My internship at Difrax - Michelle

Let us introduce ourselves:

Hey! My name is Michelle, and I interned at Difrax in the Product Development department. I'm studying Industrial Product Design in Rotterdam. I live with my two housemates in Rotterdam and take the train to Bilthoven every day. My internship focused entirely on independently completing a graduation project.

Start of the day

My alarm goes off at 6:30 a.m., and I get ready for another day of my internship. I pack my things and have breakfast (I always make it the night before). At 7:20 a.m., the intercity train to Utrecht leaves, and I eat my breakfast on the train. After transferring at Utrecht Central Station, I arrive in Bilthoven at 8:15 a.m. There, I start my laptop and say goodbye to my colleagues.

Course of the day

I schedule my own meetings with my internship supervisor to discuss my project's progress and receive feedback. At the office, I work with two product designers. I can always turn to them for questions or feedback. We always listen to the radio together or create a Spotify playlist. During our breaks, we often take a walk around the neighborhood, in the woods, or pick up lunch at the supermarket. I can organize my own work. By the end of my graduation project, it's important that I can demonstrate to my school that I meet all the competencies. That's why I independently develop a design process from start to finish. I research existing products, consumer needs, the design, and much more. Making sketches, developing prototypes, and conducting tests on them are frequent activities during my internship.

End of my internship

The closer I got to my graduation ceremony, the busier I became. During my internship, I worked on a graduation report, a kind of thesis. After it was submitted and I received the green light, I started preparing for my ceremony. That day, my internship supervisor came to the school, and I went through a three-hour process of presenting and defending my project and results. After hearing that I'd passed, I naturally treated everyone to a meal at Difrax. This was to thank my colleagues for everything and to celebrate with them. I'll be working longer this summer to strengthen the team. I'm really looking forward to it!

Experience

At Difrax, I was given a lot of freedom to develop my skills. There's so much expertise in-house that I can always turn to someone with questions. I also really enjoy the atmosphere at Difrax. Even outside your own team, everyone is ready to help, and you can walk into any office with a question. This allowed me to thoroughly test my concepts within the company and quickly move on to the next phase of my development. I learned a lot at Difrax, and it's always a pleasant atmosphere. If you get the chance to intern at Difrax, I would definitely recommend it!