Kang Hao at Jurong Island in Singapore

Between deep dives into the laboratory world and sky-high teambuilding activities

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Hello everyone! I am Kang Hao, I am 19 years old and currently studying Chemical Engineering in Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore. To mix my university knowledge with practical experiences, I searched for an internship in the industry sector. Thanks to my lecturer, I came across Evonik Oil Additives in the Resource Efficiency segment. After my application, they approached me for an interview at Evonik's regional headquarters in Singapore which is based in the Nordic European Centre. When I was researching for some information about Evonik, I found a lot of topics that were quite new to me, which made me even more curious and made me want to learn more about Evonik and specialty chemicals. In the interview, I was asked about my skills, techniques and especially about my knowledge about gas chromatography. For everyone unfamiliar with the procedure: Gas chromatography is to check how pure a sample is and it shows us how high the quality of product we are delivering will be. It was different from what I have learnt in school and I was curious about the gas chromatography being used in the industry. Shortly thereafter, I received the confirmation – yay, it worked! I got the chance to start an internship at Evonik.

During my 6 months internship in the Quality Assurance Laboratory, I was surrounded by a friendly and warm-hearted team atmosphere. I had an enriching experience while learning in the laboratory and could enlarge my knowledge about the oil industry. In the laboratory section, I never felt like I was standing in the way, because my colleagues always included me in their projects and have provided me guidance throughout this internship.

To give you a better insight about what an internship at Evonik Singapore looks like, I would like to tell you something about my tasks: My project was about the automation of a test by checking the consistency of results between the two equipment used. If it is possible that the results are about the same, we can select certain products to be used in the automatic machine and save manual labor. Evonik Oil Additives produces polymers which are used in the automotive, aerospace and hydraulic industries.

Every day, I looked forward to go to work, because it was always full of challenges and there was always something new to learn. It pushed me to my limits and helped me to gain knowledge in chemical engineering. But one of my highlights were the teambuilding activities. These have helped me to learn more about cooperation, teamwork and overcoming obstacles together within a team. In one of these activities, we had the task to create a poster together. We painted the words “Trust communication ownership” at the bottom of the poster, as it was our common goal of the year. The meaning behind this was to have a better

understanding between the departments, share experiences with each other and strengthen the team spirit. During these exercises, I met a lot of colleagues from other departments, like the production sector, and some of them even became friends.

Another special team activity was to climb an hourglass building. The teams were split up into groups of five, who had to cooperate to overcome different obstacles. Afterwards, at the top, there is a free fall activity, where one would fall from the building with the aid of ropes. This was really scary in the beginning, but most of the colleagues managed to encourage each other to try it out. This was a really memorable activity that created a strong bond within the team.

All in all, I had a great time at Evonik. On the one side, I have gained a lot of knowledge, learned new laboratory analytical techniques and got new insights about the industry. It was a great opportunity to take a deeper look into the laboratory life. On the other hand, I also developed personally and got in touch with a lot of great colleagues during the teambuilding activities. An experience that I would recommend to everyone – so don’t hesitate and apply now!

Yours,
Kang Hao

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

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