CAREER HISTORY
Szilárd Németh
technologist
“The good thing about this profession is that it always ends in success.”
I started as a toolmaker at Bekomold Kft. in 2015, and have been working as a technologist since 2018. I used to live near Nyíregyháza, more than 250 kilometres from Budapest. I started out as a scholarship student at LEGO, where I had the opportunity to stay on as an employee after my student years. It was here that I learned the basics of the tool-making trade, mainly repairing and maintaining tools, but there were no new tools made. After four years I wanted more professionally, so I started looking for a new opportunity, which I soon found at Bekomold Kft. in Budapest. I left everything behind and moved to Budapest, which was a huge change for me. This was 7 years ago. Since then, I have had a secure livelihood and now live a happy family life with my wife and two young children, together with whom we moved into our own house last year.
I started as a toolmaker at Bekomold Kft. in 2015, and have been working as a technologist since 2018. I used to live near Nyíregyháza, more than 250 kilometres from Budapest. I started out as a scholarship student at LEGO, where I had the opportunity to stay on as an employee after my student years. It was here that I learned the basics of the tool-making trade, mainly repairing and maintaining tools, but there were no new tools made. After four years I wanted more professionally, so I started looking for a new opportunity, which I soon found at Bekomold Kft. in Budapest. I left everything behind and moved to Budapest, which was a huge change for me. This was 7 years ago. Since then, I have had a secure livelihood and now live a happy family life with my wife and two young children, together with whom we moved into our own house last year.
When I decided to join the company, I had the feeling it would be a good decision professionally because I could do something new; I felt I could do something really good here that I really love. What I used to dismantle and repair, we create ourselves and there is always a challenge associated with every new tool. I should say this is professional heaven. I was totally impressed by what I saw here, everything was really professional, even though I did not come from a small company.
I have so many good memories from the beginning. For example, the experience of assembling my first tool on my own and when it was tested, and I saw the plastic product fall out of it, that was a huge sense of achievement.
Then came along an opportunity for a technologist position, for which I am very grateful to the company.
In a job where primarily engineers are sought, few are given the confidence by the management to prove that they can step up and rise to the occasion.
This was an enormous step forward for me. By the time I was 25, I had gained a lot of knowledge from my colleagues, which I consider indispensable in my current position, and I also make use of this experience in my work. To this day I go back to my former colleagues, the toolmakers, to discuss a lot of things and help each other. Ever since then, I have been constantly evolving professionally because as a technologist I have to view processes in a much more complex way and deal with the theoretical side as well. There is a lot of background work behind the plastic model arriving and eventually becoming the final product. The good thing about technology is that I can see the whole picture. There are always new products and product development needs, so it is always a new professional challenge for me, which I love.
The most memorable moments of my time here so far have been the team-building sessions, the Bekomold Olympics, the joint cookouts that the company organises, and the cooking competition, where our team – with me being the cook – once finished second. Professionally, it was also a great experience to assemble a huge three-piece, stack mould and see it in one piece, and even go to the factory where it was installed to see it in action. This was a new type of pneumatic cap closing device, which closes the open cap before the cap is ejected. This enabled one of our factories in Asia to replace a completely manual workflow and automate this part of the manufacturing process.
Why would you recommend the company to others?
Good benefits and a high-quality working environment. We take care of cleanliness, have a bright, air-conditioned production hall and well-equipped lounges with unlimited coffee and a company parking lot in the yard. The management looks after its employees. It is not often that we make mistakes, but since we are human, sometimes we do. Here we always try to learn from our mistakes so that we improve, and there is not really much retribution. Even though the former familial atmosphere has changed somewhat due to our growth, Bekomold is still a very friendly workplace. And, of course, I definitely need to mention the professional development opportunities, which, based on my own example, are not only a chance to gain knowledge, but also to move forward.
