"I study Business Administration at the Hanzehogeschool. I ended up at NOM for my six-month graduation internship. Very fascinating and very instructive: now I'm busy with a market research among entrepreneurs. For a product that does not yet exist. Top Secret."
First impression of the NOM? It felt like coming home!
"A product that is not there yet. Might sound arcane, but it should. Think of a new service online, but different. That's all I'm allowed to say about it. Of course we think there will be demand for it; but to really know for sure, you have to do a proper market research first. After all, that's the advice we give to start-ups knocking on NOM's door! The good thing is: the conversations I'm having now, regardless of the outcome for the research, are very useful. If you listen carefully, you sometimes hear something important between the lines that has nothing to do with the subject of the market research. For example, that such an entrepreneur is completely unfamiliar with the scale-up program, to get funding or advice again. Oh, does that exist? Then I run to a colleague with the question: can we do something with that?"
"When I first walked in here, it felt like coming home. I looked left and right, everyone was relaxing and talking. The atmosphere is always relaxed, you don't feel any friction or strict hierarchy. You get an enormous amount of freedom; of course you have to be able to deal with that. There is definitely no 9 to 5 mentality. They do expect quality from you, but how you achieve that is up to you. If you think it would be more efficient to work at home or in the evenings, you do that. I would like to continue my studies, maybe see a bit more of the world, but otherwise I would know what to do: apply to NOM for an interesting position!"