Week 18 - internship

My last internship assignment!

My supervisor is currently on vacation hence the reason I can't post it here yet.

Of course I will put it here as soon as possible when he's back.

Luckily there are some other topics to present today, although because my internship is in The Netherlands I won't be able to answer them correctly.

First of all I feel relieved I'm finally finishing my second internship. 4 months is quite a while.

At the other side I'm not leaving yet, since I'll continue to work here until I go to Japan.

We just made a contract for me to keep working here for 3/4 days a week.

Anyway, I cannot wait to go to Japan. Normally the lasts days of an internship would be the end of the journey in Asia but for me its the beginning. So ye, instead of missing it I'm starting to look forward to it. Naturally I will come back on this at the end of my stay in Asia but that's for later in my case.

With this I will end todays blog post.

CPhI fair + OYC Meeting Manhatten Hotel

This post isn't about any of my assignments but rather about some interesting events I participated into.

A few weeks ago I went to Frankfurt, Germany with my colleagues.

The reason being was the CPhI fair. It's one of the biggest Pharmaceutical fairs in the world.

We arrived in the evening by car. Since we were stuck in the traffic jam it took us 8 hours instead of 4 which was a bit of a setback.

Nonetheless we were glad that we finally arrived in Frankfurt. We stayed at the Sheraton Hotel at the Airport.

The next day the fair (Messe in german) started and I was amazed at the extent of the buildings. There were multiple buildings and each building was enormous to say the least. We had our own booth

to showcase our company. I noticed how many chinese companies were participating. Most of them very small but their numbers exceeding my expectations by far.

I will show some pictures we took during the event:

It was a very nice experience for me, as this was the first time for me I had the chance to go to a fair like this.

Something else which is also worthwhile to mention is the meeting we had in the Manhatten Hotel with the presidents of OYC Japan and OYC Americas.

To be in a meeting with such high placed people was very interesting and and nice to experience. I even had to present some of my work.

After the meeting we went to Las Palmas, the restaurant of Herman den Blijker, which is very famous (and expensive).

I loved the food there so all in all, it was an awesome day!

I've also made a video compilation, I'll try to put it on here soon.

Week 12 internship

This is week 12 already of my internship, time sure goes fast.

I'll just get straight to the point, how did I get assignments from someone in the company?

STAR:

Situation: Ali approaches me and says what I need to do as a new assignment

Tasks : I need to create a new brochure

Activities: I talked with different colleagues for the information I needed to put in the brochure.

After having the necessarily information I was able to create the brochure. Once done it had to be revised and checked multiple times before getting printed out. After completing the final version I had to get into contact with a print company and guide it in good lines so it would be done in time.

Result: After getting the sample it had to be revised a few more times but in the end it was done just in time.

What would I do the same and what would I do differently?

The way I gathered information and made the brochure I would have done the same.

What I would do differently is the time management. It was done just in time, in fact, the morning before we left to the fair in germany we received the brochures. In order to be sure to have it in time it's better to send it out to the print company more in advance.

What did I say when I didn't share the same opinion with someone?

Situation: We were discussing how we would make the second brochure.

Task: To make the second brochure

Acitvities: My colleague said I should add more into this brochure and make it 12 pages long.

However because I had a deadline to make I could't agree to this since there was a high possibility that it wouldn't be finished in time and then everything would have been in vain.

Result: We ended up having a brochure consisting of 8 pages and a leaflet instead of a bochure with 12 pages + it was finished on time.

What would I do the same and what would I do differently?

Depending on the time I have, if the deadline wasn't as close I would follow up what I had been asked. If not, I would do everything the same.

How did you coop with assignments which couldn't be executed because an important condition was missing

N/A, every assignment given to me I was able to accomplish.

How did you prevent from getting only annoying tasks?

This was never an issue since the company I'm doing my internship at only give tasks to interns that are worth doing and actually add something to the organization.

How do you coop with your limited knowledge of the language?

Never an issue either since I'm doing my internship in The Netherlands.

Week 9 internship

Good morning,

With excitement I present you my third post.

Today I will be talking about the conversation with my mentor, also known as Ali Fenwick.

So what has been discussed with my conversation with Ali?

We mainly talked about how I have been doing so far, my strong my points, my points for improvement and what I would like to learn here.

My main task is to completely rebrand the whole organization basically.

Not an easy task if I may say so myself. I think I have mentioned this is my previous post but up until now OYC EU didn't have a proper image. Rebranding includes: Logo, looks, the feeling people get by seeing OYC, brochures, banners, you name it.

It basically comes down to that I need to make everything attractive for our customers. Not to mention I get many assignments so I need to plan it well and work good together with my colleagues in order to make the deadline.

Also worth noticing is the word that is most likely one of the most important, if not THE most important word for OYC, "consistency".

I've learnt that it's very important to have everything in one line, so that your customers instantly know who you are. This goes for not only the looks but also for the text. It's a must that everything is written in the same style and the usage of certain words that apply to that specific target group.

My personal development points were to improve my marketing and communication skills, and the later on added leadership skills.

So how is the situation now?

Well, as far as goes my tasks, I have a good feeling about it and so does Ali.

So far he's very pleased about my work and even wants me to continue to work at OYC after

finishing my internship, which is certainly a good sign.

My personal development is also going in the right direction. I feel the communication is improving a lot and I'm becoming more aware of my target group. Also my responsibility for the work I do is growing and I feel more and more that I need to take care of it e.g. directing it in the right way, in other words, leadership.

As for the positive aspects in my working, I think I already mentioned that but I will

sum it up once more:

- a better understanding of the business

- more communicating with my colleagues

- satisfying feedback on my work

- feeling more responsibility

Some points of improvement:

- being more aware of deadlines. Even though I will make it, I still feel too many things are done on the last moment, this can certainly be improved.

- able to give others tasks so that I won't get any delay. Sometimes I wait a bit too long with giving people tasks so that I can continue with my work, I should be faster on this.

My goals still remain the same, I do not feel I need to adjust them.

Week 5 internship

This post will be about the interaction with my colleagues, my capability's and my development.

First things first, how is the interaction between the employees in OYC Europe?

Well, as I see it, the atmosphere is fairly informal, which makes the interaction also more informal than formal.

When people greet each other it's just like you would do with anyone else you know. There's no distinction between between the higher and lower positions either. Everyone gets treated the same.

When asking for some feedback or if you have some question you just say ask it without even leaving your chair, since we aren't exactly working in a big office. And again, everything is very informal including asking someone for something, regardless of the position.

When there are differences of opinions they just listen to it first and try to understand why someone says that without jumping to conclusions. When the person is finished the other person says how he feels about it and eventually they try either convince or get an agreement with each other. They take a lot of time especially in meetings to explain certain things if it isn't clear so that there aren't any misunderstandings.

If someone has done a "good job" they will certainly get to hear it. Most of the time if not all the time you get praised for when you've done your work well. The same goes for when you haven't really listened and didn't do what you have been asked to do. The manager will let you notice so you will do it better next time.

As far as rules and procedures go, it's not really strict. We have of course some house rules but that's basically it. No one really crosses the line even without taking the rules and procedures in mind.

Interaction situation:

We were in a meeting and I was explaining what I had done so far. It went alright however the interaction could have gone a lot better if I had some visual material to show, since no matter how good you can describe things, it won't be as good as when you show it.

What you can learn from this is that interaction doesn't always has to be just "talk", it can be so much more.

Now more about my capability's and development.

My capability's are that I'm very creative, I can easily come up with my own ideas and give my own view on things. I think this is very important for OYC Europe since they want to distinct themselves from their competitors. Especially now that they want and whole different look and feel. This is where I come in, helping them with their image.

Furthermore, I'm a good team player, working together with everyone goes rather smoothly even though I have yet to show my capability's to lead more, but I'll come back to that later on.

Also, when I work I'm very focused on my task, trying to finish it no matter what. I want to succeed and have it done, not saying at the end that I couldn't finish it, which is definitely something I want to avoid.

As last, Im very eager to learn new things and open for everything.

The question now is, what is going to be difficult and easy for me?

The difficult part will definitely be the leading part, taking the lead and be proactive.

This is something I still have to work on. I do feel that I have improved however it's still not quite the level I want it to be on.

As for the easy part, I'm good in what I do, the work they give me that is. So far I've been able to get things done quite well if I may say so myself.

For my personal development I want to improve my weak points obviously.

I want to work to the point that I have no problems whatsoever to step up and take the lead when needed. I've said in my previous post that I want to improve my marketing and communication skills, but taking the lead can be added to that as well now, or so I feel.

So far week 5 of my internship, stay tuned for my next post! (:

Week 1 internship

Hello, welcome to my blog about my 3rd / 4rd year of Trade Management aimed at Asia aka TMA. It's about my study and internship in Japan however because of certain circumstances I'll do my internship in The Netherlands.

That being said, as I'm not yet in Japan I'll mainly write about my internship here for now.

The internship I'm doing is called OYC europe (Oriental Yeast Company).

website: www.oyceu.com

Short description: OYC Europe is a wholly owned subsidiary of Oriental Yeast CO,. Ltd. (OYC Japan), who is one of the world's largest manufacturers of biochemical products.

The first week was mostly an introduction week. I met most employees and was being told what OYC is for kind of company. Ali, the marketing and sales manager, who is also my supervisor, wanted me to get the feeling of OYC Europe so I deepened myself in the background of OYC Europe but also what they are doing right now.

After learning more of the company we talked about my tasks I could do here.

The focus would be on marketing and a bit logistics.

First assignment I got was that I was responsible for the company's housestyle.

Since OYC Eu hasn't got a housestyle yet, they wanted me to create one.

Ali told me it needs to fit in the company's image and easy recognizable for their customers.

The first thing that had to be done was the brochure, we discussed in a meeting with everyone some ideas for the brochure and what the content should be. They also showed me their new website which is still in the making to get a better look at the new style.

After that I started working on the brochure. As for the brochures, there will be 4 different ones. Namely: the Raw Material Pack, OEM Reagents, Singular products and as last but not least, Services.

The range of products is rather wide and complicated, so it will take some time before I'm aware of all the ins and outs.

Furthermore, I discussed with the supervisor (Ali) about the evaluation and the internship assignments. From time to time I'll have a talk with him about how I do and how I can improve.

My personal development points I want to realize are my communication skills and marketing skills. I feel that these two points are the most important right now.

Making contact with the other employees is fairly easy as we all work in 1 room. There are three table islands and I'm sitting in the middle one so communicating with everyone is really easy. In the beginning Ali already let me talk with everyone separately to get to know them better and so they get to know me better as well.

I can already get along well together with my colleagues.

Concerning working here, I have done already quite some research about the company itself and have been told by Ali about it as well. I have showed him some of my work already and he and the others seem satisfied with it so far. I think it will go well.