Diego applied for a master’s degree in engineering informatics for which he was accepted – along with an invitation to attend German language classes. To start his degree, B2 level German was required. As it took five months for the German consulate in Mexico to issue his visa, he used that time to attend language classes at the Goethe Institute. In November 2008 he finally arrived in Ilmenau, where he attended more language classes and finally began his degree in September 2009.

“I had a great time in Ilmenau”, he says. The university had an open and international atmosphere. “I made a point of making friends with Germans”, he explains. To learn the language better, he joined a theatre group and got involved in team sports. “People in Germany are generally more reserved than they are in Mexico. It takes time for them to open up, but after that, very close friendships can develop.”

During his degree, Diego worked as a student assistant and helped develop an app for the use of electric cars. Through this project, he made contact with a solar company where he wrote his master’s thesis about a photovoltaic app. In 2011, he was offered a permanent job by the company as a developer. In 2014, he moved to Siemens in Fürth and began developing his career in the field of automation and digitalisation.

Diego currently works on Human Machine Interfaces (HMIs), which enable connections to be established between people and machines. He is especially proud of a world innovation that he played a significant role in developing: SIMATIC Unified Air, a wireless HMI application. “It’s like a bridge between machines and people”, he explains. The technology enables contactless interactions with machines and can be used with mobile devices such as smartphones. He also won a prize for this innovation.

“My advantage was that I came here at 22 and succeeded in settling in so well”, explains Diego, who now speaks fluent German. “I’ll never be completely German, but I don’t want to be.” He enjoys bringing his two cultures together, as it were. In 2017 he secured German citizenship. He now lives with his German partner and they are expecting their first child. “Germany has become my home”, he explains.

His most important tip for skilled workers from abroad: “Learn the language as quickly as you can, that’s hugely important.” Studying for a degree is an ideal starting point, as you meet people with shared interests and make new friends more easily. He also advises against having big plans to achieve everything at once: “I’ve always set myself new goals on a step-by-step basis. First the language classes, then the degree, then a job...”