- Campus , Student
- 03/12/2024
First Career Night well attended
Could I intern at your organization? Does your company focus on personal development? These were just some questions discussed by the alumni and 127 master’s students or recent graduates in the Senaatszaal on Monday evening. The TU/e Alumni Relations Office and TU/e Career Academy jointly organized this networking event.
In three rounds of conversations, recent alumni and master’s students got to ask questions to 26 young professionals who studied at TU/e themselves. Matches were made beforehand by the participants themselves, resulting in overcrowded standing tables with group discussions as well as lots of one-on-one conversations.
A Spanish student who is in Eindhoven for a brief exchange is looking for an internship this evening. A Dutch student joins the table with a representative from the company where he has a job interview scheduled for the next day. The exchanges of information are useful and time flies by.
Meanwhile, outside the Senaatszaal – in the Voorhof – employees of EuFlex, Career Jumpstart, Wervingsdagen and Career Academy have their own booths. They too want to help students and recent graduates start their careers. For them, the questions only come during the last half hour, when the third round of conversation has ended.
Tips
Before the networking rounds began, a panel was hosted in the Blauwe Zaal where five coaches were asked about their careers, any obstacles they encountered and if they had any wise words of advice to share.
“Be open to everyone and give everyone a chance. Pay attention to soft skills and build a network,” says Shivam Kapoor, who – after completing his Electrical Engineering degree – now works as a sales engineer at VanderLande.
Farimah Pouyandeh, project leader at ASML, recommends exploring which work tasks energize you. She speaks from experience: “Under pressure from others, I initially started studying architecture, but I wasn’t passionate about the work until I switched to Mechanical Engineering. The rest happened naturally.”
Obstacle
Panelist Jaap Krekel-Schuit knows what he is talking about when he gives the advice: “First, get to know yourself well.” The mechanical engineer mainly wanted to make social impact and was so ambitious in this pursuit that he was already managing 120 staff members at DAF by age 27. “But it almost became too much for me. Now I know that I don’t have to single-handedly improve everyone’s working conditions. I’ve set more realistic goals and am looking for people to help me achieve them. My career now follows a more natural course and it’s a less steep trajectory.” Krekel-Schuit has the title “Employeneur, Consultant, Gamemaker, Trainer, Facilitator, and Teacher @TMC” listed on his profile. His goal is still to make social impact.
Discussion