EP 3: Almost graduated and ready for your first job as a data professional?
Listen to the third episode of the data choice cast!
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How do you find out what you want, and what do you look for in job vacancies? Will you opt for a big or small company, consultancy firm or something else? These are some of the questions that our graduation intern Stijn had to face. He entered into discussions with his colleagues to find answers to these questions. The result? The Data Choice Cast! In this podcast, Stijn asks all his pressing questions and receives tips that help him (and hopefully you, too) to make the right choice for a job in the data world.
Did you miss Episode 2? You can listen to it here >
Episode 3: Marit Loonen
After a bachelor's in Psychology & Technology and a Master's in Human-Technology Interaction at the TU in Eindhoven, Marit started as a Data Analyst at Digital Powerin March 2022. When searching for her first job, she allowed herself time to make an informed decision. Here is an overview of the most important insights and tips from the conversation.
Take the time to determine what you want
Marit has thought carefully about what is important to her in a job. Think of aspects such as travel time and salary, but also a training budget, the work atmosphere and culture. Internships at Philips and a startup have helped to clarify those wishes and requirements. She was faced with certain things at both internships, and"that teaches you […] what you think is and isn't important and how you want your employer to treat you".
Assess job vacancies and companies
Once you know what you want, it can sometimes still be difficult to properly assess whether a job matches the job posting. Nevertheless, the job vacancy texts and the website already give you a good idea of what a company is proud of and what they find important.
Marit also paid special attention to specific words she liked or did not like. Words like 'together', 'we help each other' and 'cooperative' were seen as positives, but things like 'no 9 to 5 mentality' were considered negatives.
However, you only get a really good picture when you go for an interview. There, you have the opportunity to assess whether those beautiful texts hold truths.
Consultancy or something else
In the beginning, Marit wasn't necessarily looking for a job as a consultant. "It felt quite formal to me and I didn't really want that". She was really just looking for a position in a data team at a base company, and then Digital Power came along. It soon became clear that it was less formal, there was indeed a lot of contact among colleagues, and people helped each other: "the cooperativeness instead of competitiveness soon became clear to me".
The job interviews went well and this gave her a good feeling. After these interviews, the process ran smoothly, and Marit accepted the job as a Data Analyst at Digital Power.
Tips from Marit
- Take your time
- Be aware of your good position
- Ask critical questions
Are you curious about what it's like to work as a data consultant at Digital Power?
Discover more about working at Digital Power or view our job vacancies.
This is a podcast with Stijn van Geene, he was a graduate intern at Digital Power
Stijn is a Data Scientist/Engineer graduate who wrote his Master's thesis with Digital Power's data engineering team. He is broadly interested in the fields of data, business and entrepreneurship.
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