Originally Posted by
LV2TNDM
ALMOST got a summer job at Porsche, but didn't qualify (had to be an engineering student), so I "settled" on working at Mercedes in Stuttgart instead. Oh the hardship! Beer machines at work
Turns out I had the highest-paying job that the work exchange program offered in all of western Europe at the time! And thanks to Mercedes' excellent worker pay, benefits & paid vacation, I received a TOTALLY unexpected $1,400 check out of the blue that fall after I had returned to college. That $$$ allowed me to buy a Bianchi road bike, join the collegiate cycling team and pursue a very rewarding three year stint racing. Oh and I spent the summer in Germany with my bright yellow Crack-N-Fail mountain bike, which impressed the locals. Porsche, Mercedes and bikes are all connected in my past! And Jobst Brandt fits in there too!
I was lucky enough to get a Praktikum at BMW in the summer of '79 through my school's German department where I got a minor. I was initially supposed to work at Opel near Frankfurt but that was withdrawn and I got the Munich post instead. Flew into Brussels and rode my Batavus to Munich, worked the summer and toured more afterward. The experience taught me I did not want to work in a factory, but it was quite a time otherwise.
Like you, I managed to find something that would pay the best for the longest time.