Maureen Smeenk | Faces of FEB
The Faculty of Economics and Business is a faculty with great diversity of people. But who are these people? Within ‘Faces of FEB’ we talk to different students of the faculty and give a little peek into the world of these FEB students. This week: Maureen Smeenk, who will be starting her internship at Nestlé soon. We talk about how she managed to find herself an internship during these uncertain times.
Written by Jessica Paas
Could you tell me a little bit about yourself?
Hi, my name is Maureen, 23 years old and I grew up in Zeist. When I started studying, I moved to Groningen to get my bachelor degree in business administration. After finishing my bachelor degree in 2018, I was a board member of the ‘Stichting Groninger Studenten Cabaret Festival’. In september I started with my master Marketing Management and in november I decided to also participate in the International Business Research (IBR) project, which is why it will take me a little bit longer to finish off my master’s degree.
How did the corona virus influence these plans?
The plan with IBR was to go to Vietnam in April for 10 weeks to do field research for the Royal Schiphol Group. I worked hard the past few months to prepare for this field research, so when the corona situation got out of hand I really feared for our trip. Eventually, due to the coronavirus our client, Schiphol, pulled the plug. I was so bummed about this, since I even temporarily stopped with my master degree for this project. Therefore, my group and I contacted Schiphol again and asked whether we could still help them with a case in the Netherlands. Maybe something with which they now deal due to the corona situation. We convinced them this was a good plan. Schiphol gave us a totally different case from the original plan, in which we could still mean something to them.
So, eventually the situation brought new interesting opportunities?
That’s for sure. I even managed to arrange an internship during these times!
That is impressive. Wasn’t it hard with the current situation?
Actually, it wasn’t that bad. I knew I wanted to do an internship at a big company to gain marketing experience. I have heard great stories about some interesting companies from friends and that is why I just wrote to these companies to ask about the opportunities. This led to some invitations and eventually I was accepted to do an internship at Nestlé Purina (the petcare department).
How did this job interview take place? Was this very different from how it normally goes?
Normally we would have a selecting day at Nestlé. However, they now have changed this to a digital environment. I got several links that lead me to different virtual ‘rooms’. The first link directed me to a general meeting in which the HR department gave a presentation about the company. After that I got three different links, which directed me to three job interviews with several brand managers from different departments. The conversations within these job interviews were not very different from what it normally would be. For these interviews you really need to prepare, so beforehand I wrote some ideas down on paper. However, since it was digital, I could use these papers during the interview. These are the perks of having an online job interview!
Why did you decide to do an internship?
At the university we read so many articles and learn a wide range of academic skills. However, I do not have the feeling that I have much practical experience. I have no idea how it really works within a company, because I have never experienced something like that. This is why I also do not know what direction I would like to take within Marketing. So, I decided it would be a good opportunity for me to combine the master’s degree with an internship, to discover the many possibilities within the workfield.
What would you advise students that might think these things are not possible these times?
I would say to them that there is always something that you can do. Due to Corona some things may be cancelled, but now we can use this time to either invest in ourselves or start helping others. A friend of mine for example started helping refugees with the dutch language. These are lovely projects you can pick up. I used the time more to develop myself. I learned how to do job interviews and how to prepare for them. This will come in handy when I need to search for a job next year! So, whatever time you have left over, there is always something you can pick up. This corona situation may have an impact on all our lives, but it opens up many new opportunities as well.
| Last modified: | 31 January 2021 3.57 p.m. |