(written by An Bouckaert - element61 Trainee in 2021)
Who are you and what are your educational goals?
My name is An Bouckaert and I am a student Business Engineering, specialization Data Analytics at the University of Ghent. Between the 1st and 2nd year of my Master’s degree, I realized I wanted to gain some hands-on experience and that’s why I applied for the summer internship at element61.
What did your internship look like? What did you do exactly?
Well, during this internship I was granted the opportunity to work on the project of building an end-to-end Marketing Cockpit using various APIs, Azure & Power BI. In those 6 weeks I got the chance to learn as much as possible and got a taste of the ‘work life’. Despite COVID, there was still an ideal balance between working from home and in the office, and after a year of studying online, this felt refreshing!
How did you experience the contact with the team of element61?
Everyone on the Data Science & Strategy team was very knowledgeable, open-minded, and most of all passionate about their roles. Whenever I had a question or was stuck with something I could turn to any one of them and they were all eager to help me. In addition, my internship was arranged in such a way that I was often able to approach my peer, Floriant, with questions, updates, etc.
Interning at element61 allowed me to develop a better understanding of the dynamics within the team, as well as the career as a data scientist/engineer with the countless opportunities that are present in this growing industry.
What is your biggest take-away from the internship?
Looking back, I am confident enough to say that I am not the same person I was when I first began the internship. I learned how to operate with various Microsoft Azure tools, I have been able to improve my coding skills greatly, and I learned an awful lot about the ‘big world of data’.
What do you want to share with any future students considering an internship at element61?
To all students following a study within Data Analytics, Computer Science, etc., I would definitely recommend an internship at element61. For me, this was in fact the ideal complement to my study of Business Engineering. This is because this internship was more focused on the data engineering side as opposed to the focus on data science within my studies. So, in conclusion, you'll learn so much more on top of what you see in university, and that will give you an advantage in the future! (And let’s also not forget the nice addition it brings to your CV ? )
Want to see for yourself? Discover the traineeships given by element61.