Working at ZEISS: Research and Development

Shereen Elezaby

Overcome your fears of losing sight

From an Optical Engineer to a Systems Engineering Manager, Shereen leads a large team and one of the most important projects. She and her team help people to overcome their fears of losing sight.

For me and I believe for many more, sight is one of the most precious senses. It’s not merely the sight, it is more the part of experience to see emotions through people’s eyes. People express so many emotions through their eyes. Imagine you could not see, you can’t have the full experience of living. It is exactly the reason why it is so rewarding working at ZEISS. Despite the fact that we are not doctors or surgeons, we help patients and improve their quality of life in a direct way by developing medical devices.

Taking a job offer at ZEISS means that you are not only presented with a job opportunity, but you are presented with a lifetime experience starting with exposure to a variety of corporate functions, different parts of the business and different cultures across the globe, as well as if your leanings are more technical then a company that puts a lot of value on technical expertise and developing and maintaining this technical expertise. With the help of our colleagues all over the world we can provide solutions to complex problems and bring products to market in a fast turnaround. It speaks to our diverse skillsets and ability to provide solutions.

The benefits of having access to opportunities and information from the global team, because everybody has knowledge that is useful to share.

Shereen Elezaby
System Engineer Manager

"There is a tremendous opportunity for growth in any direction that you have proven to be effective and efficient for the company. We are not limited to one option"

Before ZEISS I worked for a small startup company with small teams and we had access to the knowledge of a truly global team. The thought about leaving the start-up-culture and losing the feeling of making a difference made me hesitant to apply and accept a job at a local big company. I was worried about having less self-development and less influence or impact. But nowadays I can say, I am very glad I did it! The highlights of my day are being involved with a lot of different people with different backgrounds and different skill sets. I interact with a lot of different personalities and different needs. And one of the main positives through these interactions is that they help me discover something about myself and my communication style and I help them in accomplishing their goals. We have a variety of qualities that appeal to a broad spectrum of people, which means that we have strong teams with different backgrounds and a different take on how to solve a problem.

Personal and professional growth is learning how to interact within larger teams and understanding effective and efficient ways of communicating so that products move forward. There are several ways of growing in this company. On the one side you can grow personally because you learn for example how to be well integrated within larger teams but on the other side you are also growing technically because you are always learning about new technology or new approaches for engineering and design.

"ZEISS is a great balance between a company focus on generating revenue for its employees, but it is also focused on developing that workforce and making sure they are successful."

A lot of other companies invest a lot of effort and money into trade shows and Marketing. So does ZEISS, but we don’t only place importance on sales trade shows. Of course, at the end of the day we want to generate revenue, but even more important for ZEISS is the development of its employees. So, we put also a lot of importance around technical shows and conferences. ZEISS spends a lot of time, effort and money in developing its employees and helping them present their work to the world.

"What we have here is a long-term strategy that leaves room for truly developing the base of its employees and putting time and effort into having a strong foundation."