INTERVIEW WITH NUBIA Mattos
- PLEASE BRIEFLY INTRODUCE YOURSELF.
My name is Nubia Mattos, I am Brazilian and graduated in biology in Brazil.
- HOW DID YOU FIND YOUR INTERNSHIP?
When I applied to the company, there was no vacancy available. I went to the website of the company I wanted to work with and applied. This is what is called in German as “Initiativbewerbung”.
- HOW WAS THE INTERVIEW PROCESS AT THE COMPANY?
It was exhausting. There were four levels before I received the internship offer. The first level was the application, where I wrote a letter of motivation and sent it along with my resume. At the second level, I had to pass an IQ and personality test. At the third level was the interview with HR. In the fourth and last level, I was invited for a series of face-to-face interviews. In this level I was interviewed by three different people, until then, the internship offer was for process engineering, but during the interviews, I commented how I loved the sustainability and packaging area, and they decided to call a fourth interviewer who worked in this area that I was interested in, and he happened to be the biggest specialist of sustainable packaging in Europe. After the interviews, they decided to open a position for me in this area and already made me an internship offer there.
- HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE WORKING FOR THE COMPANY?
It was an incredible experience. I found myself professionally during my internship. The work was very demanding, I needed to read and study a lot to be always updated, I was sent to several trade fairs, to learn more about the news in the market of materials and products, I learned how to use different software, but these were also the reasons why I found my internship so amazing. Even though I was an intern, the company invested in me to learn more about the content I was working on.
- WHAT DID YOU LEARN?
In the internship I could put in practice what I learned in my biology study in Brazil with what I’m studying at PMT. But before working for P&G I had a very theoretical knowledge about the subject, in the company I could learn that things are not so black and white, there are several factors that need to be considered so that your idea works in a practical way for the company.
- DID THE COMPANY OFFER YOU CONSISTENT FEEDBACK THROUGHOUT YOUR INTERNSHIP?
Yes. My manager had regular meetings with me so I could update him on my projects and what I was doing. Also, the company has a point system that can be given out when you do something outstanding. In the last month of my internship, I received the highest score that can be given (gold badged).
- WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT WORKING FOR THIS COMPANY?
People always treated me as an equal. Even though I was a trainee, I had meetings and presented to top management in the company. My opinion was valued, and the company invested in my knowledge. Whenever I said that I wanted to learn how to use a software, or learn how to use a tool, the company always supported my decision.
- HOW DID YOUR INTERNSHIP RELATE TO THE FIELD YOU ARE STUDYING IN?
My internship was a combination of what I learnt from my studies in Biology and what I am studying now at PMT. I learned a lot about sustainability, organic and inorganic chemistry, scientific procedures in Biology. In PMT, understanding about the different types of printing (after all packaging has some type of printing in them), about different types of materials, packaging production, ways of testing materials (a great contribution of the Metrology course) are the areas that I would highlight in the course and that the knowledge helped me during the internship.
- WHAT KIND OF TASKS DID YOU DO?
I was responsible for sustainability analysis of pharmaceutical products for products produced in Europe. I worked as R&D and I had projects that aimed to ensure that the products met the Proposal Packaging and Packaging Waste (PPWR), i.e., that the products were more sustainable – recyclable, less use of virgin plastic in composition, etc.