Benjamin: Home is the lab

What is home?  

Home, for me, is more like an environment. If it is at my actual home, I always look for things rooted in how I grew up. For example, I grew up in Germany, and we love barbeques, so I look for places where that's possible with green areas. I also grew up in a place with a lot of light, so my home needs light. And every time I look for a place, I take my phone, put in the compass, and see if the windows face East or West. Seriously this is extremely important to me.  

And at work, what makes me feel at home is an environment where I can express myself and do what I always wanted to do; that's why I became a scientist and ended up working at TNO.   

How long have you been working at TNO? And tell us about your journey before getting hired.   

I started working around 5 months, so actually still very fresh. TNO has a Materials Solutions department in Eindhoven dedicated to innovative chemistry on a material level, which I am very interested in. When I was there for the interview, I saw the labs and instantly felt right at home, and it was no question for me that that's where I wanted to work. I get satisfaction when I can apply my knowledge and research to something that can hopefully help or make the life of people better, and I have the tools and environment for that at TNO.   

Does the work environment help to make you feel more at home?  

Definitely, TNO is quite international, but it also combines the Dutch culture very well. My supervisor is also from Germany, and I have colleagues from Spain, Greece, and Turkey. But it goes two ways. You have the one way, which is the internationals, where you share the same experience of coming to the Netherlands, a new language, how to integrate, and the problems along the way, but at the same time, you also interact with your Dutch colleagues, and you can ask them about life here. And that's why I have lived here so long because I find that the Dutch are amazing in being so open with internationals, and they are kind and friendly.  

Did your colleagues make you feel at home at work?  

Oh yeah, for sure. First of all, they showed me the nice restaurants in the High Tech Campus. They also showed me around the lab. We have nice chats like I was recently on holiday in Italy, and the first day I was back at work, they asked me how it was and what I did. And I love that one of the initiatives when you start working at TNO, you go for coffee with a colleague. It's really part of your assignments, and that's an amazing way to know a company's work culture.