Meryem - As a Chemist in the World of Digital Transformation

As a chemist in the world of digital transformation processes

Hi, my name is Meryem and I'm a master's student in chemistry at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. When I applied for the vacant position as "Intern for Digital Transformation (m/f/d)" at Evonik Digital, I was just sitting in my shared room in Dublin at the beginning of the first lockdown. Three months earlier, I had started my thesis at Trinity College with a focus on bioinorganic chemistry. Because I wasn't able to conduct any experiments in the lab at the time, I decided to pause my thesis and use the study time I'd gained to broaden my work experience during a six-month internship. 
I found the opportunity to get to know Evonik as an employer exciting, since I had already come into contact with Evonik through the content of my studies and research for my previous working student position. Even the application and hiring process was a new experience for me. Since it took place purely virtually, it was less tangible but at the same time very flexible in terms of location and time planning.  
In my first week of work, I received a personal introduction from my team leader, and then shortly after that I started working from home. The regular exchanges in team meetings and jour fixes via Microsoft Teams, virtual collaboration worked well. But unfortunately, getting to know my new colleagues in person was not possible in the same intensity as it would have been during an internship at the office. Nevertheless, I felt well taken care of and was able to pursue my internship activities with fully equipped technology. 
As the job title suggests, these revolved around digitization topics, especially with regard to human-machine interaction in the context of using new technologies. The tasks were very varied. In addition to general support for the digitization project, I mainly took on communicative tasks, such as helping to design and maintain the internal community, as well as creating monthly reports and internal presentation slides. For the "Video at Evonik" area, I helped design a guide for the new "StoryBox" video App in Evonik. In doing so, I was able to witness how a pilot phase runs in the company and how responsibilities and accountabilities are passed on in the course of a successful implementation. As part of the pilot, the app was also used intensively to create short presentation videos of products or projects for the virtual DigiCon 2020. We also prepared a video in the team with smartphone and app and were allowed to shoot it in the small pump technology center in Marl. I also had the opportunity to get an impression of the production facilities in the chemical park in Marl.  

In the second half of the internship, I was primarily involved in planning and implementing workshops to develop a further development concept for digitized production. As a partial result of this series of workshops, we compiled a training catalog as a team and embedded it in the familiar interface of the internal learning platform "LILY" (Learning and Individualized Library). 
Overall, I am very grateful for the experience I was able to gain during my internship and the trust that was given to me. I was allowed to take on responsibility in important areas and was able to strengthen my project management skills. My special thanks go to my team leader for the good support and constant helpfulness and to my colleagues for the good working atmosphere.  

Contrary to my plans, I have now started a new thesis at my home university, and I am happy to continue working for Evonik as a working student at Smart Operations.   

I hope I was able to give you a small insight and wish you all the best for your applications! 

Best regards,  

Meryem 

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

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