One of the busiest moments during your studies, an internship. There are two major internship periods among HBO students, one in September and the other in February. For these internship periods of often 20 weeks, it is sometimes difficult to choose a good internship. But many MBO studies also have an internship period and there are also other internship periods in HBO. Greenjobs.nl like to share these stories about how to make impact with your internship. Greenjobs.nl likes to share these stories about how to make impact with your internship.
How to make impact with your internship
As a student, you can choose to give this more impact by doing a sustainable internship. For this blog Greenjobs.nl spoke to a number of interns who have made this choice and have gone for an internship in the sustainable sector at the companies MKB Brandstof, Pieter Pot, Soly, Unwaste and Greenjobs.nl. Greenjobs.nl also spoke to a student who chose to take a part-time job at Too Good To Go in addition to her studies, in order to be involved with sustainability at a younger age.
After reading this blog, did you get the itch to make an impact with your job or internship? Then choose a sustainable internship, job or even study! At Greenjobs.nl we have a wide choice of sustainable jobs and internships!
🌳Tessa about her internship with Pieter Pot
Pieter Pot is an initiative of a group of driven people, who want to prove that sustainable, sexy and easy are sometimes the same. That you can do your shopping without buying packaging. That you live more sustainably, without hassle.
1. What is your name? What are you studying? And at which college/university are you following this study?
My name is Tessa. I am currently doing my Masters in Business Analytics & Management at Erasmus University.
2. Why did you choose to do a sustainable internship?
For my thesis I have to apply data analytics at a company, which I wanted to do at a company that makes an impact in the field of sustainability. What appeals to me about this is that all employees have the same goal in mind, namely making packaging-free the norm in Pieter Pot's case. Working together towards such a goal means that everyone comes to work with a lot of motivation and willpower to change something, which gives a special energy. Everyone takes responsibility because we believe we can change the system.
3. What are your tasks during your internship? And what have you learned so far?
I am writing my thesis for the Sales & Operations Planning team, focusing on forecasting demand for Pieter Pot. In addition, I work two days a week in the S&OP team. What I especially learned is how to communicate and manage expectations between different teams. Of course we all want to grow as fast as possible in order to make an impact, but this must be feasible from within the operation.
4. What impact can you make with your internship and with Pieter Pot?
I think it is slowly becoming clear to many people that we need to change something to ensure that the planet remains livable for the next generations. More and more companies such as Pieter Pot are showing that the sustainable choice can also be fun and easy, making it increasingly attractive to consumers. Last week we even reached the limit of 2 million saved packaging!
🌳Larissa about her internship at Soly
Soly was founded with one goal: to make solar energy available to everyone. They seize the challenges of the energy transition with both hands to be able to enjoy cheap, climate-neutral and decentralized energy as quickly as possible.
1. What is your name? What are you studying? And at which college/university are you following this study?
My name is Larissa and I am in my third year of HRM at Hanze University of Applied Sciences.
2. Why did you choose to do a sustainable internship?
I chose to do an internship at a sustainable company, because sustainability will be very important in recent years and in the future. This aroused my interest and Soly also seemed like a very nice company to me.
3. What are your tasks during your internship? And what have you learned so far?
I myself do an internship at the People & Culture department and I am involved in recruiting new employees, drawing up agreements/contracts and I have some administrative tasks. This is of course not all and besides that I have only just started this internship, so there will certainly be many more fun assignments and tasks.
4. What impact can you make with your internship and with Soly?
Soly is a B Corp organization. Sustainable entrepreneurship is therefore central to Soly. This is of course very important for society and I am happy that I can contribute to this during my internship. If I look at my internship itself, I will look at the sustainable employability of the employees and that is also an important point for a sustainable organization.
🌳Jeroen about his internship at Unwaste
Unwaste believes in a world where waste does not exist and where all organic by-products produced by humans have a valuable function. In short: waste is too beautiful to throw away, which is why they make delicious soaps from it. According to Unwaste, you can make a daily impact with daily waste. Their goal is therefore to turn one kilo of waste into one kilo of Unwaste product.
1. What is your name? What are you studying? And at which college/university are you following this study?
My name is Jeroen and I am 25 years old. I am studying CMD (Communication Multimedia & Design). My study consists of communication, marketing and especially creation.
2. Why did you choose to do a sustainable internship?
I chose a sustainable internship, because first and foremost I also have an affinity with sustainability. I eat little to no meat, I often try to take a cold shower instead of a hot shower and I pay attention to the reuse of products. Furthermore, Unwaste is still a start-up, which means that I get a lot of creative freedom to use my own personal skills. I believe in Unwaste's story and I think they are unique in this regard from its competition.
3. What are your tasks during your internship? And what have you learned so far?
I am doing an independent graduation project. In this way I am working according to the 4 steps of CMD: Research, create, test and deliver. At the moment I am in the research phase and I have encountered a lot of relevant insights, which form the basis for my further process! In terms of personal development, I have learned quite a bit in 3 weeks: Making a question concrete so that I can use someone's time as efficiently as possible, indicating and daring to say honestly if I personally think something is not working and setting it up of a good planning per day and also achieve these goals.
4. What impact can you make with your internship and with Unwaste?
I have passed for myself and Unwaste when I can convincingly visualize Unwaste's brand statement to customers and that even more people purchase products from Unwaste. I also want to realize the following positive impact on a thought or quote from many people: 'Waste is dirty and unusable'
🌳Jet about her side job at Too Good To Go
Too Good To Go's mission is to inspire and motivate everyone to take action against food waste. Too Good To Go is part of the B Corp community, which means that they have a certified B Corp certificate. You can find more about Too Good To Go on the blog about sustainable apps!
1. What is your name? What are you studying? And at which college/university are you following this study?
My name is Jet, I am a fourth year language and culture studies student at the University of Utrecht with a focus on conflict studies and postcolonial studies.
2. Why did you choose to do a sustainable internship?
Although my study in itself is not dominated by sustainability, it is something I have been working on for a while now. In my second year I did a sustainability project and my thesis that I am currently working on is also largely about the effects of climate change. A job within a sustainable organization was therefore a good choice for me, to be more practical in making an impact in this way.
3. What are your tasks during your internship? And what have you learned so far?
As a student sales specialist you are involved in connecting new independent stores. So in one day you are approaching bakers, butchers, fishmongers, but also hotels and gas stations. You try to explain the solution that Too Good To Go offers as well as possible and in this way try to enthuse, inspire and activate entrepreneurs to work with us. In addition, you also work with an entrepreneur for a short time to start the collaboration. I always think this is a nice process because you can really build a relationship with an entrepreneur and it's good to see that they are enthusiastic about Too Good To Go! I learned a lot about the sales process within Too Good To Go. I now fully understand how the system works for consumers and entrepreneurs. In addition, I also learned a lot about food waste and where we can still gain a lot.
4. What impact can you make with your internship?
I started in September, but in that short period of time I have already been able to help 17 entrepreneurs to save 1078 meals together, that is about 2695 kg of saved CO2! Although I try to do my bit in my personal life to combat food waste and climate change, it is great to do something about it in my part-time job and to see clear figures!
🌳Bente about her internship at Greenjobs.nl
Greenjob.nl's mission is to make the business community and government future-proof and to help more people find a sustainable job. They do this by inspiring, motivating and activating people to switch to a job in the sustainable industry. Greenjobs.nl is the largest sustainable job board in the Netherlands and often works with interns. In November 2021, Bente Vijzelaar started her internship at Greenjobs.nl.
1. What is your name? What are you studying? And at which college/university are you following this study?
My name is Bente and I am studying Creative Business at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam.
2. Why did you choose to do a sustainable internship?
I myself was not yet very familiar with the concept of sustainability and everything that goes with it, but when I came into contact with Greenjobs.nl via LinkedIn, I started reading. I found out that Greenjobs.nl has a great mission and that by doing an internship here, I could make more impact than with another internship.
3. What are your tasks during your internship? And what have you learned so far?
So far I've done research (trends, competitors, hashtags etc.), made Instagram posts (vacancy alerts and other work related posts), Instagram stories (sustainable hotspots and dilemmas), made a poster for schools, made social media calendar , wrote blogs and created newsletters in Mailchimp.
So far I've learned that you can't just make something and post it on the social media channels. You have to take into account rights, relevance, conflicting interests, matching hashtags and so on. It is therefore important to always have everything checked by someone!
4. What impact can you make with your internship at Greenjobs.nl?
With my internship I can contribute to a greater reach for Greenjobs.nl through social media, newsletters and posters. The more people discover Greenjobs.nl, the more people will be inspired to pursue a sustainable career. This way I contribute to a more beautiful, better and above all more sustainable future!
🌳Perihan about internships at MKB Brandstof
The mission of SME Fuel is to ensure that we work together in a climate-positive way. MKB Brandstof supports entrepreneurs with innovative services and wants to make electric driving more sustainable and remarkable. The aim of MKB Brandstof is that all their entrepreneurs are on their way in a climate-positive way by 2025.
1. What is your name? What are you studying? And at which college/university are you following this study?
My name is Perihan. I am studying Business Economics at the Hogeschool Rotterdam. As a scriptwriter I conduct my graduation research at MKB-Brandstof.
2. Why did you choose to do a sustainable internship?
I have chosen to do an internship at a sustainable company, because I would like to make an added contribution to sustainability. The world is polluting a lot and we as humans have to prevent this.
3. What are your tasks during your internship? And what have you learned so far?
My task is to investigate whether the sales process of MKB Brandstof is in control. For this I make use of theoretical studies and I conduct interviews. After the investigation, it is determined whether the process is in control. Recommendations are made as necessary.
4. What impact can you make with your internship?
By conducting this research, I was able to put into practice the skills I acquired during my studies.
After reading this blog, did you get the itch to make an impact with your job or internship? Then choose a sustainable internship, job or even study! At Greenjobs.nl we have a wide choice of sustainable jobs and internships!
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