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"I really want to make a contribution to DNS Belgium through my project."

Dieter Schneider is a student at the Thomas More school in Geel and specialises in “Networks & Systems”. It was on 12th February that he embarked on his internship in our engineering department. His project here is linked to his studies, focusing on the DevOps side of engineering work. 

How did you find out about DNS Belgium? And why did you choose us for your internship? 

I first found out about DNS Belgium at the “Cybersecurity Challenge” organised by the company. Before that, I didn’t know much about it. However, I would have been able to tell you what the company did, thanks to its name, because I knew it was about domain names.

In fact, I had two options open to me for the internship. The reason I went for DNS Belgium was the attractiveness of the project on offer and the fact that I had had contact with the company in the past as part of the “Cybersecurity Challenge”. Then, when I saw the company featured on the internal portal for internships at my university, I simply said to myself, “Why not DNS Belgium?” So I applied, and here I am now.

Having chosen our company for your internship, what do you hope to get out of it? 

The main aim of the internship is to expand my knowledge in “Networks & Systems”, focusing in particular on automation. Why automation? Mainly because it’s something that’s not dealt with much at university. Things are a bit more theoretical in the classroom. So I wanted to gain lots of real-life experience, in the field. I’m confident that I’ll be able to do that here, and by the end of my internship, I hope to be an expert in this field.

What are you currently doing with us? What does your internship consist of? 

At the moment, my internship is mainly about learning. I like what I’m doing right now and I’m going to learn new skills such as puppet, Linux and many others, and there are even some that I've practically learned already.  

The first weeks were devoted to coding, writing scripts and tests. The aim of all this is to carry out my overall project for the course – i.e. to be part of upgrading DNS Belgium’s “test lab”, which is literally an environment in which we test the number of requests that DNS servers can handle for each type of service. For my part, all I did was recondition the generators and capture servers, which were more than 10 years old. 

"I really want to make a contribution to DNS Belgium through my project. I’d like to get involved as much as possible, even in areas other than my project, so that I can learn about lots of new things."

Dieter Schneider, intern in the engineering department.

How do you stay motivated each day? What’s the secret to your motivation? 

“An Ice Tea a day keeps depression away,” he says with a laugh, telling us that two bottles of Ice Tea each day help keep him motivated.  

On a more serious note, it’s always hard to get out of bed, of course. But what helps to keep me motivated is the thought that after a hard day’s work, I can look forward to a well-deserved rest at home. This mindset works really well for me; it’s how I get out of bed every morning. 

What helps you to feel a member of the team here? 

I think that what helps me to feel a member of the team are the weekly meetings. They help me to feel involved and to be an active member of the department. The team asked me if I wanted to take part in their weekly meetings and be kept informed of what’s happening and what has to be done. I really like being part of things, because it lets me see what’s going on in the department, even on topics that aren’t connected with my personal project.  

Another thing that’s good is that I can give my opinion and the team listens to what I have to say. This enables me to express my opinion on certain things, including outside what I am working on for the personal project. The best advice I’ve been given? The fact that I can and even that I must give my opinion. 

"Dieter is a highly motivated student who is keen to make the DNS test lab upgrade a success. Along the way, he’ll be learning (or has already learned) new skills, such as bash, puppet and Linux."

Sven, Dieter's internship supervisor.

Given the start of your internship, what are the benefits of doing a placement with us? 

I’d say there are several. DNS Belgium is a company that’s well known in the IT sector, so I think it’s only logical that something positive would come out of it over the weeks. It’s also about being at the coalface of DNS Belgium in general and therefore benefiting from the knowledge and expertise of people who are experts in their field. So even if I don’t understand something today, chances are I will tomorrow. And, generally speaking, having this internship on my CV will very likely be beneficial for me. 

What’s the thing you’ve enjoyed most so far in your placement with us? 

What do I like most about the company? Well, it’s probably the people I work with. I really like having my colleagues in the department around me. The expertise they bring me on a daily basis is great and I very much appreciate it.    

With this article, we support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.