Lotte Haens came in contact with Philips through a fellow student and participated in the former Student Panel of Philips. This was a sounding board for Philips to see how students experienced its recruitment activities. By doing this, she got to know Philips better and got the ball rolling to do her internship at Philips.
What attracted you to Philips?
“A lot of companies only offer you the opportunity to do an internship, without the possibility to combine this with writing your master thesis. At Philips, it was possible to do this combination and that was appealing to me. I didn’t just want to be busy with my study. I also wanted to function as part of the team.”
What is it like at Philips?
“I am really enjoying my project. I work with many international colleagues and everyone at the company is very friendly and helpful. All doors are open to me. Of course I have to show my own initiative, but my supervisor gives me a lot of good support.”
What is your project?
“My project is in the area of marketing innovation. Philips will soon be the first in the world to launch an innovative lighting product, namely pitch lighting that make use of LED. At the beginning of this project Philips worked together with diverse stakeholders to determine the value drivers for this product. As an independent person, my project is to validate if these value drivers are correct. To do this, I interview stadium managers, facility managers and/or marketing managers. For example, I will be interviewing the managers of Chelsea and Arsenal. How cool is that? But what appeals to me the most is that I have a great deal of responsibility and that my research is very valuable at this moment.”
What is the most challenging aspect?
“I talk to different colleagues around the world about my research and everyone has their own ideas about how to do the research and what it means. You want to make everyone happy, but that is simply not possible. It is important to manage expectations so that no one is disappointed after the fact. That is not always easy.”
What are you most proud of?
“I was proud to be able to do my internship with such a well-recognized multinational. Now I’m proud that the company trusts me to carry out interviews in their name with important stakeholders.”
What is your next step?
“Fortunately, my time at Philips is not yet finished. From September onwards I will start working as a Marketing trainee within Philips Consumer Lifestyle. I think the Traineeship is a nice transition between my educational study and work life. You are coached in the areas where you want to excel and there is a big learning curve. Besides that, you are part of a group of talented people who have the same ambitions and that is very inspiring.”
