When Sebastian Schmidt began his apprenticeship in 2004, he had one goal above all: to learn as much as possible and work independently. At the time, there was no way of knowing that this path would one day lead him to the role of Group Director. Since then, he has built his entire career at Serviceware.
Sebastian Schmidt has been with Serviceware for 22 years. He started as an apprentice, and today, as Group Director, he and his management team are responsible for a large portion of the company’s service divisions: IT & IT Security, Managed Services, and Customer Support, as well as the Infrastructure Professional Services & Sales Engineering division. His story shows that a career at Serviceware doesn’t necessarily require changing employers.
His First Day as an Apprentice at the IT Company
Sebastian still remembers his first day on the job vividly. What immediately struck him was the combination of a family-like yet professional corporate culture. He sensed this from the very first moment, a feeling reinforced by the other IT apprentices from different cohorts. On his very first day, he was thrown right into his first training project.
“We learned an incredible amount, were given responsibility early on, and – with the right motivation and passion – were able to contribute productively at all times. As a result, we experienced a sense of accomplishment right from the start and were given a great deal of trust in our abilities,” Sebastian reports.
Compared to apprentices at other companies, he was able to gain significantly more knowledge and hands-on experience as a result.
Even during his apprenticeship, Sebastian could already envision a long-term future at Serviceware. For him, it was clear “from the very beginning.” The deciding factors were the ongoing opportunities for growth, the close-knit team, the chance to grow alongside the company, and people who shared his motivation and were fully engaged in their work.
From Trainee to Group Director: Key Milestones
After completing his apprenticeship, Sebastian started as an IT Security Consultant and Sales Engineer. This was followed by several roles with increasing responsibility:
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Responsibility for internal IT and the training of new IT apprentices
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Assuming responsibility for the Customer Support & Managed Service departments
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Building the company’s own cloud and SaaS infrastructure
- Took over the Professional Services organization in the Infrastructure Services division
He describes his journey from apprentice to manager to Group Director not as a series of individual leaps, but as a continuous process:
“A fluid, steady progression, new challenges, and personal growth.”
At the start of his career, he hadn’t planned on becoming a Group Director. His goal, however, was always clearly defined: to work with maximum autonomy and to be successful every day in what he does.
Responsibilities as Group Director at Serviceware Today
A typical workday for Sebastian is marked by numerous coordination efforts, decisions, and supporting colleagues in his areas of responsibility, supplemented by planning and development tasks for his teams. He summarizes his core responsibility as follows: making decisions and working with his teams to develop solutions to challenges – always with an eye toward the division’s continued growth.
He sums up the qualities needed to rise to a leadership position at Serviceware as follows:
“Commitment and passion for the job, combined with the desire to continuously develop.”
Support and Trust as Career Drivers
When asked how Serviceware has supported his development, Sebastian cites three factors:
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first-class training
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a great deal of trust, and
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the opportunity to take on a lot of responsibility early on.
He was particularly influenced by the current CEO, Dirk Martin, who was also his trainer at the time – a fact that brings the company’s open, development-oriented culture to life: Those who start as trainees can still work closely, decades later, with the very same people who have guided their careers from the very beginning.
20 Years of Change – and What Has Remained
Over the past two decades, Serviceware has changed significantly: As the company has continued to grow, its structure has inevitably evolved as well. What particularly impresses Sebastian is that, despite all the changes, Serviceware has managed to preserve its corporate DNA – regardless of whether the company had 50 or 500 employees.
Summed up in three words, this is how he describes Serviceware:
“We live service!”
Conclusion
Sebastian’s career illustrates the kind of growth possible within Serviceware: from an apprentice through various technical and leadership roles to Group Director. His journey is not a predetermined career path, but a personal example of how commitment, trust, and early responsibility can work together. This was made possible by a corporate culture that has retained its family-like core even during periods of strong growth.
