My internship at Difrax - Jade

Hi, my name is Jade. I'm studying Commercial Economics at Utrecht University of Applied Sciences and am currently in my fourth year. It's an important and exciting year, because like my fellow students, I'm busy with my graduation project, internships, and writing my thesis. I was accepted for my internship at the fantastic company Difrax. I'd like to share my experiences with you, so what's an internship at Difrax like?

At Difrax, I have the unique opportunity to intern in two departments. It's a challenge I'm eager to take on. By working in E-commerce and Marketing, I'm seeing a lot of the company and gaining valuable work experience. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, I work in E-commerce. I'm involved in optimizing the website and creating stories for social media. On Thursdays, I work in the Marketing department. Here, the focus is on creating content and selecting suitable promotional materials. On Fridays, I'm working on my thesis.

Today is Monday, a beautiful spring day with a 26-degree temperature. I'm starting at 8:00 AM so I can still enjoy the sun this afternoon. There are also days when I start at 9:00 AM, for example, after spending the evening on the patio with friends or colleagues.

I start the day by checking my emails and updating Trello, a visual project management tool. This helps me keep track of my work and know what my to-do lists are. My backlog is full, as there are plenty of fun tasks to tackle. At 9:30 AM, the "Day Start" of the week begins with the entire Difrax team. My colleague Bernice organized a summer quiz. One guess who won: yes, me! It was a fun start to the week. We're all ready to get back to work.

At Difrax, my colleagues are well-informed about what's going on. This is important, as Difrax is a dynamic organization. Most of my meetings are scheduled on Mondays. After the Day Start, I have a meeting with Marketing and at 12:00 with Sales. This makes the morning fly by. In between, I discuss how things are going with my internship supervisor and what I'll be working on this week. I'm given a lot of personal responsibility to further develop myself as a professional.

During my break, I prefer to be outside. I often walk to the supermarket with colleagues. The center of Bilthoven is just around the corner. Very convenient for when you need to run errands. Today I walked to the field further down. It's a great way to soak up some vitamin D and enjoy the woods. When it rains, you can find me downstairs in the cafeteria, where several colleagues are chatting over lunch.

This afternoon I was able to focus on my work. I love marking completed tasks as "done" in Trello. I was able to do that several times this afternoon. For example, I posted a new blog post on the website, fixed errors in the Facebook Shop, and optimized page titles and meta descriptions to improve SEO. In addition, packages for the professional team need to be prepared this week. That's all part of the job. I don't have time for that today, but I'll tackle it tomorrow. Besides all the mental work, packing packages is a relaxing activity for me. The guys in the warehouse have a great atmosphere, and they always have the music playing.

My internship is almost over, and I look back on the past five months with great fondness. It's flown by, yet it feels like I've been part of the Difrax team for a long time. A good sign, if you ask me. What's more, I get to stay on this summer until I resume my studies in September. During this graduation internship, I was able to become a fully-fledged member of the team and explore my interests. For example, I initially thought I'd enjoy Marketing the most, but now I'm choosing E-commerce.