Launching your career at Unilin: 3 colleagues went from student job to permanent contract

For many young professionals, a student job is the perfect springboard to a career. Marie Maes started her adventure three years ago in a student job at Unilin Panels in a field that was relevant to her studies. "I worked there for a year as a student. “Depending on my class schedule, I supported the brand team two to three days a week ", she says. Her student job gave her hands-on experience in event organisation and digital marketing, which aligned perfectly with her master's degree in marketing and finance.

Thibault Vandenbroucke also started his Unilin career as a student in a relevant field, now almost three years ago. "My job was to set up a spare parts warehouse on site and a corresponding computer system", Thibault explains. This job gave him the opportunity to put into practice the knowledge he acquired during his industrial engineering programme in electromechanics and gain insight into the operations of machines and production.

Umur Nalli started in 2022 as a Sales Assistant in Customer Service Belux at Unilin Flooring. "My main focus was system order entry", he says. That student job was the perfect springboard to an internship and eventually a permanent position.

Why choose Unilin?

For Marie, Thibault and Umur, working at Unilin was a well-considered choice. "I was looking for a student job in marketing through Randstad Young Talents. I did my fair share of job interviews but with Unilin I felt an instant click. The wide variety of tasks and the opportunity to try out different aspects of her marketing education really appealed to her.

Thibault was looking for a technical student job that was easy to combine with his studies. “I got to know Unilin on a company visit to the Wielsbeke site a few years ago. I was very impressed with all the machines and knowledge."

As with Marie and Thibault, Unilin felt like a logical choice to Umur.

Growth and new challenges

After their student jobs, Marie, Thibault and Umur joined Unilin on a permanent basis. Marie's current job as a Marketing Coordinator is completely different, but the experience she gained setting up exhibition stands still serves her well. “My main focus has shifted to graphic design nowadays", Marie explains. She handles a lot of marketing aspects – from exhibition materials to press communications – and is now looking forward to the website overhaul.

When his supervisor switched roles, Thibault applied for the position of Lead Technical. “I didn’t hesitate and put in for the position of Lead Technical”, he explains. Thanks to his student job, he was already familiar with the job responsibilities and how the site operates. "Of course, I have a lot more responsibility and a wider range of duties now. I really enjoy that variety."

Umur's career path has been quite smooth so far. He adds: "Because of my first student job at Unilin, I knew I wanted to do my internship at Unilin too. That’s how I eventually ended up with the WMS team.” After his internship, Umur was offered the opportunity to keep working at Unilin as a student until the start of his full-time employment in September. "I get the sense that my work and ideas are being put into practice", he adds, referring to his work on the automated packaging line.

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