From fellow students to colleagues at Marcelissen!

Although both of them were internationally oriented, in a class with mainly German and other international students it was not surprising that they made contact with each other. Ryou: ‘From the beginning of the study program, we actually worked together on every project. At a certain point, you know exactly what you can expect from each other, and that makes working together very easy and pleasant’. It was no surprise that they also got along well outside their time at university.

Nevertheless, they also went their separate ways within the study program. They both did an internship at a different marketing agency and Ryou completed his minor in Spain, while Sjors did his in Germany. After 3.5 years of studying, they also started their thesis at the same time. Ryou at Seacon Logistics, while Sjors started at Marcelissen.

At Marcelissen Sjors investigated the best way to position our company in the German potato processing industry. We were very satisfied with his research, and therefore eager for Sjors to join us after his graduation to put his research into practice. Sjors: ‘After six years of studying, I was ready to put my acquired knowledge into practice and I could not think of a better place to start my career than at Marcelissen. There is a lot of room for the personal touch here, you can develop yourself every day and Marcelissen also makes sure that you can constantly learn new things or pick up different projects in order to broaden your horizon. This way, I constantly keep learning, which is something that really suits me, because in my opinion; standing still is going backwards.’

And boy did he develop himself within Marcelissen. In three years’ time, he has grown from trainee to, starting January 2022, Manager Sales & Marketing. Something we are all are very happy, but also very proud of.

After successfully completing his bachelor’s degree, Ryou decided to take a different direction. He says: ‘I felt that I wasn’t finished with studying full-time yet, and wanted to deepen my knowledge and develop my analytical skills even further. That’s why I chose to do a Master’s in International Business with a specialization in Strategic Marketing at Maastricht University. I embraced this challenge with great enthusiasm and although it was quite challenging at times, I am glad that I made this decision!’

Last summer Ryou graduated and after spending a long time studying at home, he wanted to enjoy a well-deserved summer holiday before he started looking for a job. In October, he ran into Sjors in the city center of Venlo and they discussed the option of working together at Marcelissen. This was soon followed by a day of shadowing, which led to great enthusiasm on both sides and from there all was settled very quickly. So on the 28^th of November, Ryou started as a Sales & Marketing consultant at Marcelissen.

In a nutshell, although Sjors and Ryou both went in different directions after their studies, after three years they are back working together again, this time as colleagues. This is what the two men would like to say about it.

After years of working together intensively, effectively and with great joy during our studies, we are now going to continue this at Marcelissen. There are enough challenges here for the both of us, where we each have our own personal goals that we want to achieve. We are therefore both enthusiastically looking forward to what 2022 will bring us. It would be nice if we look back in a year and have not only accomplished our personal goals, but also still get along as well as we do now. Luckily, we do not doubt this for a second, so see you next year!

To be continued…