Since June 2023, Daphne Janssen (26) has been working as a factory engineer at a well-known company in Eindhoven through ENTER. She is mainly involved in the gluing process. “There’s a whole theory behind it,” she explains. “We work in clean rooms, so it’s not just a matter of gluing things together.” She studied Chemical Engineering at TU/e, so this fits well with her background. However, during her studies, she wasn’t exactly sure what she wanted. “ENTER helped me a lot with that.”
She got in touch with ENTER through LinkedIn and decided there was no harm in having a coffee with David, who is now her manager at ENTER. “I was actually very quickly enthusiastic because David listened very well to what I had to say and also asked probing questions. He knows what he’s talking about; I was still a bit lost, so that was very nice.”
Relaxed
Everything happened very quickly. “I still had to graduate when I went for an interview with the client I’m currently working for. But I was allowed to spend a day shadowing to see how things worked and who I would be working with, and I got so enthusiastic that I said yes. And honestly, it was very relaxed to graduate with a job already lined up. And working through ENTER helped too. If I really didn’t like my assignment, I could work with David to find something else. There are so many different jobs and roles…”
Daphne has found her groove. “Variety in my work was very important to me; I knew that. To be honest, I thought I would end up in a lab, but now I work at the competence center and spend all day solving problems and training people, and that’s what suits me.”
Checklist
At her client’s site, Daphne works on large machines for the client’s customers. “In a clean room, so we want to use as little glue as possible to keep it clean. But you still need to use the right amount to make it strong… I spend a lot of time in the clean room and have frequent and good contact with the operators. They approach me if something goes wrong, if there’s a leak, for example. Then I go and look and feel it. I then work through a whole checklist. Are we working correctly? Is there no contamination? Is the glue perhaps expired? Are all the ingredients correct?”
If Daphne can’t figure it out herself, she contacts the supplier. “I also keep those contacts warm and good, which keeps the work varied.” In the meantime, she is doing more and more other things as well. “The major problems in the gluing process have largely been solved, and now I’m setting up other competencies that are more assembly-oriented. So, I’m continuing to develop myself.”
Mirror
She finds her development very important anyway. “ENTER also offers courses in personal development, and I took ‘Personal Leadership.’ I can really recommend everyone to do that because it holds up a mirror to you, allowing you to work on yourself. That’s very valuable. And you see your colleagues who work on other assignments, which is also fun. At ENTER, they do quite a lot anyway; recently, we all went to the Efteling together.”
Spending time with her boyfriend, friends, and family is also valuable to Daphne. “I love having something to eat or drink together. I love to travel, but I also find joy in smaller things. For example, I go to the market every Saturday morning with a friend to get delicious things for a charcuterie board.”
