Nortek internships pave the way for students and young professionals in a growing industry

Growing Nortek’s sustainability goals with a new perspective

Karoline Maarud is a Master’s student at BI Norwegian Business School, where she will get a degree in Business with a focus on Sustainable Finance. Her job as an intern was to support Nortek’s sustainability efforts by establishing baseline data for Nortek’s global carbon emissions.

“I focused on developing a climate accounting system to assist us in tracking our carbon footprints,” says Maarud. “The emission data will help us identify the direction we need to take in the future to contribute to climate mitigation.”

Karoline was a major contributor to Nortek’s official reporting on sustainability performance. Her reports included metrics on Nortek’s work environment, responsibility in the supply chain and local community value creation.

“I have learned that Nortek is a business that is dedicated to developing innovative technology to contribute to a sustainable shift and better understand the world we live in,” says Karoline.

With the baseline numbers and reporting systems Karoline helped build, Nortek’s sustainability efforts have a strong footing moving forward.

“As a last-year Master’s student within Sustainable Finance, Karoline was a priceless addition to the Sustainability team,” says Therese Baas, Nortek’s Quality & Digital Director and Sustainability Team lead.

“She was always sharp and focused, with an eye for details as well as extremely efficient. She worked to establish our climate accounting system for the company this year, which we will use for many years to come. It’s always good to have younger people challenge you!”

Learn more about Nortek’s sustainability initiatives here.

Supporting Nortek's global R&D teams

Mikkel Finnbråten is a Master of Science student at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences studying Mechanical Engineering. Mikkel’s role as an intern was to support Nortek’s San Diego-based engineering team with a current design project by doing testing and validation of old and new instrument designs.

“I learned the complexity behind verification of simulation results, but also the importance of choosing the right tool for the job,” says Finnbråten.

The San Diego team benefited from having Mikkel’s help and reporting throughout the summer, as did the development team in Norway. Mikkel worked directly with Nortek’s Christopher Grinde, Head of Sensor Development and Manufacturing.

“Mikkel was a self-motivated student, working on CFD (computational fluid dynamics) simulations of the next generation of one of our instruments,” says Grinde.

“He worked independently and called on support for questions and discussions from the broad range of engineers and physicists in the Nortek engineering team.”

Mikkel noted the importance of those supporting members and the personal skills he learned along with the technical.

“I learned a lot about how the dynamics in an engineering team works, and how utilization of different expertise is important,” he says.

According to Grinde, the outcome of Mikkel’s final report draws insights on how next-generation instruments will improve existing technologies.

Looking forward to professional careers

Both Karoline Maarud and Mikkel Finnbråten emphasized that they would encourage other students to take advantage of internship programs like Nortek’s, and that working with Nortek has made them look forward to joining the professional world post-graduation.

“To experience working in the industry was exciting,” says Finnbråten. “I’m definitely motivated coming back to university, knowing what life might be like in the future.”

The importance of building relationships personally and professionally was not lost on the pair either.

“My internship in Nortek has been a great experience academically, as well as socially,” says Maarud. “I would highly recommend every student who wants to have a meaningful summer job to apply next year.”