Invasion of the interns

In March, Dropsolid was awarded Agency of Tomorrow by Sortlist. We’re extremely honored to receive this award. Our vision of sustainable entrepreneurship also translates to our employees. That’s why we don’t only invest in the future of our company but also in the workforces of tomorrow: interns.

The interns at Dropsolid are anything but numbers, but we’d like to visualize them with numbers for a moment. In 2021, 15 new interns started at our company, spread across our different departments: digital marketers and strategists got a taste of the working routine in our Performance team. HR was reinforced by a trainee recruiter and an office management intern. In the Experience Cloud team, DevOps and machine learning students were able to further expand their knowledge. And in our Solutions teams, our interns got to know Drupal even better.

5 values we carry in our hearts

Dropsolid focuses on 5 major core values that are carried throughout the company: Enjoy, Help, Trust, Challenge, and Grow. These five values apply to the customer, supplier, employee, investor, government, society, and the entire world. They are our reason for existence and ensure that we enjoy going to work every day. These five words create a unique atmosphere in the company, which our employees are very happy about.

Never underestimate the power of fun 

Getting pleasure from work comes first for us. It stems from achieving success, developing talent, and even gradually improving the world. The value of Enjoy is, therefore, one that’s very much alive among our employees. Especially with our (former) interns.

In 2020, 10 students got the chance to taste real working life at Dropsolid. Three of them started their careers at Dropsolid as permanent employees. Toon is one of them: "I was offered a permanent contract after my internship. The team atmosphere and the values of the company ensured that I didn’t have to think twice. I didn’t feel like an intern at all, I was immediately part of the team. Meanwhile, at Dropsolid I get the chance to shape my career. You indicate what you like to do and which path you want to follow, and this is listened to."

Attitude, mindset en work ethic

Grow is also one of Dropsolid's five core values. Not only growth for our customers, but also our employees. And that includes the interns. We give young people the chance to shape their career, to discover their specialization and we expose them to the real working life. They get the opportunity to develop their vision, are encouraged to share their opinions, and are given the freedom to take the lead in their own projects.

Bruno started as an intern at Dropsolid 5 years ago. He came to us through an internship assignment that appealed to him but stuck with us because of the atmosphere and our way of working. "I was given the opportunity to grow with the company. We are not nested in the present, but rather focus on the future. This is a vision that is very much alive in the company.", he says. "There's never a time when we stagnate, and that's also the case with my function. I started at Dropsolid with a handful of skills, and I’ve continued to grow. I strive to develop myself, and Dropsolid has always provided me with those opportunities."

When recruiting new employees, we don't just focus on the hard skills, because you can still learn or expand those. So we're not just looking for the top of the class. We are mainly looking for employees with the right mentality, a work ethic, and a mindset that fits Dropsolid. You have to want to work, innovate and discover.

From intern to mentor

Our colleagues live by the principle of 'offering to help and asking for it’. Only together we can make a project succeed. Our interns also play a major role in this. Help is therefore also one of our core values. We even try to help you find a permanent job. Did you leave an impression during your internship? Then we’ll look for a permanent desk for you. Every empty chair is one too many. And we mean it. Many of our permanent employees started at Dropsolid after a successful internship.

Brent also began his career as a trainee at Dropsolid: "I started as an intern in 2015 when Dropsolid was still a startup. Gradually they grew into a more professional company of a higher level and I also grew along as a developer. Now I’m a Project Lead and this year I also took a new intern under my wings myself. I have been working here for over 6 years now. The atmosphere certainly ensures that I stay. If you're having fun while doing your job, then you know it's a fit."

Don’t limit your challenges, challenge your limits

Challenge is also one of our five core values. Only by challenging each other can we get a step further. This also applies to our interns. Rusty processes can easily be broken by a perceptive intern who dares to question things. Our employees are no yes-(wo)men. They challenge our customers and the company to do better and better. They also challenge themselves so that they, too, become better and better.

Milou studied Marketing Management and ended up at Dropsolid when she was looking for a progressive company to do her final internship. Although she started as a marketing intern, at Dropsolid she was challenged to get a taste of the working life within the sales team as well. "I wanted to learn more aspects of the company, at Dropsolid I was given that freedom. As an intern or employee, you are also encouraged to challenge yourself. 4 years later I have grown within my sales role and I am living proof that if there is a fit with the company, you will also get every opportunity at Dropsolid."

Trust goes both ways

The interns at Dropsolid don't work on fictional assignments, they don't get coffee and they don't sit around twiddling their fingers all day. From their very first day, they are seen as worthy colleagues and we try to give them a taste of a real working environment. This inevitably involves a high level of trust. And that comes from two sides. The trust that the intern is ready to complete an assignment successfully, and the trust of the interns that we believe in them. Trust is therefore our fifth core value.

Laurine started as an intern in our HR team in March. Eline, our HR manager immediately gave her the chance to takeresponsibility for one of her projects: optimizing the onboarding process. "I liked being given such a huge responsibility right away. It shows a lot of confidence! I was pulled out of my comfort zone, and I learned a lot from that." Laurine continues. "I had to take interviews with team leaders, I drafted a survey for the new employees and I had to identify the pain points of the onboarding process. At the end of my internship, I even get to present my project to the management team!"

Laurine finds her project so interesting that she even wants to dedicate the topic of her internship report to the topic of onboarding. That's why we think it's important to give our interns a full-work experience. They get to think along with the company and work with the teams for real customers. They are not given fictional assignments to fill their time, but projects that are close to their hearts and in which they already have a healthy interest.

Dropsolid is growing rapidly. That is why we are always looking for new people to strengthen our teams. Do you identify with our 5 core values: Help, Trust, Challenge, Enjoy, and Grow? Then be sure to check out our vacancies!