Who says you have to be in the West of our country to kickstart your career? That you can only find your dream job there? Guus Konings knows better. He exchanged 'his' Rotterdam for the northern Netherlands. On Campus Groningen, he found an internship at Bytesnet, a regional company that offers national data center solutions and data services. “Well, if you get the chance to work in the most beautiful data center in the Netherlands, then you have to take that chance..”
“This could be it”
“Wait, I think I'm already halfway there! Only a few weeks to go and then it will be over”, says Guus. “Time flies.” Last January, the 21-year-old Business IT, and Management student moved from Mijnsheerenland, a small village near Rotterdam, to Groningen. “Quite a step,” he admits. “Rotterdam is in my heart. But when I received the offer to do an internship at Bytesnet, I immediately knew: this could be it, that dream job...''
Data is the future
High-Performance Computing, Cloud, Connectivity – you have to use some ‘bits and bytes language’ to understand what the company on the Zernike Campus does. A language that Guus has mastered by now. “ It really comes down to us providing the digital infrastructure for our customers,” he explains. “So that their data is safe and they can always access it.” Data has the future, Bytesnet is convinced of that. Guus is mainly concerned with optimizing internal IT systems. “The great thing is that I get a lot of space to share ideas,” he says. “At the same time, I also learn new things every day.”
The campus feeling
A win-win situation, says Jasper Bosman, business developer at Bytesnet. “Young people bring a lot of knowledge with them. While experienced colleagues do the 'must haves', they take on the 'want to haves'. The themes that ensure that our company continues to grow. We really need students like Guus to innovate,” explains Jasper. Therefore Bytesnet regularly invites students to take a look at their data lab and data center on Campus Groningen. “We want to facilitate innovation and inspire students. So that they can inspire us again. That interaction, I call it the campus feeling.”
Connected by the campus
If anyone knows the campus feeling well, it's Jasper. He studied at the Hanze University of Applied Sciences twenty years ago and has never left. “Two buildings in a meadow, that was all it was then,” he laughs. “Now look at this. A place with so much knowledge, ideas, nationalities, and backgrounds. Connected by Campus Groningen. Beautiful!" Guus nods: “When I'm in a 'bicycle traffic jam' on campus in the morning, I'm always amazed at all those people. That's so cool. You just know: it all happens on Campus Groningen. You really don't have to stay in Rotterdam to discover your future.”
