ITEM goes abroad!

Two former intermate members, Alain Starke, and Mats de Ronde, tell about their international study and working experiences. Both are part of ITEM, the alumni association of all innovation science studies.

You take time off work when the sun shines

Alain starke

An academic is expected to be ‘mobile’. For me, this meant going to a different university after obtaining my PhD in Eindhoven. I applied for a Niels Stensen Fellowship to work at the University of Bergen as a postdoctoral researcher for 12 months, starting in September 2019. 

Bergen is situated on Norway’s west coast. It is a Hanseatic city (NL: Hanzestad) with roughly the same population as Eindhoven, boasting colorful wooden warehouses (NOR: Bryggen), alongside other traditional architecture. The city is surrounded by ‘de syv fjell’ (Nynorsk for ‘the seven mountains’), which makes for a pretty view but also a lot of rain when the moist ocean air collides with them. 

This touches upon the biggest cultural difference about working in Norway. Because sunshine and good weather are sparse, you take time off work when the sun shines. Norwegians love hiking (‘friluftsliv’), so a sunny Tuesday afternoon would lead to crowded mountainsides. 

Norwegians are very friendly, yet a bit introverted. The Dutch spontaneous chitchat with strangers is not socially acceptable in Norway. This made it hard to fit in with the locals, who tend to have a small group of close friends and a lot of ‘loose contacts’ (also sexually). There is also a thing called the (non-sexual) Norwegian one-night stand: you go to a bar with Norwegians, spend a fortune on alcohol, and have a good time, but get ignored by them in the morning.  

The social goofs are easily forgotten by the scenic views. The salary is not bad either, which is one of the reasons why I still work there one day a week, but remotely from Eindhoven. When you do go to Norway, perhaps bring along some friends and alcohol. 

Mats de Ronde  

When I started my degree in 2009 the program was still firmly Dutch, both in the name (Technische Innovatiewetenschappen) and content. While all of our books were in English, teachers would try to explain their content in Dutch while occasionally around random (heavily accented) English technical terms we’d recognize from our reading. This led to pretty awkward situations during exams at times, where you’d be fully prepared based on studying a book in English only to receive a test that is fully in Dutch, with all technical terms translated, and leaving it up to figure out which of the English terms we had learned matched up with the test in front of us.  

Luckily this did not persist in the masters, which were already in English and open to students from more different backgrounds and nationalities. From the start I found this much more motivating, sharing classes and participating in activities with students all around the globe, and I immediately knew I wanted more of this. As a result, the thing I was looking forward to the most throughout the master's was the opportunity to take a semester abroad. For my semester abroad I wanted as much culture shock as possible, but at the time the opportunities were primarily limited to universities in Europe and the US, with the only option appealing to me being Singapore. Luckily this turned out to be a fantastic choice, as Singapore is a true melting pot of cultures that offers easy travel options to the rest of Asia – which I gladly made use of.  

As a result of the experiences in my master's, I knew I wanted to try working abroad. However, as finding a job abroad without any working experience is quite difficult, I opted for the next best thing and joined an internationally operating company and started my career as a consultant in Energy Markets for DNV; looking to help governments and companies develop and implement renewable technologies in a bid to decarbonize. However, while working for different clients internationally, and occasionally traveling to do so, was interesting the itch to work abroad never went away. Hence, when DNV offered me the opportunity to Singapore for three months to work in 2019, I immediately jumped at the chance. While working abroad is definitely very different from studying abroad, as it doesn’t come with the same degree of freedom, the experience was still great – exposure to different cultures, traditions, and foods means there is always something to do or look forward to. As a result, when the offer came to move to Singapore permanently the choice to accept was pretty obvious. 

I finally was able to move in August 2020 after some COVID-related delay. The transition was a bit difficult due to COVID regulations being stricter in Singapore, resulting in not going to the office a single time in all of 2021 and only meeting my colleagues online. Despite this, working in a different environment with people from all over the globe for clients across the Asia Pacific region was very motivating and it taught me a lot about different what was happening in different countries, what drove developments of renewables, and what influence COVID had on people’s lives and work. Over time, as COVID restrictions slowly lifted and we were able to resume both work and personal travel, things only got better. Despite having been here for a few years, I still feel like I’m learning or discovering something new every day. Despite living on the other side of the globe, far away from friends and family, I’m still excited to be here and have no regrets. So, to all that are considering working abroad: give it a try!