The art of job interviewing.

Six courses futher and a piece of the thesis already done, the future is knocking on the door today. Skills need to be developed, more knowledge to be obtained and money needs to be made. Where to find this combination? At the labourmarket. Yes you understood it correctly, the labour market, that big and scary thing people talk about in the papers. That place where evil employers hunt down potential employees and subject them to tortures to be sure that they have the best young professional available that they can mould to be their puppet on strings.

A month or two ago I started to think of what I wanted to do after my graduation and started sending my resume to potential employers. And all of a sudden there it was: an invitation for a job interview accompanied with something you might already know: an invitation to make some test to examine you verbal and numerical capabilities and your personality. Although I was nervous for making the tests, I expected the tortures described above, these turned out to be very do-able. One might expect that if one has finished an academic bachelors’ and masters’ degree that one does also pass these tests, although timepressure and nervosity do add an extra, let’s say, dimension to these things.

My very first interview was a big eye-opener. I thought I came well prepared, but it turned out that some questions where more difficult than I expected. ‘You say you are teamplayer, can you give me an example out of which this speaks?’ ‘What is the thing you accomplished that makes you most proud of yourself?’ ‘What is it that you as a unique person are bringing to this organisation?’.

I really had to learn to think of myself as an asset to a company. What is it that I have in me, that others might not have? How do my skills and interests match this specific company? And how can I show or proof this by giving examples? I must say the training of Tempo-Team organized by the University was a very useful event to help me trying to answer these questions. But as they also say, ‘practice makes perfect’, only by doing interviews, one eventually gets trained in it. And the most important aspect of what you bring to a company, is something you cannot change or do anything about, it is you. More and more we get selected based on who we are, if we are a pleasant person to be around. In all the interviews I had so far, there was one point were I just talked and had a laugh with the recruiter sitting in front of me, because we were talking about stuff that had absolutely nothing to do with the job at all. I hadn’t expected to be talking about bad tv-series and ‘de Zwarte Cross’, did you?

Arrivederci e Ci Vediamo….

Exactly two month ago we all had to leave the Eternal City to continue our studies in Utrecht. It’s more than time now for some final words to my stay in Rome and to the Business Minor at LUISS.

The last weeks in Rome

Unfortunately, my exam period already started right after Christmas and ended at the beginning of February. Therefore, as you can all imagine, the last weeks in Rome weren’t that much fun.

Right before Christmas I already wrote my first exam. It was a written essay in Business Organization. This exam was a “pre-appello” which means that it took place before the actual exam period, which was in January and February. Most of the times students get special benefits when they write a pre-appello exam. For instance, for this exam I only had to study the material from the mid-term exam onwards. Therefore, not the whole material was covered in the end-term, which was good for us, because we had to study a bit less and also good for the professor since a lot of people already showed up for the pre-appello. If you have the opportunity to write a pre-appello, always take it!

A few more things you should now about exams at LUISS

There are always three exam dates offered by the professor. Hence, you are very flexible and you can choose yourself if you want to write the exam at the first, second or third date. If you are writing the exam on the first date and it happens that you do not like your grade (because it is to low), you have the possibility to reject the grade and you can take the exam at the second or third date again. If you do not reject your grade, you have to go to LUISS at a specific date to sign your grade. Only after you have signed your grade, you can keep it and it will be registered in Utrecht. We have experienced, that it is always better to take the exam on the very first date. In addition, rejecting grades often does not increase your grade in the second or third try by that much. In addition, you will have oral exams. When I had to take my first oral exam, I was quite nervous, because the whole class is sitting in the classroom where you have your oral exam and it is sometimes a bit noisy in there. However, as soon as it is your turn you will be able to concentrate and forget all the people talking around you.

The very last days

After a six week exam period, we were all quite happy to have finished the last bit of our Minor successfully. This calls for celebration! During the last few days, we partied, went out for dinner to enjoy the last pizzas and gelati with our friends and just appreciated the last rays of sunshine and the city.

It is time to say goodbye

While both of my Dutch flat mates have already left at the end of January, it was my turn to say goodbye at the beginning of February. At the evening before I left, we organized a big final (goodbye) dinner with all our friends in San Lorenzo at San Lollo’s. It was a nice and long, but also a sad evening, since we had to say goodbye to all our Italian friends with whom we shared many personally valuable memories of our year in Rome.

At the 1^st of February I left Rome, but not for good. I have thrown so many coins in the Trevi Fountain that my return is guaranteed :). I left with very mixed feelings. On one hand, I was sad to leave Rome and my Italian friends. On the other hand, I was happy to go back to Utrecht, finally seeing my friends over there again and I was looking forward to cycle. Coming back to Utrecht was a bit like coming back home.

Time is flying by

To round it up, the year in Rome was flying by. The Business Minor and also the time over there have been great! I had the chance to experience living in a Mediterranean country, in a historical metropolis with a very different culture. I have met and gained many friends from all over the world. It was interesting to study at a small, but well known and international oriented university whose university systems is very diverse compared to the one we are used to. I did not only broaden my academic background in Business Economics, I could also grow as a person.

I hope all of you will have a comparable great time and experience in Rome and at LUISS!

P.S.: As promised, a few of my favourite places to go out in Rome……

Clubs:

Goa

Boeme

Art Café & Babel

Circolo Degli Artisti

Qube

Aperetivo:

Momart

Viale 21 Aprile, 19

Freni e Frizioni

Via del Politeama 4-6

Numbs

Corso Trieste

Bars:

Antico Caffè della Pace

Via della Pace 5

Bar del Fico

Piazza del Fico

Gelateria:

Gelateria Bartocci

Via Alessandria, 145

Giolitti

Via degli Uffici del Vicario 40

Best Tiramisu:

Bar Pompi

Via Albalonga 7

Restaurants:

San Lollo

Via dei Sabelli 51

I Butteri‎

Piazza Regina Margherita 28

Gusto Pizzeria & Wine Bar

Via della Frezza and

Piazza Augusto Imperatore

Examtime

Let’s say it’s not the best time of the year, and that while the year just started, exams. After 10 weeks of hard work & just handing in the final versions of your papers, you have to immediatly start revising, repeating, summarizing and whatever is needed to pass your exams.

I think I suffer from a procastination-syndrome, just like everybody else does. I bet every student recognizes him- or herself in having the intension of ‘only focusing on studies this period so that I can pass this course with at least an 8.5’ on the start of every period. This works for a week, maybe two. And then there is sports, work, travelling and your social life. And that is where you start procastinating studies.

Period 2 for me is always the worst, since it follows immediately after period 1. This sounds silly maybe, but because I don’t have retakes, period 3 only follows period 2 after a week of doing absolutely nothing. After period 1, this is not the case, there is no retake week, so one just goes on and on and on. Ofcourse there is the christmas break, so two weeks before that you start saying: I’ll do my cathing up during the break. But in this break one cannot study either since family, eating and drinking obligations keep you from it. Resulting in the fact that the exams get more stressier than they already were.

I have to warn future master students, during your master you worry much more about passing exams and courses. I’m still not sure if that is because your studies have just gone up some levels in difficulty or that you feel you are kind of done studying and want to start your working life. And for that, you kind of really need to get your degree. Wish me luck, everyone, this week I’m taking two more hurdles to reach this degree.

Topicality

Hi Everyone!

Welcome again to another one of my adventures. It's been a while since I've wrote, cause I think last time I did not even receive grades for the first two courses. Lucky for me (and you since I might not have been here writing to you otherwise) I passed both courses! And now I am already very far into the second period.

This period contains somewhat more let's say accurate topics than the first period had to offer. Since I've chosen to do a master onEconomics of Public Policy and Management and public policy is in the papers every single day this is rather normal and I must say I also like it.

Firstly a few weeks ago we talked about pension schemes during the course of Public Risk Management. Since I'm working at an investment agency that offers pension product (in the Dutch third pillar of the pension system) and is soon to position itself on the market with a product in the collective second pillar this topic was highly interesting for me.

Secondly and more in a broad sense, I'm writing a paper on the EU Emission Trading System. The emission trading system that was implemented to fight what is called the biggest market failure of all times, environment damage (mostly due to greenhouse gasses). A few weeks ago I visited a lecture on this topic, since as of january 2012 this system will be expanded to include aviation companies, EU as well as non-EU airlines. From systems competition theory (broadly talkes about in my other course Policy Competition in an International World) it makes no sense that the EU is doing this, since it can have major competitiveness disadvantages! What we're trying to do is answer why the EU is still implementing this and if the policy is sustainable in an international world.

Thirdly, today we had to hand in our thesis subject proposal if we want to pick our own subject instead of picking from a list of subjects offered by USE. Since I wanted to be sure to really write about a subject I was sure I was going to enjoy writing about I thought through some subjects and eventually decided on writing about the reconciliation of work and family life and the division of labour and care between parents. I'd found the right supervisor for this subject pretty quickly and got her approval for supervising my thesis. And while I handed my registration form in this morning, when I read the Volkskrant this evening there was a column of a D66 politician exactly about this subject!

And that's what I like about this master, that these subjects are talked about in the streets and in the papers, and that I actually learn to think about them in an academic way.

L U I S S

Hi everybody,

recently, I have received Emails from some of you asking questions about LUISS and living in Rome. I think it will be best if I am answering the questions here, so that everybody has the chance to read them.

• Are there many contact hours a week, or is there a lot of self studying?

On average, I have two lectures per day. There are long lectures (3 hours) and short lectures (1,5 hours). LUISS only has about 3000 students in total, the classes are very small (30-40 people). The atmosphere of the lectures is therefore more familiar. Unfortunately, we do not really have tutorials.

In our first semester at LUISS, we had Accounting as well as Financial Markets and Intermediaries. For those two courses, the professors offered tutorials. However, the tutorials always took place with the whole class. In some courses like Marketing and Management we used to have a lot of guest lectures. Those lectures have been held by important and interesting persons with whom you can also get in touch and establish some networks. For instance, this week we had a guest lecture with the Italian general manager of the media department of World Disney.

• And how is daily life as a student in Rome?

Daily life as a student in Rome is great! Rome has one of the biggest ESN associations in Europe and they organize a lot of events, trips and parties. Believe me; you will not get bored in Rome. There is always something to do and every day is different.

• Is LUISS what you expected, what do you think of the courses, how are the lectures and tutorials (comparing to the quality of USE)? How did you experience studying at LUISS?

Since you are not studying Economics, but Business, the courses will be more focused on the micro- rather than on the macro-perspective. Compared to Utrecht, courses are of equal quality, but you will have to do oral exams here. Don’t worry. With oral exams you can mostly increase your grade and even though the whole class will sit in the room chatting and talking while you are having your exam at the front desk with the professor, it is really not as bad as everybody always think it is. During the week, I am spending far more hours at university than I did back in Utrecht.

Studying at LUISS is a lot different compared to Utrecht University. First of all, the semester is far more relaxed than in Utrecht. In the first few weeks, you will have time to party and to follow extra activities. There is no need to bring or buy a printer. LUISS offers you 100 pages of free prints per day. So that’s a very generous service. Even though I am spending more time at university, you still have to study at home. In addition, you should ask some of the Italian students where you can buy books. There is a special shop where you can buy them a lot cheaper.

In case anyone of you has some more questions, do not hesitate to contact me. I am sure that every one of you will like it in Rome and that you are going to have a great time over here!

Resumé Trade Off

Last week all of us economics students faced students’ biggest fear; exams. In particular among master students’, the two exams for empirical economics are seen as a proverbial monster in the closet, causing sleepless nights and bad dreams for a significant part of us. This fear is mostly fear of failing, but also fear of performing bad, cause we would all like to graduate with a terrific GPA don’t we? But then when filling out the application form for the company day of our study association and sending my resumé to get selected to one of the workshops of my potential future employers, I was wondering how important these grades are anyway.

Nowadays companies ask us for quite a filled CV if you ask me. If you haven’t worked during your studies, they cannot judge if you have the right work ethic or teamplayer attitude. It would be nice if you’ve been studying abroad for a little while, to see different countries and explore a little. An internship or a boardyear (but at least some committeework) is absolutely necessary to show you future employer that you know how to work together in a (semi-) professional environment and some signs of a life next to work,committees and studying (for example playing sports on a semi- professional level) could also be of great help finding a job. But then, how would you expect us to also graduate within the expected time (to not face a fee of double our collegefees) and without being a victim of the ‘a-six-is-sufficient-too’ culture among students, Mr. Rutte? Who yourself has studied for about 7 years, I believe.

I myself work for 16 hours a week (yes, also because I can really use the money), I am member of the Advisory Board of the study association and I also try still to have a social life. Combining that with a master studies, does not result in graduating Cum Laude unfortunately. If I look at my fellow students, the one does committeework, the other is member of a educational board, or plays prohockey for about 20-30 hours a week (and does not receive a sportsgrant for that from Utrecht University, which is a shame in my opinion).

There is a definite trade off between grades and extra curricular activities, but I’m still in doubt which of the two will help me get a job next year. Since I also know people that have a resumé to dream about and still have trouble finding a job these days, cause they are competing with people with apparently an even better CV. For now I've made the decision not to graduate with a GPA of 4.0 but focus on other things besides studies. And hopefully visiting these workshops will help me a little with, finding and getting in contact with, my ideal employer cause I’m not looking forward to an endless job search.

Ps. For those who are interested in job opportunities, the company day I’m talking about is on Tuesday the 22^nd of November. It’s free, some good companies are visiting (AS Watson, ORMIT and KPMG among others) and subscriptions are possible via www.bedrijvendag92.nl.

News Feed

Hi everybody!

A quick up-date from Rome. Recently my life has not been that spectacular, due to mid semester exams. Last week, we had to hand in our take-home exam. I managed to complete the essay in time and hopefully successfully. I think the rest of the class completed it as well (it was voluntarily) and we are waiting for our grades now.

The next papers are already in process. For our management course Adrian, August and me have to make a “Business Analysis” for Porsche. I guess that is not going to be that difficult, since we already wrote something similar for our Marketing course last semester. However, I guess way harder is the “Business Challenge Project” which has to be handed in next week. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you details about the project, because everything is top confidential, but since it is a voluntarily project, it had suffered a bit in the last few weeks, meaning that we did not work as much on it as we were supposed to. We all count on a very productive weekend!

Today, I am flying back to Germany, because I have an internship interview. I am planning to take one year off, after I have received my Bachelor degree. I would like to do two internships in order to gain practical experience before doing my masters. Tomorrow, I am going to have an interview at a company in Austria. It is my first serious interview, so I am already quite nervous but at the same time excited what to expect. My next blog will be about the interview….so I hope you will follow-up.