There is nothing to stop you writing your final project at a small, newly started company. In fact, this can open up significant benefits and opportunities—if you’re ready to shoulder the responsibility.
By Bertel Henning Jensen
“I honestly don’t know what the coming week will bring.”
That is how Tilde Schwaner (BEng) describes her everyday situation at EyeCular Technologies, a small start-up that produces stratification technology for solar heating installations—a technology that helps generate up to 25 per cent more energy.
The innovative technology is the brainchild of Martin Spanggaard who, like Tilde Schwaner, studied at DTU Diplom. He is clearly delighted by his invention, which he himself describes as ‘fantastic’.
“But I needed some help, so I got in touch with my old contacts from the “Manufacturing and Management” BEng programme at DTU, and asked if they had any students who could assist with the production and distribution set-ups.”
Responsibility and pressure
They did, and two of them were soon working on their final projects at Martin’s company. One was Tilde Schwaner, who has no regrets about choosing to write her MSc thesis at a small start-up rather than at a more established enterprise:
“The opportunity to take on personal responsibility meant a great deal. My colleague and I had no choice but to become specialists—there was no-one to ask for advice. Of course, there is always the risk of making a wrong decision, but you learn a great deal from your mistakes. We were given a lot of responsibility, but had to work under a lot of pressure, too. The concept of shelving a project doesn’t exist here—things simply have to be ready, and time is short. On the other hand, the results are very clear and come quickly,” she explains.
Martin Spanggaard has identified numerous good reasons for taking the time to find students willing to work on their final projects at his company:
“One of the pillars of our recruitment strategy is to work with the best students with a view to taking them on full-time after they graduate. When you’re a small company without an established name, it can be hard to attract the most highly skilled students—which is why I put a lot of effort into getting hold of precisely these people,” he says.
A big fish in a little pond
In return he has something very special to offer the students:
“When you’re at a big company, you’re just a tiny fish in a huge lake; when you’re at my company, I’m right next door and everything we do is hugely important to me. The students work on equal terms with all the other staff. It’s important that we take students seriously and give them responsibility, as this is a sure-fire way to access a pool of skilled employees later on. In addition, involving the students is an excellent way to bring in new eyes to look at complex problems.”
Martin goes on to emphasise that the process of selecting the right students is crucial to achieving success from tapping into this resource. That is why he spends a lot of time in close dialogue with DTU and the different heads of studies to identify precisely those students who are the best match.
In this context, academic qualifications are only part of the story; Martin is looking in particular for what he terms ‘fire in their eyes’. The students must be ready to shoulder the considerable responsibility they will be given, and they must be adept at working independently and creatively.
This is simply essential in an everyday situation where there may not necessarily be firmly established procedures and experienced ‘old hands’ to fall back on. In return, the students’ skills are quickly transformed into tangible solutions:
“If you get hold of the right students, they will think the thoughts you probably wouldn’t think yourself. And this is something that really generates value,” he explains.
For Tilde Schwaner, the time spent at EyeCular translated into top marks for her final project—and she has since been given a full-time position at EyeCular, where she still has a wealth of assignments to deal with, and masses of responsibility.
“I’m sure it would have been a safer option to find a place at a more established place, but here I have the opportunity to make a difference, and that’s really cool,” she says.
Article in DTUavisen no. 8, October 2014.