Finding the right internship can be challenging. As part of our commitment to corporate social responsibility, FIQAS regularly offers exciting and educational internship opportunities for young talent from Aalsmeer and surrounding areas.
This time, the opportunity went to Senna Hoving (18) from Aalsmeer. Senna was actively searching for a great internship during his second year of Communication and Multimedia Design studies at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. And he found it at FIQAS! A connection made at tennis club All Out, where FIQAS is the main sponsor and several FIQAS colleagues often play, led to this opportunity.
During his 10-week internship focused on UI/UX and front-end development, Senna fully integrated with our innovation team. We asked him about his experiences.
What were your expectations for the internship, and how did reality compare?
“I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. I had looked at the website and recognised quite a few of FIQAS’ clients, which already made it seem interesting. And the fact that it’s just a 10-minute bike ride from my house was a nice bonus.
I didn’t have a complete understanding of Agile working through Scrum beforehand. Over the course of 10 weeks, I really got to experience the purpose of daily stand-ups with the team and the various evaluation moments, such as during sprint change days. It’s not something you can learn from school or a book, so for me, it was particularly valuable.
During a return session at the university, I heard from quite a few fellow students that they found their internships tough, but that wasn’t my experience at all. I was able to do my work and then be done – no homework – which left me plenty of time and energy to exercise. The food in the FIQAS canteen was also really good, haha!”
What kind of work did you do during your internship? And what did you learn from it?
“Right at the start of my internship, the front-end developers helped me set up my own development environment. I was also able to join the sprint immediately and worked on fixing bugs, which was a lot of fun. This allowed me to apply my coding knowledge from school and experience working with ‘pull requests’ in practice. As I progressed in my internship, I was given the opportunity to build a piece of front-end functionality on my own, which was even more fun!
I also got to redesign PowerPoint slides. This ‘slide deck’ is used by the sales and marketing team during client meetings. I really enjoyed working on this because I could be creative, and I received valuable feedback along the way. ‘My’ new slides were put into use right away, which gave me a real sense of accomplishment.
At FIQAS, I learned a lot about how colleagues collaborate effectively. I also appreciated getting feedback from very experienced professionals.”
Janneke van de Kamp, HR Manager at FIQAS, said:
“By allowing young talent to work directly with the team under good guidance, they can learn a tremendous amount in a short time and really contribute to the company. How great is that! It’s motivating and inspiring, and that’s what makes it all worthwhile.”
What memory of FIQAS will stay with you the most?
“Since I had been searching for a suitable internship for a while, I wanted to start as soon as possible, and luckily, that wasn’t an issue for FIQAS. At the start of my internship, they were counting down to their 35th anniversary, which they would celebrate with a weekend trip to Texel. All the preparations had been made well in advance – the hotel, restaurants, and activities – but as an intern, I was invited to join! It made me feel very welcome and like a real part of FIQAS. It was great to get to know all the colleagues in a different setting and do activities together. The RIB boating and luxury beach barbecue were my favourite parts!”