The Sika Experience

After surfing the website, reading blogspots from recent participants at Sika internships, my exictement has reached the top

I can’t wait to be part of this extraordinary experience, I can say that I’m very lucky to have this chance for 3 reasons

1) Sika is one of my dream company, I always dream to deal with this huge and well organized company, because here in my country Sika is on the top of its domain, So here I got my very lucky chance

2) The subject of this internship is very interesting for me and my career, during my studies at University, My graduation project was “Durability of concrete members strenghtened with CFRP”,not to mention that Sika Egypt have helped me regarding informations and techniques I needed during the project, I also wanted Sika to sponsor this project but things didn’t go well with this matter, So participating in this internship is going to be very profitable for my future career

3) Switzerland, is one the most european country I wanted to visit, as this is my first travel outside Egypt, I feel very lucky that the first travel is to the country I most wanted to travel to :)

Finally, I want to gain the greatest benefit from this trip so I directly after my return from this trip, I will begin a diploma in sales and marketing in order to collect between the technical and business side, as Mr. Nick Varley (GM of Sika Egypt)

that in Sika we don’t only work on techincal basis but we also have the slogan saying “Selling Solutions”, so you should not only have the solution also you should have a way to sell it !!

Hi everyone,

It’s now coming into my last few months at Sika here in Zürich and I will be sad to leave, but happy that I got to spend such an unforgettable year here. Not only did I get to learn a great deal about Sika and the chemistry here, but got to know some of the most amazing people and cultures as I travelled around Europe. I was also lucky enough to have some success with my project here and even though I am leaving it will be continued further after my departure (hopefully with another new Sika student!). Now we are coming into the summer we have a lot of new master students here…from France, Switzerland, Slovenia…. and we are beginning to really build the student network! The last few weekends we were lucky enough to have summer weather already and spent our time bbq-ing and visiting the Rhine Falls…if the weather keeps up it won’t be long until we go swimming in the lake on our lunchbreak- really! If I didn’t have to go back to Scotland to finish my masters, I might never leave!

Thanks again Sika!

Alison

Hola! I’ve been doing so much different stuff in Sika. I have been working on finding information about competition such as which products are available in different cities, their prices, discounts and which needs have their customers. Also Sika Services from Switzerland interviewed me for their magazine Ambitions (I’m featured on Ambitions no.8 if you want to know more about me :D), it was so excited as it was my first time doing these kinds of stuff.
I’ve been participating in lots of activities: in April we started with the contest “Sika Activate”, which is about getting a healthier lifestyle by doing exercise and eating healthy food, Human Resources Department organized the contest by making teams with people from different areas so I could meet other co-workers. The contest will finish next November and the winner will receive a prize. Also last weekend the Marketing department had a dinner because last year they won the prize of “Customer Service 2011”and they invited us (all new guys who are doing internships). All Marketing Department came: CRM, Advertising, Costumer Service, Prices, Technology, Technical Training, Promotion and marketing co-workers who are in other cities came so I met them and enjoy this time together. I show you some pictures of the event, we had a great time!

After my Intership in 2011, I was given the chance to start do masterthesis at the same departement by april the 1st. Despite some organizational problems at the beginning, everything is going quite well now. After some first experiments I now start to get usefull results. It feels good to be in such a friendly and well equipped work environment again, where i can cunduct myself fully to the problems given to me. I’ll keep u up-to-date if anything happens. So far – have a nice day

The decision was not an easy one – the interdisciplinary jury had the hard task to check many promising applications. Now they have announced the following three winners:

Joao from Portugal
Nader from Egypt
Fernando from Brasil

Congratulations to the three winners of the Sika Concrete Experience 2012! You can look forward to an extraordinary adventure through the world of concrete! Currently we are finalizing the program and will inform you about the details shortly before the trip!

We are very happy and look foward to welcoming you in June here in Zuerich:

For the past two weeks I have been at Hosei University here in Tokyo attending this years Youth Encounter on Sustainability course. This course unites young people from all over the world and from very diverse backgrounds to learn and talk about sustainability issues. So far it has been a great experience for me. Everyday we have had lectures, activities and discussions about this topic. Besides all these interesting things, we had the opportunity to see how Sika is involved in Sustainable development as a global company and here in the Japanese local market. People from Sika Japan went to Hosei University and gave us a presentation on how Sika is innovating in terms of Sustainability. After their presentation we were given the task to come up with ideas on how Sika could help in the near future and these ideas were projected on a painting. Some of the main ideas were bio-mimicry, green buildings & the use of renewable energy. The very next day we had the chance to visit a plant of Sika Japan. There we were welcomed by the local staff and given a brief tour through the facilities. Before the visit ended we presented our paintings to the people of Sika and offered them as a form of gratitude for all the support that this company gives to sustainable projects such as the YES Course. To finish off I would like to invite all of the Sika Experience participants to enter the next YES Course, it is truly an unforgettable experience that will change your way of thinking in positive way of course :p .

Cheers.

Enrique

Roland Arnold, a master student of University of Zürich, just left Sika a few weeks ago. He did an internship under the Sika Experience program for 6 months and since this collaboration was very successful, we continued with a master thesis under my supervision. It was a very great time yielding in big value for Roland and the company. Therefore, I am very happy, that I took the chance to supervise an internship. The Sika Experience program was thereby a great help for making this connection between university and Sika.

As I mentioned above, the year with Roland was very fruitful. It gave me the chance to do research, beside my normal work as a project manager in the development of membranes. We kept our scope quite broad, which opened up many collaborations with different departments and sites of Sika. Therefore, we were able to make a lot of contacts within the world of Sika, which is of big value for me, as the supervisor and a permanent Sika employee, but also for Roland, especially if you think about the time after university.

I am curious, how the future will be. I am pretty sure that I will continue with another internship under the guidance of Sika Experience. See you soon, Christoph

Tomorrow is my last day of practice and y I would like to tell you how it has served me this experience for my future occupational projections, things that will come in handy for my future. as having used::

•  The  Mettler DL 50 titrator to control values of epoxide and amino of analyte.

• The HR83 Halogen Moisture Analyzer of Mettler-Toledo to analyze the moisture content of sugar syrup quickly, easily and accurately.

These work items weren’t provided to us in our institute, and the analysis, it becomes more tedious,  it could also incur in a working risk.

In the case of titrant Mettler DL50, is easier to work with concentrated acids and perchloric acid, without any corrosive irritation, it is not necessary the direct contact with the acid.

 In terms of ease of use thermobalance is useful because it reduces the risk of burns due to high temperatures.

• TheBrookfieldviscometer is used to measure the resistance of a fluid to change shape under the action of a rotating wheel. At one time I had already worked with this analytical tool, in college, and it’s very useful to measuring the quality of a product.
• The DIN CUP is very similar to the viscometer, only that this one measures time in which a liquid drains into a diameter defined  hole.

This is how I’ve take advantage of my experience, gaining knowledge of how to use tools that make easier the task of quailty control of a product, and offer better products to market that leave consumers satisfied, and meet their needs.

Now I will depart and continue with my studies, in this case as chemical industry engineer, which lasts two years at evening, and I would like to work and study at the same time so I can earn more experience.

Finally, I thank Sika for the opportunity of being initiated into the workplace as a chemical analyst, and to practice my skills as well as being part of a good body of work.

… Melina in Sika’s Corporate Communications & Investor Relations Team in Baar, Switzerland! We are very happy to have her soon in the team, starting on May 1, 2012. In the meantime we wish her good luck in finalizing her master thesis at University of Berne! Soon you will hear more from and about her – stay tuned! Best regards, Kathrin

Hello Everyone

Its been a year already for me here at Sika this month and I couldn’t be happier. Time fly’s so fast when you are busy, so much has been done. Here are some pictures of my department, the Technical Service group out watching the New Jersey Devil’s play at the Prudential Center, this was in January.

A lot of work has been done in the lab, this a sample that I made for one of our salesmen. This board was used to show about many different materials can be used with Sika’s 11FC sealant.

Some materials used were: Glass, Marble, Wood, Tile, Brick, Concrete

Always make extra, you never know when you will need it!

Here is a interesting project I am working on, creating a bridge joint. A piece of foam was left in the middle of the form where the concrete was poured in. The piece of foam was cut into 3 parts, the 2 pieces on each side “which had just been removed in the picture”  will be used for the mortar, the center will be later removed to apply the sealant. I will post pictures once this project is done. Thanks!