Well… So I just found out that the article I wrote before the weekend didn’t post so I have to write a new one.

Last week is already a little far away in my head and I’m trying to remember most of the things I’ve done.

The week began great and I was very energised to begin my second week. On monday I started designing a PowerPoint presentation for Ms. Weiss. I think these type of tasks are really fun, since I can work freely and get the freedom of making it in my own way. After finishing this presentation I started working on my research paper for school. This was a very long paper, but I managed to nearly finish it. It would be great if I can finish it this week, since I will have enough time for all the other things if I finish my school assignments early.

Monday evening I went to the gym with Mr. Légeard, who I live with. This was a lot of fun. I didn’t work out or anything for nearly 4 years and was a bit curious of how this would go. I found out pretty quickly that I couldn’t cope with the rest of the people there and I just did the exercises that I could. It was a powerhour, so a lot of cardio. This was difficult without a good condition.

The next day my whole body was sour (this was like this for the next 4 days…)

On Tuesday at work I went to the photo studio with a collegue from the marketing department. She explained to me how they make product pictures and how they edit them in the editor’s software. This was really fun to do and I learned it quickly. Now it is the planning to go and make pictures more often.

On Wednesday, I started working on my school assignments and finished my research paper; Law and Complaints. This became a big document and I’m proud of finishing it. In the afternoon I got a briefing for the projects I’m going to work on and discussed a ot of different aspects of the most important project with Ms. Weiss and Mr. van Eersel (Managing Director). This looks really interesting and I’m urging to start on this project. After this briefing I started researching the topics.

The next day I prepared a summary of the briefing and had it checked by Ms. Weiss in order to make sure that the information was right. This gave me the rest of the day to research the projects.

On Friday you can notice that everyone is so happy. This is due to the short working day till 2:30 PM. 🙂

In the morning I sat together with Ms. Weiss who adjusted some things in my briefing summary and she told me that it would be interesting to attend a presentation given by an external company in order to get more information about one of the projects I received. The presentation lasted for 3 hours and most of it was interesting. But since it was all in German and I didn’t get some things about the IT behind the project at sometimes it was a little doll. However I learned a lot about how everyhting works and this gave me a better bases for the project. After the presentation I went on researching the different aspects of this project and at 2:30 PM I went home.

In the weekend I arranged that I would get my moped in Germany. This all worked out and I now have transportation around here. The first two weeks I drove to work with Mr. Légeard, however our working hours didn’t get along and I had to start keeping track of the scedule I got from Ms. Weiss. This is 8:00 AM till 4:30 PM. 8 hours with half an hour break.

On Saturday, a friend of mine from Breda visited me and we decided to go the Düsseldorf where we went all night. We left at 9 PM and got home around 9 AM. This was a very succesfull night except for the end when we got lost in the metro system of Düsseldorf and eventually decided to take a cab home which was 46 km and costed 80 euro’s… ‘-.-

All overviewed, it was a great second week. On Sunday I mostly slept so there is not much to tell about this day.

At this moment I just started my working day on Monday and will give an update in about a week about the 3rd week of my internship.

Thanks for reading and see you next week.

 

 

Welcome to my blog. This is the first article I’m writing and for the next 5 months I’m planning on writing an article about my experiences every week.

At Sunday the 11th of November I left to Germany for my internship. I visited the company before and knew what to expect, but I had no idea about the housing or the people yet. The company arranged a place for me to stay, together with someone who works at the company. The house is in Brüggen and is near to the old office building of the company. Currently the city government is renting the buiding and placing around 60 refugees from Syria inside this old office building.

The company is an international wholesale that is part of the EP International Group. Menz&Könecke is the headquarters of this group and all international trade is taking place from this location.

My first day I went to the company with the guy I’m living with. He drove us there and I was welcomed by Mrs. Weiss. She is my supervisor at the company and showed me around the office. I got a clear scedule for the week from her and this included an introduction to all different departments of the company.

On Monday I had a more general introduction. I got a tour through the office building, provided by Mrs. Weiss and I got a presentation about the company from Mr. Kolberg. After this I went into a meeting with the Managing Director of the company (Mr. van Eersel) and Mrs. Weiss. In this meeting we discussed the basic things I’d be doing at the company. In this meeting I was asked to prepare a little presentation about the assignments I’ll have to make, since the placement manual was a pretty overall view of everything. After this I had some time to work on my assignments and get settled.

On Tuesday, I had a day in the warehouse in order to understand the logistic processes within the company. The company Menz&Könecke is located as the headquarters of the EP Group which they are part of. This means that a lot of business around the world is taken care of from this location. The warehouse is also providing all European deliveries except for the Netherlands and Belgium, where the company has warehouses as well. In the warehouse I got information about incoming goods, outgoing goods and the returns department.

On Wednesday I came in and had a meeting for an introduction with the Purchases department. I’ve been there all morning and talked about all different aspects of the purchases department. The company has someone in China who takes care of the manufacturing of their own brands and they buy from over 200 different brands. Which requires a lot of organisation. After this it was the planning for me to be introduced to the accountancy department. This is however moved over to Thursday morning, so I had some time to take care of my school assignments. After this I had an introduction to the IT department and learned about the companies data flow and back-up systems.

On Thursday I had the introduction with the accountancy department. This lasted all morning and a part of the afternoon and I got a lot of information. After this I had some time to work on my assignments and had the introduction at the Sales department.

This blog is written on Thursday, but I have my planning for tomorrow already. Tomorrow the planning is an introduction with the export department. This is the person I’m living with in the house, his name is Mr. Legeard. Export is maybe a wrong term for his department, since he is the international Business Manager and managing the locations in different countries throughout Europe. In the morning and a little bit of the afternoon, I’ll have an introduction with the Marketing department. This is the department where my desk is placed at, so I’ve already seen these people all week.

At Friday’s the company closes at 2:30 PM. This is normal in Germany and gives me the opportunity to take the train back home to Breda for 1 day in order to get my scooter and take it to Germany. On Saturday I will then be in Germany with my scooter so I have my own transportation throughout the week. Since the company is only a couple of miles from the house where I live for this period.

I really enjoyed my first week up untill now and I think I will have a great time at this company where I will learn a lot. My German has gotten a lot better already and I think that after a few months, it will be very good. This is due to the fact that some people within the company don’t speak English, so this forces me to speak German. This is actually why I chose to go to Germany, since I think German is an important language within the business world and it will help me if I’m able to have a conversation in German.

This was my first week, I hope you enjoyed the article. It was a little boring maybe, since I haven’t done much yet. Next week when I have my scooter here I will be able to get around some more and have some more stories about the town I’m living in.

🙂