My placement was at JDE (Jacobs Douwe Egberts), working as a Roasting Fundamentals Intern. I was responsible for multiple projects, including the effect of roast speed on physicochemical properties and organoleptics of coffee, in-line roast degree tracking and aroma retention and degassing, among many others. Being a big coffee enthusiast myself, the experience was truly incredible and cemented my desire to work in the FMCG industry. I developed my technical skills as an engineer, but also changed as a person being exposed to a professional working environment that was 'melting pot' of different backgrounds and cultures. I had the opportunity for solo international travel to carry out my own experiments, a privilege I don’t think I would have got anywhere else.