Lukas Steer

Key data

Job description: Mandatory internship
Company: Asfinag Service GmbH
Place: Graz Raaba

What I did:

As part of the mobility campaign launched by Minister for Infrastructure Jörg Leichtfried, all government-related businesses, including Asfinag, are required to convert their vehicle fleet. The aim is for some of the vehicle fleet to be based on technology which does not burn fossil fuels. Asfinag is therefore required to switch over some of its car pool to electric or hydrogen-powered vehicles by 2020. My responsibilities included:

• compiling an appropriate decision-making tool for purchasing vehicles, taking account of upcoming models and comparing them based on tests and manufacturer details,
• implementing a vehicle charging system complete with charging infrastructure and a booking system for electric vehicles at Asfinag.

The charging and booking system had to be fully automatic in operation. It was important to contact manufacturers and operators of existing charging stations to obtain more information on this issue.

Why I enjoyed my internship:

I was able to work on issues independently. This meant that I was responsible for collecting all the information relating to electric mobility at Asfinag. Since this was a new situation for me, I learned a lot from it. It is worth mentioning that I was given a very important task for the first time in my professional life and so the pressure to perform was definitely high.

What I learned:

I had to address a big issue and take account of the specific features of Asfinag. It was particularly important to conduct literature searches on the internet and select a great deal of data. The end product took the form of various papers on the different topics.

My biggest success / My greatest experience:

During the course of a regular meeting, I presented my results to the departmental managers at Asfinag, focusing on some of the key points in my papers.

How I secured the internship:

In 2016, I started working in the fleet management division at Asfinag and used this opportunity to apply for the mandatory internship place.

What I want to do in the future:

During the mandatory internship, I was able to gain insight into the field of electric mobility. This is an exciting issue which will become even more of a hot topic in the coming years. Activities in energy production and use are also very interesting, for example in the manufacturing industry. I can’t say yet which route I will take in the future. But nevertheless, I am not worried about my future career.