“In secondary school I was most interested in science subjects such as Mathematics and Physics. So of course I opted for the Nature and Technology profile. I already knew I wanted to study something technical but I had no idea what exactly, and I must have checked out almost every technical degree programme available. I made appointments with people from each programme and discovered that Mechanical Engineering suited me best. Ultimately, I decided to enrol in this programme at the University of Twente.”
“I was most interested in the technical aspect of the degree programme. Mechanical Engineering is very broad-based and you can go in many different directions after graduation, from designing constructions, performing tests in a wind tunnel, converting biomass and designing exoskeletons, to name a few. It is great to test something you designed and built yourself. The projects we performed in groups were lots of fun and very educational, and in addition to learning how to design, you also learn how to organize and work together.”
“After completing my Bachelor’s in three years’ time, I wanted to become a full-time board member or a student team member. I applied to the University of Twente’s Solar Team and was hired. During my time on the team I served as secretary, was responsible for finance and logistics, and was even vice team lead for a while. I learned so many other things than during my degree programme!”
“Towards the end of my studies I completed an internship at a major offshoring company and discovered that I really enjoyed working in this amazing sector. But I really wanted to do more with sustainability and experience what it’s like to work at a start-up as well. I went on to complete an internship and graduation project at Oceans of Energy, a start-up where we develop solar energy at sea. After graduation I continued working here and I have been working here for almost two years now. The company is growing rapidly and it is very cool to help continue its development in my position as project engineer. I spend part of my time designing and calculating, creating some components myself while having some made by others. My job also includes some project management tasks, such as planning and budgeting. And lastly, some of my time is spent at sea checking out installations and performing maintenance on our floaters.”
“My advice to prospective students is: take a good look around! Visit multiple universities or universities of applied sciences and check out as many study programmes as you can. This will help give you a good idea of the programme itself and the atmosphere. Sign up to be a Student for a Day, guaranteed always a great day! It’s also a good idea to ask the people around you what they’re studying and what their choices were based on.”
