Juliana in São Paulo

#1 - First steps into the working world

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Hello everyone!
My name is Juliana, I live in São Paulo, Brazil, I am currently doing an internship at Evonik’s Business Line Coating Additives (BL-CAD) and first, I would like to introduce myself before I tell you how this internship has changed my expectations of the working world. I hope that doing so, you can get an insight of how Evonik is like from my student’s perspective, and how Evonik correlates with most students’ goals and aspirations.

I have a B.S. in Chemistry with additional technological and biotechnological credits, currently extending my knowledge in the field of Biochemistry. So far I had mostly focused on my academic development, which rewarded me with the Lavoisier Award for Biochemistry Attribution Best Student. But honestly, I could not wait for my first “out of college”-experience. When Evonik hired me as intern in the CAD team, I was so excited to know that they would be the ones that would guide me on my first steps “out there”! This internship was my first job!!! A whole new world was in front of me and I already loved it.

Imagine, everything about business and corporate environment was new, exciting and terrifying at the same time. I have some friends that are working in laboratories, research or analytics departments, but Evonik was a name that, as students, we barely knew about, and when I took a deeper look, I realized that Evonik was everywhere. I was so relieved when I noticed that Evonik’s corporate culture was very open and welcoming. What would you expect from a German company in Brazil? Sharp. Flawless. Dignified. Blend this with the Brazilian smile and German pragmatism to create this great balance that not all working environments can offer. Even in this delicate political and economic times, everyone is working hard and that doesn’t seem to stop us from smiling and caring.

During my internship, I am working as Marketing Intelligence intern, and I am responsible for supporting the BL-CAD team: keeping an eye on the market and its changes, updating the database and helping my team members with research activities. I also developed the new price tables which was demanding, but helped me to improve my Excel skills. I was also able to attend events that were filled with new concepts and challenges. I assisted at the “Marketing and Sales Excellence Forum” and the “Pizza Night”. For the “Pizza Night”, I had to send out and keep track of the invitations, contact and manage our customers and our sales teams, to make sure that this important event was a complete success. And I was there –serving pizza and getting to know the faces behind the phone and Evonik’s business. 

I have grown beyond myself at Evonik so far, learned new skills and always knew where to find someone who would teach me something new and support me when I faced some harder challenges. The job has its ups and downs, but psychologically speaking, to have someone “a desk away” to talk to, that understands the pressure, the responsibilities and expectations, is all we need to keep our strength and to stay clear-minded and focused. Happy hours also help . Networking is important – in and out of office. At a casual bar after work, or at barbecues at a soccer club. I also had the opportunity to befriend two girls from Germany and I have to say that the cultural differences make everything new and interesting. 

That is just a fraction of how Evonik has supported me during my first steps in the business world so far – so far it has been challenging and wonderful to develop this new part of my story with my internship at Evonik and it certainly helped me to outgrow myself and helped me to find new perspectives for the future.

I hope you liked to hear about my experience. Please, feel free to contact me or the Students@Evonik-team to know more about my experiences and Evonik’s opportunities.

Yours,
Juliana 

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On the students@Evonik blog students who work at Evonik share their experiences about life in the company.

TAGS

#Brazil #HumanChemistry #SaoPaulo #Intern #Praktikum #students@Evonik