International internship in the Netherlands, Rotterdam
How did I get in Rotterdam?
Finding an internship was not an easy task. Initially, I wanted to start an internship somewhere in the United Kingdom, because hiking in the picturesque landscape of the UK has always been one of the items on my bucket list. I contacted several companies located in the UK, but unfortunately I did not get any response of them. Because I was running out of time to find a place to start my internship, I started thinking about the benefits of doing an internship in the Netherlands: no new language to learn and the distance would made it possible to travel home some of the weekends. Searching through some blogs of old students, I came across the blog of Pieter, who had completed an internship at a construction site in Vlaardingen, near Rotterdam. Thanks to my teacher Mr. Peters I got in touch with BAM Wonen and was invited to the building site where Pieter worked as an intern two years ago. After a meeting and a tour on the construction site, I received the approval to start my internship at the site of Vlaardingen. It was definitely a great opportunity to start an internship on the same site as an old student: by reading Pieters blog I had already a lot of knowledge of the company and site and had a clear idea about what I could expect from the internship.
My place to stay
After my internship in Vlaardingen was approved and the paperwork was done, one final task remained: finding a place to stay. I looked into some real estate sites and eventually found a place via Airbnb.nl. There I found a man who rented out dorms in an old jenever distillery located in Schiedam, about 5 km from the project site. I contacted the owner of the building and made an appointment to take a look at the residence. The biggest dorm was already rented, but the man showed me a smaller room which was still under construction. He said that if I would like to rent that room, he would make it ready to live in by the time my internship would start. Because of the lack of other places close to the project site, I could not deny his offer and accepted the risk. When my internship was about to start and I brought all of my stuff to get my dorm ready for my stay, I was surprised how much work the owner had put into the room. The room was very clean and furnished cosy. The room was split up in two parts: the main room and the bathroom. The main room included a mezzanine, a kitchen area with a fridge, stove and sink and a sofa, game console and beamer to watch some TV. The bathroom included a walk-in shower, a sink and a toilet. Very happy with this result I started unpacking my bags, the adventure could finally begin!
The project
Project Park Hooglede is a building project which (in the end) will comprise a total of 225 houses, including terraced houses, semi-detached houses, detached houses, apartments and villas. Of course not all buildings were constructed at once, but gradually and in different phases and periods of time. When I started my internship, already a big part of the project was finished:
- The yellow houses are finished and inhabited. During Pieters internship two years ago they were building one of the two flats.
- In the orange houses the façade brickwork is taken care of and the prefab chimneys are installed, so people can start with installing the roof tiles.
- In the grey houses people are busy with the structural work on the second floor.
- In the red houses the groundwork has just begun. Of the three large construction pits that should be excavated, one is already used to place the drainage and people are busy piling.
- In the green houses the work has not yet begun. The site shed is currently located on this area of the project site.
- The orange houses were finished and ready to be inhabited.
- In the grey houses the structural work was finished and work was still in progress.
- In the red houses the walls of the buildings on the first row were being glued and the stamps for the floor slabs were placed. In the second row, the floor plates of the ground floor were placed and the joints were poured in. In the last row, the foundation was fully poured and ready for placing of the floor slabs.
My tasks and responsibilities
In order to get used to the whole project and start my internship fluently, I got easy tasks during the first few weeks: I opened the lifts in the morning, I made sure there was electricity available everywhere on the site and did a check up of the necessary things when the site manager, Jan Lommerse, was busy. During the first two months of my internship, I worked together with Mehmed Ozsoy, an 18 year old student from the MBO study program. Mehmed had already been on the construction site for about four months at that time. He knew the project very good, as well as the other people working on the site. During my first days and weeks we often took a walk together on the site to get to know more about the whole project.
Because the site manager worked a four-day week, Mehmed and I were alone at the construction site every Friday. Every Thursday we usually had a meeting with Jan and discussed what would have to happen on the site the next day in order to manage the working people and check the deliveries.
As some weeks passed I became more familiar with the construction site and therefor I had to take care of more important tasks. For example, Mehmed and I had to measure the window sills and report the measurements back to Jan, so that he could order the right dimensions of the products. These kind of tasks obviously came with a lot more responsibility. When receiving deliveries, Mehmed and I no longer had to ask Jan for instructions; thanks to the experience on the site we were able to handle the deliveries on our own.
In April, two months after I started my internship, Mehmeds internship was over and from then on Jan and I were the only site managers on the construction site. Being more on my own I learned a lot and gained a good insight into the whole project. During the last two months of my internship I was also able to solve a lot of problems on my own, without having to ask Jan for help. As some kind of a ‘test’, Jan gave me the lead of the construction of the red houses. For this I had to make sure that the foundation piles were pinched at the right height, that the reinforcement was placed correctly, that the necessary recesses were in the right places, that the concrete was of a correct quality and so on. Having my own small project taught me very well how to handle big tasks, deal with major responsibilities and made me learn to process a lot of information in a short period of time.
The whole experience of the internship definitely left a great impact on me. During the twenty weeks of my internship I got a little preview of what my life as a site manager would look like in the future. Thanks to a great site manager I was able to learn a lot and I could not have wished for a better supervisor. One important thing that I learned during my internship is that it is important, as a site manager, to be strict with the people you work with. During my first weeks I was sometimes afraid to be strict with the workers and I tolerated much of their behaviour, but as my internship progressed, I dared to act more strictly and showed the workmen that I was in charge.
I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to do my internship at Project Park Hooglede. Through this way I would like to thank everyone who made this internship possible and made it a fantastic first experience for me.
Because the site manager worked a four-day week, Mehmed and I were alone at the construction site every Friday. Every Thursday we usually had a meeting with Jan and discussed what would have to happen on the site the next day in order to manage the working people and check the deliveries.
As some weeks passed I became more familiar with the construction site and therefor I had to take care of more important tasks. For example, Mehmed and I had to measure the window sills and report the measurements back to Jan, so that he could order the right dimensions of the products. These kind of tasks obviously came with a lot more responsibility. When receiving deliveries, Mehmed and I no longer had to ask Jan for instructions; thanks to the experience on the site we were able to handle the deliveries on our own.
In April, two months after I started my internship, Mehmeds internship was over and from then on Jan and I were the only site managers on the construction site. Being more on my own I learned a lot and gained a good insight into the whole project. During the last two months of my internship I was also able to solve a lot of problems on my own, without having to ask Jan for help. As some kind of a ‘test’, Jan gave me the lead of the construction of the red houses. For this I had to make sure that the foundation piles were pinched at the right height, that the reinforcement was placed correctly, that the necessary recesses were in the right places, that the concrete was of a correct quality and so on. Having my own small project taught me very well how to handle big tasks, deal with major responsibilities and made me learn to process a lot of information in a short period of time.
The whole experience of the internship definitely left a great impact on me. During the twenty weeks of my internship I got a little preview of what my life as a site manager would look like in the future. Thanks to a great site manager I was able to learn a lot and I could not have wished for a better supervisor. One important thing that I learned during my internship is that it is important, as a site manager, to be strict with the people you work with. During my first weeks I was sometimes afraid to be strict with the workers and I tolerated much of their behaviour, but as my internship progressed, I dared to act more strictly and showed the workmen that I was in charge.
I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to do my internship at Project Park Hooglede. Through this way I would like to thank everyone who made this internship possible and made it a fantastic first experience for me.