Dini: “communicate, seek for help, and never isolate yourself.”

Dini Pi is an international MSc student from China.  She graduated in Supply Chain Management. With the support of the Careers Company she managed to get an internship at IMS in Veendam from 1 June to 31 Augustus 2013.  Her assignment was to write a Business Report of South Asia Market Exploration.

Dini Pi did an internship at IMS in Veendam

IMS Veendam is one of the few logistics providers who offer a fully intermodal solution in North Netherlands. With a modern warehouse in Veendam, IMS offers customers multiple solutions for storage and handling of goods. And IMS helps customers transport the goods by the use of a combination of barges, trains and trucks to European hinterland. The main customers of IMS are local companies, the biggest two of which are Friesland Campina and Avebe. There are two reasons why IMS plans to explore the Southeast Asian market. First, increasing numbers of Southeast Asian companies invest in the Netherlands in recent years. These companies seek for different services to develop the business, e.g. logistics, law, finance, etc. IMS is an ambitious company and has ambitions to expand the business. IMS believes it’s an exact chance to increase the sales by involving the Southeast Asian customers. Second, Friesland Campina, one of their two biggest customers, will finish the construction of their own logistics system in two years. That means IMS will face a risk of losing sales.

My task is to analyze the Southeast Asian companies in Europe and exploring the possibility to cooperate with these customers.

Why did you choose to do an internship?

I had learned supply chain management for one and half year since I decided to search for an internship. I had read tons of theories, cases and believed that I had sense of supply chain field and believed that I could improve the performance of a company by enhancing its supply chain. So I really wanted to engage myself into a real company and applied the theory in a company. Furthermore, I think that the experiences of internship will prepare me better in the labour market and make my CV more attractive to the future employers.

How did you find/get the internship?

I registered myself to the mailinglist of Careers Company of FEB. They sent several available vacancies to my gmail box every Thursday. One Thursday, there was a logistic company looking for an analyst, and I thought this would be a good opportunity for me. So I sent my CV to Elise Kamphuis of the Careers Company and she helped me contact the logistic company.

How did you manage in a foreign country when you didn't speak the language?

The logistic company is a quit local company, and the staff are Dutch. After the first day in the company, I felt very exhausted because I was very nervous and l could feel lots people were curious about me and talking about me as I was the only foreigner. The next day, I tried to communicate with the staff and I found they were really helpful and warmhearted. So my suggestion is to communicate, to seek for help, and never isolate yourself.

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