In March 2021, Yasmine and Tina, two innovation students from the Erasmus University, joined us at Suivo for a six-week internship. As well as sharing their innovation knowledge, Yasmine and Tina learnt more about putting their innovation skills into practice.
How was your first day ?
Yasmine: On the first day we were welcomed by Rein, part of the marketing team and our internship mentor. I was very excited, but also a little nervous about what was waiting for us. Rein quickly put us at ease, answering all our questions, and giving us a list of tasks to complete over the following six weeks. The adventure could finally start!
Tina: It was great that we could go to the office on our first day as it gave us the opportunity to wee the company close up, even there weren’t many people there. Rein gave us a great overview of the company and explained our tasks well. When we got home that afternoon we could start right away.
What is it like to follow an internship at Suivo?
Tina: Neither of us have done an internship before, so we don’t have anything to compare it to. But this internship has been a great experience. I got the opportunity to work independently on ideas from start to finish. Even during Corona, it has been a very welcoming and informative experience. We’ve both learnt a lot thanks to Suivo, for example, I discovered a whole new world of asset tracking, time registration, check-in at work, and API-registrations that I had never heard about before.
Yasmine: At first, I was a bit nervous that it would be difficult because I had never heard about GIS technology and asset tracking, but Rein explained everything really well and I’m glad I pursued an internship at Suivo and seen the innovative technology that Suivo uses.
At university we get course on digital transformation and discuss the Internet of Things and Google Analytics. At Suivo, I had the chance to see what these terms actually mean for companies.
Suivo was also very welcoming. I’ve worked as a student in a couple of other companies, and I haven’t always felt as appreciated as I did at Suivo. They were always open to our ideas, giving us the opportunity to work them out. They also gave us some responsibility and asked for our input on existing and new projects.
What did you learn?
Yasmine: I learnt a lot. Firstly, I learnt how SMEs work. I always thought employees would be very formal with each other, but that’s not the case at Suivo. One day we were in the office and everyone was chatting and joking with each other.
Rein also gave us responsibilities, including sending emails to customers and colleagues. We were given the freedom to contact whoever we needed to in order to complete our tasks. This helped me to improve my communication skills when interacting with others.
At university everything is very theoretical, making it very idealistic. At Suivo, I learnt that it isn’t as easy as you’d think to motivate your team and convince them that a chance will improve their work life.
Suivo also taught me that I’d love to work for an SME when I finish studying. Everyone is informal and friendly to each other, and Suivo has been a lovely place to work. I believe I’d wake up happy to work in a company like this. I think it’s also easier to make a difference in a small company compared to a multinational.
Tina: I learnt a lot about being an innovator within an SME. It’s been great tackling problems that Suivo doesn’t always have the time to investigate as they’re constantly expanding. Creating solutions that will be used gives me a feeling of accomplishment and validation, more than I get from the tasks we do at university to learn about these topics.
I also expanded my knowledge of GIS companies. On our first day, Rein explained how different companies use their products. For example, it’s very important for a transport company to be able to follow their assets using track and trace technology. I also learnt about Check-in-at-work, something I had never heard about before.
What is an internship in corona like?
Tina: It’s very different to work from home without the pre-corona work experience. I hope we can work in an office during our next internship next year. But even when working at home, I felt very welcome at Suivo and I’ve learnt a lot. Suivo encourages good communication between colleagues, making it easy for me to plan interviews and talk to colleagues, even if I had never met them before.
Yasmine: While there are advantages and disadvantages, I think I would have preferred to have my internship outside of Corona. It can be demotivating to work from home, and I find it a pity that I didn’t get to meet as many employees as I would have done in the office. It’s harder to become part of the company when you are working from home. Luckily, we could do the internship together, so we could call each other during the day. And, Rein still gave us a good learning experience.
How is your work going?
Yasmine: Our tasks from both our university and Rein are going well. They’re helping us to put our theory into practice, making it a very good learning experience. And, Rein’s experience is helping us to learn even more.
I’m glad we chose to do our internship at Suivo. They are active in innovation, and still have a lot of potential to grow. Thanks to this, we got a lot of tasks in different fields. I found their product range to be very innovative and following a lot of current trends. It’s amazing to see how a company like Suivo can help other companies overcome the challenges they encounter.
Tina: The tasks have been great. It’s important for us to put everything we’ve learnt into practice, and Suivo has definitely given us the opportunity to do that. As well as the tasks we had to do for university, we also had a range of versatile tasks from Suivo. From making videos and writing articles to doing research and listening to interesting webinars, Rein ensured we learnt a lot about IoT and GIS technology.
