As TEW and Business Engineering students, we - Eva and Julie - did a month-long internship at Flexso last summer. Because of the Coronavirus everything went a bit different, but that certainly didn't stop us from making the best of it. Our internship - in COVID times - was a very fascinating and above all unique experience. That is why we are happy to share a few days from our internship diary.
The interview
15 minutes before: Right on time, how exciting! The interview via Teams starts and Grisja and Arne appear on the screen. The stress disappears in no time, thanks to their enthusiasm. After a good conversation about our interests and the possible internships within Flexso, we wrap up, hoping for positive feedback. They will contact us as soon as possible. Nothing else to do than wait and see.
1 week before: Yes, good news! We can both start! We will start at the beginning of August, and even though we can't come to the office because of Covid-19, the internship can continue from home. Talking about flexibility!
Day 1 – what awaits us?
8.30: Time to get up, ready for the big day! A first day would have been easier at the office, but working from home also has its advantages, such as sleeping a bit longer for example 😊
9.00: preparing for our first call. We want to make a good impression!
10.30: Time for our first meeting in Teams. We are welcomed in the company and get more information about Flexso and how they work. We learn that in times of Corona, communication between colleagues is mainly done through Teams and Yammer. This last one is a social media platform such as Facebook, but for companies.
12.00: We complete our Yammer profile and join some interesting groups. There is even a Fun group, in which colleagues keep each other informed about fun facts, activities and other non-work related topics.
14.00: the second meeting of the day starts: this time with Souad, our mentor, who explains us what we will be doing in the coming weeks. The intention is to make a Maturity Assessment – Eva on logistics & warehousing, Julie on Sales & Marketing. We will prepare a questionnaire in which one can choose between 4 maturity levels, each ranging from basic to best-in-class. Customers will then be able to indicate in which level they recognize their company and what their goal is. The next step is for Flexso to look at how they can use SAP to reduce gaps between the current and desired level.
16.00: There is a post on Yammer to wish us good luck with our assignment. Many colleagues take a second to welcome us, which makes us feel at home straight away!
16.30: We plan a phonecall to get to know each other better. We share our motivation and enthusiasm about the internship. “How are you doing on the assignment” and “I have found this piece of research”
Day 15 – time flies, we are halfway there!
9.00: We start the day with a meeting with Koen, one of Flexso’s experts in logistics and sales. The right moment to ask all our questions. We get extra explanations and a lot of new insights.
10.30: On to the next meeting! This time, we go our separate ways. Eva has aa meeting with Simon, specialized in warehousing. Julie calls with Marjolein, the go-to person for all your customer experience related questions!
14.00: Time to process all this information. We had already completed the search for the main processes of the maturity assessments. Now we have to complete the KPI’s within each process to determine the different maturity levels of each KPI.
16.00: We have to update our supervisor Arne. We still had a few questions, but thanks to his good help, we can continue with what we were doing. Next week is our last week, time to dot the i's and t's.
Working from home taught us that good communication is key, flexibility is a luxury and responsibility is essential to complete your tasks.
Day 20 – the end of a fantastic intership
That was it, our last day. Wow, how those weeks have flown by! We have learned a lot and are very grateful for the excellent guidance. Of course, our internship did not take place like other years, and due to working from home we could not fully taste the atmosphere within a consultancy company in all its facets.
Arne had already provided us with some e-learnings from SAP, which we obviously followed with great interest. The last day we organised a real Q&A session, in which larger issues were solved. We got more information about Design Thinking, and Arne explained to us how a career within IT consultancy is formed. A perfect ending to an almost unusual internship, no doubt!
We are going to enjoy another month of holidays. Satisfied, because we have had another wonderful experience. Of course, we could not leave without leaving a little gift!
Also interested in an internship at Flexso? Make sure to keep an eye on our vacancies!
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