"Despite the fact that my internship is over, I can continue my career at TRIMM as a working student!"

"Despite the fact that my internship is over, I can continue my career at TRIMM as a working student!"

Leonie Sijtsma was a trainee for application management at TRIMM. In this interview, we’ll talk about her choice to work at TRIMM and what her day looks like.

Hi Leonie, nice to speak to you! Your internship is over, what did you do as a trainee at TRIMM?

“During my internship, I was part of the Service & Maintenance team at TRIMM. In this team, we maintain the online platforms of our clients. Requests come from customers with a service contract. These requests are converted into tickets, and in the applicition maintenance team we collect and resolve these requests. The tickets vary from fairly simple requests to complex problems with, for example, a site that doesn’t work anymore. TRIMM offered me a job after my internship, I am a working student at the application management team now!”

What did your first weeks at TRIMM look like as a trainee?

“During the first weeks of my internship, I started with orientating which online platforms are running and how they exactly work. I was able to pick up the first basic tickets, followed by small projects in WordPress. In the first month, a request came in to create a one pager on a site, I had full responsibility for this request. I was the only developer that worked on that project. Of course I accepted that challenge, really exciting! I had to deal with aspects that I had no knowledge of, which I coordinated with my practice supervisor, also a developer. After this project, I was ready for a new challenge, I wanted to gain some more experience in Magnolia. My internship assignment was about setting up a Magnolia website. That was ideal: I could practice in my own Magnolia website. Afterwards, I could apply it in sites for the customers of TRIMM.”

What was your main learning objective during your internship?

“In the entire process, I had the learning objective that I wanted to gain more confidence. I certainly reached that goal! I dare to have confidence in my knowledge and experience. In the beginning I was looking for confirmation about my performance, now I am convinced that I can do it. And if I do not know what to do, I can always catch up with the developers at TRIMM.”

What does an average working day at TRIMM look like?

“I enjoy starting early in the morning, so I cannot be disturbed and be productive. First I check my mail and take a look at the ticket list. Then I prioritize the tickets and decide what needs to be done today. The time flies by because of all the ad hoc work I need to handle. Before you know it’s time to go home. Sometimes I am so focused that I startle when it is 5 pm.”

Why did you choose to become an application developer at an internet agency?

“I am studying Art & Technology because I really wanted to be a film director. However, in the first half of the year I realized that this wasn't my ambition. In addition to the study, I am also part of Saxion’s Excellence Program, which is a program alongside my study in which you can develop yourself and gain new insights. After completing a web development course for my study, I knew what I wanted: programming and working on internet sites. In the excellence track, they also advised to orientate at programming organizations to understand the process of an internship at an agency. I followed the minor Computer Science in England. Then I applied for an internship at TRIMM, and voilà!

By the way, I think there are several similarities between a film director and a developer. In both jobs, you have the freedom to give your own twist to your work, and you can use your own creativity to find solutions for digital challenges.”

How do you experience our talent program (PIT) at TRIMM?

“I am part of the talent program, although I do not notice this in the daily life at work. I really like the responsibilities, but I am not fully responsible for the tasks. When something goes wrong, I can ask my colleagues for help. They also make sure I do not get too many tasks to take care of. I experience it as a great learning environment. The atmosphere at TRIMM is open and flexible, I can ask my colleagues all the questions I want. Within the team, I was quickly admitted as a valuable colleague, there is no distinction between PIT’ers or TRIMM’ers.  As I indicated earlier, I can continue my work as a working student for PIT. This happens more often with students, if it suits both parties well. Growth opportunities are taken into account, I have the space to grow within TRIMM.”

What is your best memory with TRIMM?

“There are many great moments I experienced with my colleagues! Before I applied at TRIMM, I read the story from Chris. When I was reading the title, I thought: “How can you love your work so much that your colleagues become your friends?!”. Now I can fully imagine that, I understand his statement and agree with him! The most valuable moment was when I created my Magnolia internship product. The team was quite impressed, they did not expect me to get things done so quickly. That is one of the moments I am really proud of! The realization that I can do this feels so good! I can really enjoy reading a grateful mail from a customer, that makes my day!”

Thank you, Leonie!

Interested in working at TRIMM? Take a look at our vacancies!