Meet summerworker Lisa Hilferink

Engineering student Lisa Hilferink was looking for a holiday job in the field of sustainability, and was quick to accept an offer from BillerudKorsnäs. She then spent the summer of 2017 working as a Packaging Developer for the Bag Solutions division at the production facility in Kalix. 

Why did you apply for a summer job at BillerudKorsnäs?

Because the company seemed interesting, and I’ve always been especially keen on sustainability and issues to do with this area.

Tell us a bit about your summer job ...

I’ve had the chance to run my own packaging design project, where I was given free rein to plan and execute my own design process. The objective was to come up with a new concept for a sustainable bag for fruit and vegetable departments in food stores.

How was your reception at the company?

It was excellent! I had three days in May to get to know the workplace before the serious work started. I used the time to test out prototypes and work with my manager to lay down a rough project plan.

What experience will you be taking away with you from your time here?

Responsibility and planning. It’s all about feeling confident in yourself and your abilities when you’re given a goal and allowed to go your own way to get there. At the same time, that was precisely what made my summer job such fun! I’ve had the chance to test my skills “in real life”, and it’s taught me so much about the paper industry and packaging development – as well as about my personal approach to solving problems.

The biggest challenge I encountered was my lack of knowledge about the paper industry itself. I knew next to nothing about the industry, but as there are other people at the workplace who are experts in the various fields, you can always find someone to ask for advice. Then again, my lack of knowledge was also a bit of an advantage because it meant that my notions of what does and doesn’t work weren’t limited by previous experience. Instead, I had to take a trial and error approach to building up my new concept.

Would you like to work for BillerudKorsnäs in the future?

Absolutely! Spending the summer working here really opened my eyes to the area of packaging design. You can go from initial idea to prototype in just a few minutes, and then receive direct feedback on your idea – and this is a huge advantage when you’re working with paper.

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