Being busy in BioBusiness
I’ve been quite busy the past couple of weeks, and now I find that I only have 46 days left of my thesis! I’m head of an organization which hosted an exhibition at Rådhuspladsen in Copenhagen on the 19th – 21st of November, and since I’m the managing director, I’ve been handling budgets, preparing press releases, helping my employees and a million other things for the past weeks. Now, as I explained in my previous post, since I’m here in Denmark where I live, and still have a project at DTU and my jobs while doing my thesis, I am not spending all of my time at Novozymes. To tell you a couple of things about what I am doing when I am not at Novozymes, I can mention managing Green Vision, being part of Biotech Academy, practicing yoga, cooking and seeing friends and family. And then I actually work at Novozymes as well, as a student helper… Normally I would consider myself as a normal student, but I guess I am quite busy most of the time. But I looove coming home after a long day in the lab or at work, put up my feet, have a cup of tea and just relax – who doesn’t?!?
But as a student, the bad conscious is never eliminated, which is why I spend considerate amounts of time on my thesis. I decided to fast forward and tell you about my switch from R&D to BioBusiness!
After three months in R&D, Technical Application, working with manure, I felt that I had made some progress on the project, and could leave R&D to expand my project into the business area. The difference, at least as I experienced it, between being in R&D and in BioBusiness was huge. In BioBusiness things are more fast-pace, people travel more, go to more meetings, and the environment is a bit more creative. I have to say that I liked both departments – they are just different from each other. Switching between the two departments was quite tough I think, since I had to reassign myself to an entirely different way of working and instead of doing my research in the lab, I was now doing it from my computer. It was a nice change, but it took some getting used to. I really liked the combination of business and R&D though, and I feel as if it has made me understand the entire business and company better. So my work went underway, and after spending some time getting used to all the new stuff, I actually felt as if I was getting the hang of it J I liked how I could see the connection between the basic R&D work and how to make money from it.
What I also liked about this department – and actually in R&D as well – was that I got considered pretty much as any other employee. Of course I didn’t have the same responsibility, but in both departments my work was actually used for something! One criterion I had before starting was that I didn’t want to get treated as the useless student sitting in a corner. And I sure wasn’t! It’s a really great experience to be taken seriously by the real employees, and to feel useful and as if you are making a real contribution to the company. It’s so great! Another thing that is common in the two departments is Friday morning breakfast – I think that’s the same in every company J
In my next post, I’ll tell you more about BioBusiness, and how I ended up back in R&D again!