challenged to realize your potential

After Kejia returned to Germany, she wanted to be near Frankfurt for family reasons. Bosch is based in Stuttgart, so she started looking for something new. “IDE was a good fit because it has leading products in its field and the role matched my engineering background and quality experience,” she explains. “Even though it is a smaller company, I felt that there was a lot of potential for me to build up my career here.”

She joined the Quality Assurance team in May 2020 as a Senior Customer Quality Engineer, handling quality issues for IDE’s customers. After a short time she was promoted to Group Leader of Quality Assurance, responsible for customer quality issues as well as supplier management, incoming inspections , and internal quality documentation. She and her team have achieved excellent customer quality performance and significantly improved the effectiveness of the Quality Clinic, IDE’s new supplier management tool .

It hasn’t always been easy. “When I joined I became responsible for all of IDE’s customers,” Kejia says. “This is not easy, especially since we have such different products and such different customers from very different cultures. Working interculturally is normal for me, but having to work with all the customers and all the products from the very beginning was a challenge.”

Fortunately, Kejia had good support. “My manager and I get along well and I am given my own space to handle things,” she explains. “Also, I have a lot of experience with project management and customer quality, but I wasn’t so experienced with quality management, and I really learned a lot from him.”

This support extended to her team. “It’s not always easy if you’re new and you become a leader,” Kejia says. “Luckily I have a great team. They respect me and support my decisions, and if I don’t know something they explain things to me very patiently. They are friendly and I think they like that I have an international background and can share stories about my experiences in other countries.”

Kejia is pleased with how things have worked out. “It’s been more challenging than I expected,” she says. “But every challenge means a chance to show how much potential you have. Working here has given me a chance to see what I am capable of. Everything is running in the right direction now and I’m really happy about it.”

She’s excited to find out what else she – and IDE – can accomplish. “I am happy to be part of a fast-moving company and have so many opportunities,” Kejia says. “I’m looking forward to increasing my expertise, getting to know the other companies in our group, and watching our company grow.”

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