"During my studies I gained a lot of management experience, but no work experience in a commercial setting. For that reason I didn’t feel confident enough to apply for a junior position. First I wanted to gain more relevant work experience. During my master’s programme I was taking a course in Digital Marketing, and we had a guest lecture from someone from VodafoneZiggo. The way he described his work and the company culture he hinted at, appealed to me enormously and afterwards I decided to visit the website and look for an internship or traineeship.
During my traineeship, I learned more than I’d expected. Next to familiarizing myself with the company and the culture, I’ve also been able to improve immensely as a professional. I’m much more confident in meetings and I dare to plead my case with a manager. Maintaining relationships with stakeholders is something I also keep getting better at.
Something I found fascinating was the difference between scientific research as I had experienced at university, and customer surveys. I really delved into it and carried out several customer surveys, quantitative ones as well as qualitative ones. I learned new methods and to work practice-based, but my acquired data-oriented approach came in very handy too.
VodafoneZiggo allows its trainees a lot of freedom and responsibility. For example, I became involved in the development of an online tool that calculates which bundle suites a customer best. To this end I compared and collected all sorts of relevant data that would lead to the best solution. Halfway into the project, the project manager went on holiday and designated me as the person in charge during his absence. A wonderful opportunity! All of a sudden I found myself in the middle of the team, learning about agile working, navigation structures and customer focus, at lightning speed.
Before I started the traineeship, I was afraid the change from the carefree life as a student to a steady office job would be really huge. Before long I noticed this is not the case at VodafoneZiggo. There is plenty of opportunity for flexible working and I leave the office nearly every day with more energy than when I arrived. And that is not because of the coffee!"
Simone Neeling (1994)
Study: International Business Communications (BSc); International Business Administration, Marketing (MSc)
"Wow, suddenly I was asked to fill in for my project manager"
Simone Neeling, product owner Digital