Week of the International Student: UT Alumni stories (2)
As 18 to 22 November has been declared ‘Week of the International Student,’ I will post some stories of international alumni this week. It is a great moment to highlight them.
Today, the second story is of Florin Pausan (IDE'21) from Romania
The combination of both work experiences and my graduation project motivated me to start my own company.
Florin (from Romania) went for an international challenge and pursued a?master’s degree in Industrial Design and Engineering in NL. After graduating, he founded his company 'Creative Brew' in the Netherlands.
During my graduation, I designed and prototyped a PLC software platform for an electronics company near Oldenzaal in UX/UI. This and my previous experience helped me decide to start my own company.?I wanted an adventure that matched my values and this eventually became 'Creative Brew'.
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Working remotely or at UT
We work at Incubase (the UT start-up incubator) with various start-ups and some more established companies as well. Here we can also schedule meetings with partners these days. We are a freelance-based company and Creative Brew works remotely, so we don’t need an office. We look for the most challenging creative projects in terms of marketing strategy, video content marketing, workflow strategies and branding services and deliver great creative content.
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What I brought from my programme to my job
From my Industrial Design and Engineering programme, where I followed the specialisation ‘Management of product development’, I learnt to think more holistically about a product, thus conducting research on products/services and their markets, coordinating the product development phase and managing the teams and the stakeholders involved in the project. Practical thinking and focusing on the broad picture of product/service development not just a specific part, helps me achieve great things at work.
Staying in the Netherlands
If having your own business is your dream, I recommend everyone to start a company in the Netherlands as an international alumnus. You will get the support you need, especially from universities like UT. There is a good work-life balance, although.... for entrepreneurs starting their career it’s sometimes a bit different. You’ll have innovation opportunities, plenty of business support, people are nice, open and direct and because they speak their minds, you know what they mean and what is happening. I am really happy with my decision to start a business in the Netherlands. I feel right at home.