarre,” yet I wouldn’t want to have missed them!

You’ve been with cideon engineering for over 15 years—time to take stock?!?

It was the longest period of my professional life, and I enjoy meeting up with former and current colleagues—partly to relive those times and partly to say thank you (!) for the time we spent together.

In your opinion, what qualities should prospective employees have to work at our company?

Any engineer who chooses to join an engineering services firm should know from the outset that this is a challenging and interesting path to building their own expertise and identifying their own strengths and weaknesses, because:

  • the requirements placed on you vary greatly from project to project.
  • You’ll typically have to work with a wide variety of clients, CAD systems, and various tools.
  • to carry out projects with both small companies and large corporations, where the process must sometimes be flexible and at other times follow highly structured procedures.

You are now retiring from active professional life. What are your best wishes for cideon engineering, your successor, and all your colleagues?

I wish the team at cideon engineering all the best in the future—in acquiring new clients, securing project contracts, further aligning their structures with current requirements, and revitalizing the company—and may they always have a steady hand in all their business dealings!

Finally: What will be the first thing you do in your well-deserved retirement?

For one thing, I plan to get more involved in my hobbies at home again, and I’d also like to become more active in sports. I’m planning to find a volunteer role with Chemnitz, the European Capital of Culture. I’d also like to enjoy traveling to the fullest again.