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Mohamed Karroum, Signalling Technician

Freedom, great colleagues, enjoyable work: Mohamed Karroum (49) is very enthusiastic about his job. He feels at home at Strukton.

25 Service Years

“With my previous employer I was a telephone and data communications technician. In 2010, I was loaned out to Strukton to complete an assembly engineering training course. When my company was acquired by Strukton in 2011, I became a real Struktonner. All my benefits, such as my fifteen service years and salary, were moved over to Strukton. While I therefore have only been working on the railways since 2010, I have almost 25 Strukton service years. I sometimes joke about this with my colleagues when they try to brag about how long they have been working at Strukton. 
When I started working at Strukton, I was a signalling Technician in training. After working alongside experienced technicians for a number of years, I became a Signalling Technician. In 2018 and 2019, I completed a number of training courses, including rail drilling, track sections and level crossings. The sequence of first acquiring working experience followed by courses is enjoyable, because at least then you know what it’s all about. I do my work with a great deal of pleasure. I may still want to advance to a Technical Specialist position.”

 

Strukton is a very social company: we help each other. Sometimes we keep working another two or three hours to help our colleagues in the next shift finish the work

Social Company

“I am given increasingly more freedom in my work and I very much like that. I also like the variety. When you’re happily working away, time always passes quickly. Sometimes you have to go all out, especially when the work involves an out-of-service period. Generally the trains have to be driving again by 5:00 a.m. Monday morning, which means we have to be cleared out by then. Signals, switches, level crossings: our work is only finished once everything is working 100%. In principle we have enough time for this, but sometimes we have to keep our shoulder to the wheel. Fortunately, Strukton is a very social company: we help each other. Sometimes we keep working another two or three hours to help our colleagues in the next shift finish the work.” 

Biological Clock

Physically, the work of a signalling technician is not heavy work. On the other hand, and this is simply part of railway work, I often work at night and during weekends. From time to time that messes up my biological clock somewhat. Fortunately, I have since gotten used to this. If there is a specific weekend on which you would rather not work, you can let the planner know. If at all possible, he will then take this into account.”