Trainee Graduate Program

Are you ready? To broaden your potential while working on the newest technologies and current sustainability issues? To take charge and not confine yourself to one specialisation? Then choose our traineeship!

WHAT WILL YOU BE DOING?
At TNO, you take the reins: you decide in which direction you want to develop further, with the freedom to dive into different subjects. In a short period of time you will discover TNO, how it runs as an organization, and how it is situated in Dutch society. You will also work intensively on your personal development, both individually with a coach, and in intervision sessions with your fellow trainees. Work at TNO during your traineeship consists of the following three components:

- Work in the department: During your 5-day work week, 3,5 days will be at one of the 60 departments at TNO. Every 8 months you will switch departments; after two years you will have worked for 3 different departments. You choose the department, as well as your role within that department. Roles include: project leader, researcher, consultant, and business developer. You will broaden your horizons by working at different departments, with countless opportunity to partake in innovative and multidisciplinary projects for both industry and government—with personal development as the unifying link, along the way. In these projects you will receive supervision from experienced project managers and senior researchers.
- Trainee activities: One day a week you will be occupied with activities focused on personal development and professional skills. You will take part in monthly operational trainee meetings, workshops, training courses, intervision sessions, and individual coaching. The trainee manager will provide thorough supervision throughout these activities.
- Internal strategy projects: Four hours a week (half a day), you will work on internal strategy projects for TNO (‘trainee projects’) with a project team comprised of fellow trainees. With your project team you will answer a question of an internal TNO client, who will supervise your team and familiarize you with TNO as an organisation. Examples of such projects are: setting up a strategic plan for research on Avatars; exploration on how TNO would look as a platform-based organisation with a ‘research as a service’ business model; or how to improve the value proposition of TNO for start-ups.

As a trainee you will be part of the trainee group, consisting of 25 (international) trainees. This group acts as a sounding board, sparring partner, and source of knowledge and experience that is of great value and is essential to your traineeship.

WHAT DO WE REQUIRE OF YOU?
At the end of your 2-year traineeship at TNO; you know who you are, where your strengths and ambitions lie, and what your ideal place and function is to further contribute to the innovative goals of TNO. This requires guts, curiosity, initiative, and some serious headwork.

You are at the start of your career path. You want to innovate and ask challenging questions. You want to excel, you love a challenge, and you are comfortable with taking responsibility. You look beyond the status-quo and dare to bring forth new ideas. You are a fast learner, enjoy working on different topics and projects simultaneously, and quickly adapt to new environments. You know how to connect different topics, disciplines, and people. You are driven by knowledge, you like research and translating it into practice. You concern yourself with societal issues and therefore, want to make a difference. Choosing your own path in a large organisation, like TNO, is a great opportunity but also demands personal responsibility. The ideal TNO trainee possesses the following qualities:

- Driven and always motivated to deliver the best results
- Keen to collaborate with others to work towards new solutions
- Not afraid to make yourself seen and heard
- Strong communication skills, which allow you to connect with the people around you
- Innate interest in science and its role in societal issues
- You have broad interests and have done various extra-curricular activities in addition to your studies

Next to these qualities, you have recently graduated (MSc or PhD) from one of the following study backgrounds:

- Aerospace engineering
- Artificial intelligence
- Automotive
- Bioinformatics
- Chemistry (analytical or organic)
- Computer science
- Cyber security
- Data science
- Econometrics
- Electrical engineering
- Health/life sciences
- Logistics
- Mechanical engineering
- Molecular biology
- Pharmacology
- Physics (applied or technical)
- Process technology
- Work- and organizational psychology or cognitive psychology

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT OF YOUR WORK SITUATION?
Welcome to the wondrous world of TNO. TNO is the place for everyone who is knowledge driven, socially concerned, and wants to make a difference. At 60 departments, spread out over different locations, TNO connects people and knowledge. These connections create innovations that strengthen the competitiveness of companies and the wellbeing of society. With around 3800 employees we collaborate with various clients: governments, SMEs, large corporations, service providers, and social organisations. Together we work on new knowledge, better products, and provide policy and process recommendations. For everything that we do, it’s about making impact.

As an applied research organisation our employees are of essential value. That is why TNO focuses on professional and personal development.

Trainee Evie about her traineeship:
"What attracted me to the TNO traineeship is the endless possibility. How many companies have so many research disciplines, from circular economy to intelligent imaging and fundamental research to the implementation of innovations, all under one roof? The traineeship let me explore these disciplines in different roles. After graduating from Biomedical Sciences, I began the traineeship at the department of Risk Analysis of Products in Development. During my time there, I worked as a researcher and project leader. The projects I worked on were in line with my studies, and afterwards, I was ready to explore new topics. I chose Sustainable Transport and Logistics as my second spot, where I worked as a project leader. The topics were completely new to me and from day one I was immersed in the department. I kept in touch with various stakeholders and was responsible for project management. It all revolved around a very current and political subject—the climate agreement (Klimaatakkoord). Recently, I started at the Sustainable Chemical Industry department as a business developer; my third and final spot. Again, a completely new role and topic. Gaining confidence and learning more about myself through the challenges I seize, is what’s most important to me about the traineeship. Through workshops and coaching I get the guidance to grow professionally, and especially as an individual. The traineeship is the ideal path for me to make the step from the academic world to research in society".

WHAT CAN TNO OFFER YOU?
Work enjoyment means something different for each employee. This is why we offer a-la-carte terms and conditions of employment that you can switch around on a monthly basis. Flexible working hours (like 4 days x 9 hours) and different leave schemes mean that you can create a package attuned to your specific wishes.
TNO attaches great value to both your personal and your professional development. Many opportunities exist for you to develop: conferences, courses, workshops, coaching, intervision, mentoring and job rotation. At TNO you can orchestrate your own career.

APPLICATION PROCESS
Responding to this vacancy is possible until Sunday May 26th. Apply by uploading your résumé and motivational letter to our website www.tno.nl/career ; add your transcripts and pitch as attachments. In this pitch, answer the following question in a maximum of 30 seconds (max 5 MB): "What makes you tick?" Upload the short video clip as a .MOV, WMV, MPG/MPEG movie file. If you cannot upload the pitch, include a link to the video in your resume. You can choose to do your pitch in either Dutch or English.

Please indicate in your motivational letter whether or not you would object against working on projects for the Dutch Ministry of Defence.

Selection procedure:
If you are selected based on your motivation letter, résumé, transcript and pitch, you will receive an invitation for an online capacity test and for the TNO Trainee Selection Day. The Trainee Selection Day will take place on Friday June 14th in The Hague. You will be notified by June 7th, at the latest.

During the selection day, you will learn more about TNO and our traineeship, and we will get to know you better as well. Please take into account that the spoken language during the selection day will be English.

If you are among our selection after the selection day, we will invite you for an assessment at a psychological consultancy bureau. The results from this assessment are used for the final selection round.

The selected candidates will receive an offer with a starting date of September 1st, 2019.
If this timetable does not fit your personal planning please keep an eye out for other starter vacancies on our website, or the next trainee selection round in November 2019.

HAS THIS VACANCY SPARKED YOUR INTEREST?
Then please feel free to apply on this vacancy! For further questions don’t hesitate to contact us.

Recruiter: Anne-Maartje Uijl- Meijman, den
Mobile phone: +31 (0)6-469 66067
LinkedIn: https://nl.linkedin.com/in/annemaartjedenuijlmeijman

Hiring manager: Hella Petit
Phone number: +31 (0)88-86 60637