Alumni Blog: Eline de Groot (YACHT)

Dear members, I will first introduce myself. I am Eline de Groot, 25 years old and living in Utrecht since September. I started with the bachelor Business Administration in 2013 and in the second year I chose to follow the track Technology Management. After my bachelor, I followed the master Supply Chain Management. From the second year of my study, I decided to become an active member of TeMa. This was so much fun, so I am still active today in the alumni committee. TeMa really added value to my student life. I got to know a lot of nice people, I saw a lot of great companies from the inside, attended interesting workshops, and experienced beautiful International Study Project trips and Batavierenraces. I do not regret the choice of becoming an active member of TeMa.

This is also partly the reason that I have to get used to the working life. However, working has its own advantages (like money ?). In my time with TeMa I have seen and spoken a lot of companies, but as a result the choice became even harder. When I was writing my master thesis and started to orientate more seriously at the job market, I discovered that I had a strong preference for a traineeship. I did not know what kind of organization will suit me and what kind of jobs and tasks I would like to do, so the idea of legal ‘job-hopping’ appealed to me immediately. That is the reason why I am a Supply Chain Management and Procurement Trainee of YACHT.

This is a three year program in which you complete three one year assignments within three different organizations. This allows you to look at different companies and experience what it is like to work at those companies. After the three years, you know better what you are looking for in a company. In addition to your assignments, YACHT offers various courses in hard skills and soft skills. From the first year you are part of a class with fellow trainees where you follow different trainings. Each year consists of four topics, including one day full of training, challenges to perform, coaching sessions, and peer reviews. So far, I have had the topics effectivity and communication, both interesting topics. In the training, the theory is explained and we spoke about how the theory applies to you and your job. For example, we have done an extensive DICS test, the well-known tests with the colors. You can use the insights to gain more knowledge about the communication styles of your colleagues. In the coaching sessions you can discuss specific topics that you encounter in your current assignment.

At the moment I am doing an assignment at Big Bazar, the pink/orange discount company, which always sells stuff from what you didn’t know it existed. The discount world is a dynamic but difficult environment, which you notice within the company. Last year Big Bazar opened 40 new stores. The head office is in Amsterdam where about 50 people work. It is therefore a small organization, so you know what is going on at each department. Currently, I have a lot of freedom to tackle processes that stand out. The focus is now to improve processes around our suppliers, such as introducing a fixed delivery schedule for our main suppliers and generating order advices from the system for our stock planners. They are currently working with a self-made excel file. The system could help them but first have to be set up with the right data and parameters. I will be working for Big Bazar until August, so I still have enough time to implement my ideas.

I do not know yet where I would like to do my next assignment, but I have a preference for a large company. Big Bazar is a small, flat organization with a specific work culture. A large organization would have to deal with other topics and should have a completely different way of working. It seems great to experience these differences and therefore I would like to do assignments in my traineeship that are very different from each other.

Would you like more information about YACHT, Big Bazar or about traineeships in general? Do not hesitate to contact me!

Eline de Groot

0630869872