A springboard to the future: doing an internship at SIDN

Metehan

My internship began with a warm welcome to SIDN. On my first day, I was introduced to lots of my new colleagues. I shook more than a hundred hands! To my amazement, I was even given a lovely bouquet of flowers. Inge showed me around, so I got a good impression of SIDN straight away and soon felt at home within the team. The atmosphere is informal and open, making it easy to ask for help when you need it and get settled in. For my internship, I’m working on migrating legacy Power BI dashboards. As part of the Business & Support data team, my job is to analyse, redesign and check the dashboards, make data comparisons and maintain contact with the stakeholders. The most important thing I’ve learnt so far is that you make more progress if you actively seek your colleagues’ help. I’m also constantly developing my skills in fields such as stakeholder management, collaboration and planning. I now pay much more attention to thorough planning and the alignment of my plans with other people. I really like SIDN’s business culture. Everyone’s approachable and always willing to discuss ideas. The outside activities, such as the bootcamp that I often go to, also help to make things fun and provide variety. I’m now in the last few weeks of my internship, so I’m starting to think about what I’ll do next. I’m not yet sure whether to look for a job or continue studying. I want to use my remaining time to think things through carefully and decide which way to go

Nikita

I started my internship at SIDN in early February, and I’ve gained no end of experience since. What struck me right away was how open and accessible the atmosphere is here. Everyone is happy to talk things over with you, bounce ideas around, or simply ask you how you’re doing, even though you’re ‘just the intern’. I never had any sense of starting at the bottom; I was one of the team right from the off.

My thesis is on interdepartmental cooperation. Although that might sound rather theoretical, it relates to something very tangible: how do we enable people on different teams to connect? I’ve been able to talk to a wide variety of people about the topic, and I’ve found everyone really open and willing to share their experiences with me honestly. I also put together a questionnaire, which 46 of the people here completed. As well as being really helpful to me, the response gave me a real sense that people take what I’m doing seriously.

For my internship, I’m attached to the HR Department, where I’ve been given the freedom to tackle my research assignment my own way. The support has been great, with colleagues willing to discuss the approach, read drafts, or just talk things over along the way. People listen to my ideas, and I get the chance to provide critical input on whatever’s happening within the organisation. As a result, the experience has been not only instructive, but also super-motivational.

Aside from the work itself, SIDN is simply a nice place to be. You get chatting to people at the coffee machine (which offers an amazing range of options, by the way), you have lunch with colleagues in the company restaurant. It’s because of those little things that, as well as teaching me a lot, my internship has been fun. I’m not quite finished yet, but I can already say that my time here has been really helpful, both to my studies and especially to my personal growth. Which is exactly what I was hoping for at the outset.

Qamar

My internship began with a warm welcome to SIDN’s Business and Support Department. I felt like part of the team right from day 1. Everyone took the time to say hello, and I was soon involved in the day-to-day work. The atmosphere is open, and my colleagues are approachable, making it easy for me to settle in and get going quickly. Before I started here, I didn’t know much about the world behind domain names, but I soon learnt what a vital field it is, and especially how broadly relevant and fascinating it is. During my internship, I’ve worked on 4 quite different assignments. One was to investigate the market shares of .nl and .com, which involved reaching out to registrars and registries in the Netherlands and elsewhere for their input. I also researched the general contraction of the European domain name market, and what other countries are doing about it. Another thing I looked into was how AI tools can be used for website creation and hosting. And, finally, I supported the sales team at a healthtech event, where the focus was on SIDN BrandGuard and following up leads. The 4 assignments required research, interviews, data analysis, creativity and consultancy skills. I was given lots of freedom and responsibility, which helped me to work in a more independent and focused way. As an intern, I felt that people took me seriously and invited me to attend meetings, visit registrars and so on. Another thing that made an impression on me was how good the working atmosphere is at SIDN. Lunch breaks are very sociable and many of the chats I’ve had have given me new ideas. Then, of course, there were the outings organised by the staff association, especially the cookery workshop at a local horticultural centre. Over the last few months, I’ve learnt a lot about working life, the market and teamwork. And about myself. At SIDN, I’ve discovered how invigorating I find it to do research and to feed the findings back into practice. Over the next year, I plan to get more work experience and to save up some money, with the aim of then doing a master’s degree at university. My internship at SIDN was challenging and varied. But, most of all, it taught me so much. I have very fond memories of my time there!