Towards the end of your masters, you have to choose what you want to do after you graduate. This usually boils down to choosing between doing a PhD or working at a company. I remember coming to the realization that I would have to make this choice at some point. But I didn't really know how to make this decision.

The last two things I had to finish were my research project and my industrial internship. I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do after I graduated. So I decided that the best course of action was to just see which one I enjoyed more. If I liked my research project more than I liked my internship, then I would try to find a PhD position. If I liked my internship better, then I would try to find a job at a company.

As the title suggests, I liked my internship better. A couple of months before graduating, I started looking for a job. I talked to fellow students and Francken alumni that had just started working. This was very helpful, because they also knew about job openings at their companies. In the end, I decided to accept a job offer from the company where I did my internship (Lambert Instruments).

Working at a company often means that you’re working in a team. It’s great to have some experience with teamwork other than what you’re used to from practicals. For most of your practicals you work in pairs. But at a company, teams are larger and often consist of people from all kinds of disciplines and ages. I found having experience with committee/board work at Francken to be extremely valuable. It taught me a lot about teamwork and organizational skills. Such skills help a lot when working on a project with a team and having productive meetings.

As a so-called young professional, another thing you’ll have to get used to are the hours. Work starts at 8:30 and ends at 17:00. Every day. Five days a week. There’s no such thing as sleeping in just because you feel like it (you can, but you’ll have to take the day off). But this also means that when you get home, you don’t have to study for exams or pull an all-nighter to finish a report. Instead, you’re done for the day!