In 2018, Sven did an internship at Winston during the third year of his Software Engineering studies. This turned out to be a golden move for both Sven and Winston. Sven still works at Winston and has become development lead of several ventures. We talked to Sven to look back on the past few years.

Via the Fontys stage board, Sven was orienting himself on various internship positions: “I looked at everything, but Winston stood out”. The internship was ultimately dominated by the combination of technology and business. For example, Sven has researched needs in the market, but also made concrete technical deliveries. “During my internship I had a lot to do with both technology and business. I found that very fun and challenging. Especially because you can learn a lot from everyone in the team in both areas”.

After a successful internship, both Sven and Winston expressed their willingness to continue together. By continuing to work at Winston for one and a half days a week in addition to his studies, Sven says he has learned a lot: “At school, there is often a lack of connection with practice. The assignments are very theoretical. In practice you will find out that there is much more to writing code. You have to think more broadly about the business, the design, the planning and the stakeholders. You also learn this at school, but you have to experience it to really learn it. This made me advance in my development”.

Despite the fact that Sven was very well placed at Winston, he decided to do his graduation internship at a large corporate: “I deliberately chose a very large corporate, because I wanted to experience the contrast”. Sven soon found out that a large corporate does not match his ambitions: “You are listened to less, the atmosphere is less familiar and little is done with what you yield as an intern. At Winston, people who want to learn get much more opportunities to actually learn. Moreover, something is really done with what you yield”.

The above matters were enough reason for Sven to pick up the phone after graduating and call Winston: “I decided quite quickly to choose Winston, my gut just said that Winston is where I should be”.

Sven has now been working full-time at Winston for more than a year. In that year he became development lead of several ventures/projects. Sven is happy with the responsibility he has been given. “It really gave me a growth spurt. Both as a person and developer. I master many more techniques and code better, but I have also become much better at planning, communicating and managing people. These are things you have to develop when you are in contact with the customer”. Sven would like to continue the big steps he has taken. His ambition is to become a technical lead developer within Winston. “That means that I will manage projects in a technical way and can manage the team in this”.

When we look at what makes Winston unique, according to Sven, he doesn’t have to think long: “If you really want something, Winston offers you the opportunity to realize these ambitions. The atmosphere at Winston is also unique. Everyone is positive and everyone is on the same page. We work hard, but there is also plenty of room for fun. We are very close on a personal level.”