My first weeks of work at the office

After my first two weeks of during desk research mostly to find out what Kaefer does, who their customers are and what they deliver, I can say that I have been assigned to a challenging project.

In the beginning of my internship (3 weeks ago) I did not know anything about Kaefer yet, therefore my supervisor let me do some desk research to get to know the company better and to make sure that I am ready for a real challenging task. The first two weeks were difficult for me, because the work I did, was very monotonous work. I wanted to do something else instead of looking for information on my laptop. However, I think this was the best way for me to get to know the company and to get ready for a more variable job. Thanks to the milkshakes (and the Winter Olympics) I survived the first weeks at the office.

What kind of project now?

The person who I owe my entire internship told me that he had a nice project for me to take part in. This project will last for at least 4 to 5 months, so it is not a one day job. After he made me all enthusiastic about a long term project, he told me the content of this project. "Kaefer is trying to target Blue Ocean Initiatives by creating new markets for us. At this moment we have created a new product for insulation, but the problem is, we do not know how large our market is in South East Asia. Therefore I need a person who can do desk research, call the companies and eventually create the sales."

And there I was, listening to his explanation for the project. Before I knew it, I told him that this was exactly what I am looking for a project during my internship.

Now what?

After the company assigned me to this project I got in touch with some colleagues in Vietnam and Malaysia, who are also working on this project. We talked through Skype, just to meet each other and to make an agreement how we can tackle this challenging project. I was asked to start with doing some research right away. Just to find out which companies we can target. And there was my first difficulty, how to do real proper desk research. Why would that be difficult? This could be difficult because of the data I needed to collect. My task was to collect data about different power plants and their brand AND type of turbines they have. It sounds pretty easy, but I can tell you; it's not. This information is very private for the companies and therefore not so easy to find. However, I found some information which was, according to my supervisor, good data to use.

Now I am waiting for this data to reach my colleagues and if they confirm that the data is for good use, we can begin with targeting the companies by phone or in person. These companies have their Head Offices in Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia, this means that I may need to fly to one of these countries to visit our potential clients in person.

In other words: TO BE CONTINUED.