David - Unitech International

David is a member of the UNITECH International Program and for his internship he moved to Hanau. In our students@Evonik blog, he talks about his experiences with the UNITECH program and his time at the Life Cycle Management team.

Internship in challenging times - David in Hanau

Life as student or graduate is ever so challenging. We are now more than ever faced with questions such as: How do I get that international experience, secure an internship, meet professionals who can guide me into that dream career? How to find that prestigious and supportive network and connection I need for my career? Where do I find a job in these challenging times? If these are also your questions, then you should get to know a little about me, my UNITECH journey and Evonik experience. 

My name is David, a recent master’s degree graduate of Building and Architectural Engineering, passionate about sustainability and open-minded. Two years ago, whilst wondering about these questions, I came across the UNITECH programme. This is an initiative of prestigious universities in Europe and multi-national companies that trains students, offer them opportunity to do an academic exchange abroad and an internship in any of the participating corporate partners. The UNITECH network is enriched with the presence of highly qualified students, alumni group, experienced coaches from corporate and academic world and corporate partners who would stop at nothing in providing you all the soft-skill skill set and the environment you require to kickstart your professional dream or career. UNITECH’s Start-Up-Week and Mid-Term-Week are designed to help you discover and improve your teamworking skills, cross-cultural collaboration, planning and timely delivery of assignments. It was during these programs that I came to know about Evonik. 

After my exchange year in the United Kingdom, I was offered the opportunity to do my UNITECH internship with the Life Cycle Management team in Hanau for 3.5 months. Notwithstanding the challenges presented by COVID19 restrictions, my experience at Evonik has been revolutionising. From the beginning, I was given the opportunity to conceptualise and design a digital tool to show the sustainable and economic value of VESTENAMER, a versatile rubber additive for asphalt road construction. I also had the opportunity to research and present on several sustainability related topics to my team including Life cycle costing, use of ISO standards in life cycle assessments and Life cycle impact assessment of marine microplastics. I must say that prior to my internship, I did not know much about most of these topics. My interactions with my teammates have fuelled up my passion for sustainability. Through my work, not only did I meet nice and experienced people and leaders in Hanau, but also those from other Evonik sites outside of Germany. I am very excited to have started my first regular job as a Sustainability Analyst in the LCM team and I look forward to playing an active role in seeing Evonik reach its sustainability targets.

During my UNITECH year, I was also the student representative. By virtue of the tremendous personal and professional growth I have experienced within two years, and the continual support to receive through UNITECH Alumni events and contacts, I would highly recommend for you to start your UNITECH application today and whilst doing that, plan to join Evonik for an awesome internship.

See you soon,

David

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In the networks@Evonik blog, members from networks with which Evonik cooperates report on their experiences with the network and their work with Evonik.

TAGS

#Hanau #Networks #UNITECH