Aristeidis - MSc Biotechnology – intern at Greencovery – April 2022

Hello everybody! My name is Aristeidis Amygdalaris and I am a second-year MSc Biotechnology student, specializing in environmental and biobased technology. Currently, I am doing my internship at Greencovery, a start-up company located in Wageningen, which specializes in upcycling the side streams of food industries to valuable ingredients. My task as an intern is to optimize the protein recovery and purification processes for proteic-containing materials.

I started looking for my internship four months in advance and the platforms that I mostly used were LinkedIn and the WUR Career Platform, but I always kept an eye on the Biotechnology and ETE department’s newsletters. A lot of internship vacancies were also published there. The first step, before doing my applications, was to update my CV and LinkedIn profile. To do this, I attended some seminars organized by the Student Career Service that were very helpful for me. Also, I had a CV check that led to very useful feedback and a seminar on interview preparation. This is something that I strongly recommend everyone to do.

After, I spent some time thinking of a subject/role that I would like to have as an intern and what are my personal goals for an internship. Other criteria that I also needed to consider were the size of the company, the location, the transportation, the housing in case I needed to move, the language, etc. Keeping all these in mind I made a list of the companies and positions that I liked the most and I started applying.

At first, I had to face some rejections from large-scale companies. That is something that I was prepared for, as the competition for such positions is very high. I kept my head up and started looking for other interesting options closer to Wageningen. The opportunity came when a good friend and fellow student told me about her internship at Greencovery and how satisfied she was. I made an open application immediately as there were no published vacancies and after some days I was invited to an interview. The interview was in person and there was also an introduction to the office and the lab facilities, as well as a discussion on the potential topics. Fortunately, we found something that fitted me and we came to an agreement. After two months of my internship, I can say that I am very satisfied with my choice.

10 tips from Aristeidis

Based on my short experience I would like to give ten tips to internship seekers:

1. Visit the website of Student Career Services and the career platform and register for the events
2. Keep your CV and LinkedIn updated
3. Apply first to the companies/positions that you find more appealing
4. Apply 3-6 months in advance and do not have more than 5 applications open at a time
5. Make open applications in case you really like a company but there are no open vacancies
6. Make a separate Motivational letter for each application
7. Do not get disappointed in case of rejection, heads up! There is always a better option that you haven’t found yet
8. Get well prepared before interviews. Be confident and be yourself!
9. Always balance the pros & cons before making decisions
10. Follow your heart in case of dilemmas