You probably already know internships are an important program of Teqplay and we always have several interns in our team. In February Damon and Ruben started their graduation internships and earlier this week they both graduated with respectively an eight and a seven out of ten! On what projects did they actually graduate?
Damon Asberg is an old acquaintance at Teqplay. He joined our team in August 2017 on his first internship. He developed Teqplay’s internal development tool, called onthemap. Ever since it’s widely used throughout the company as a debugging tool during development and as a demonstrative tool to display the sheer amount of ships and information about infrastructural processes. “After that internship I was offered a position to work part time as a Front-end developer next to my education, which I have been doing until I started my graduation internship in February”, he says.
Damon wrote his bachelor thesis about how Teqplay’s front-end development process can become more efficient. “It’s about researching the actual development process of applications, looking deep into how applications are created on code-level, as well as how employees approach the development process”.
“My internships at Teqplay were my first real-world experience in terms of programming. I’ve learned so much and my internships showed me Teqplay is a company that wants to make stuff happen and they’re not afraid to experiment with new technologies”.
Ruben Melchers worked on a completely different gradation project. He took a deep dive into the world of gamification and developed a game for one of our agency clients. “During the agents work, numerous situations happen and distract; computer screens filled with tons of numbers, phone calls, colleagues walking in and out… With the introduction of gamification, the focus of agents can be improved, more work can be done and the distraction will be lower”, he says.
Ruben also added a competitive element to increase motivation. “The agents acquire points by doing their regular day-to-day tasks, but can earn more points when they put extra effort in it.” The agent that has reached the top of the leaderboard will become the “Agent of the Week” and earns an actual trophy that will stay on his/her desk. “The Teqplay foosball competition inspired me to add this element”, he says.
Talking about our foosball competition, both graduation interns loved it. “It’s a great way to get to know your co-workers”. Another thing that hasn’t stayed unnoticed is our team’s desire for cake. Any major accomplishment or deal is celebrated with cake! “I think I will have to upgrade my gym membership due to all the pies I have eaten at Teqplay!”, says Ruben.
Both of them are very positive about Teqplay’s culture. Damon says, “Everyone talks to everyone and no matter what job you have, everyone is taken seriously and treated equal. That makes it a pleasant environment to work in!”
Damon will continue working as a front-end Developer at Teqplay, but Ruben chose a different path. “Now that I have graduated, I will continue with the freelance jobs and I can put more effort in my own web agency, until it’s big enough for me to quit my freelance jobs”, he says. “I would like to thank everyone at Teqplay for their help, insights, Dunglish lessons (translating Dutch words and sayings literally in English; a joke we like to play at Teqplay, red.) and foosball games. I started out as a terrible foosball player and I’m leaving as an even worse one.”
