The Building Specialist
Jennifer Grabsch takes care of real estate in Adlershof
She remembers the surprised looks and confused inquiries from when she was still at university: “I had to explain again and again what I was studying.” Facility management – isn’t that just a euphemism for becoming a caretaker?
When Jennifer Grabsch starts talking about the every-day requirements of her job, those suspicions are soon averted. They include business, technical and scientific expertise. It also helps to have some knowledge of building and public procurement laws. It is crucial to be able to assess calculations and quotas from third-party companies. Hailing from Kaulsdorf, she went to the HTW University of Applied Sciences in Schöneweide for three years, where she crammed her head with physics, chemistry and mathematics and gained experience in the various aspects of facility management on the side.
She worked in shifts for a company that was responsible for the maintenance of lifts and escalators in residential and commercial buildings – and saving the odd person locked in a faulty lift. She worked for a planning office for technical building services and got to know the intricacies of construction management from the call for tender to accepting construction work. She has since become very good at comparing. In August 2017, she started working as a student assistant for AFM Adlershof Facility Management GmbH, which is responsible for many buildings in the Science and Technology Park. A technology park is a challenge, she says, but one she really appreciates: “Laboratories for one are extremely interesting.”
This is the 30-year-old’s second career. After graduating from high school, she originally completed a traineeship as a legal assistant, but after working as a clerk and PA for a company lawyer, she felt she had hit the dead end of her career. “I didn’t have the opportunity to improve my skills.” She convinced herself to give up her permanent position: “I knew that my strengths lie in organisation and coordination.” And with that, her choice of university course was taken care of.
We ask her, how many women were among the 83 employees of AFM? “I am the only one in the technical department.” It was in Adlershof, which a colleague recommended to her, who was “very happy there”, that the working student discovered a topic for her BA thesis: the potential for optimising operations of laboratory buildings - a 100-page opus that she put to paper in two months.
Her passion for playing football came up short. Grabsch is a member of 1. FC Union, owns a season ticket and is one of three women to play on her fan club’s team. She also fondly remembers practising the Asian martial art Tae Bo, which she also had to put on hold. Then there’s her garden plot in Köpenick. With springtime around the corner, work there starts soon.
By Winfried Dolderer for Adlershof Journal