Suddenly it is April and you realize that within three months you are – hopefully – finished with your bachelor (or even your master)! At the moment you might be occupied with your exams and other important activities but it might be wise to start thinking about what you will do after the summer. Apart from looking for a job, there are many more options to do after your studies. I made it easy for you – below you find a list of five interesting options!
1. Apply for a board year. It cannot be that you haven’t noticed all the posters, flyers and stickers at our campus: on doors at the restroom, on traffic signs and almost on every possible wall in public areas. Radboud University offers a wide range of organizations where you can do a fulltime board year. Besides study associations such as Synergy (which is also looking for a new board!), there are many sport organizations (Phocas for example), international organizations (AIESEC) or associations that organize a big event (Batavierenrace). Doing a board year is an excellent opportunity to gain practical work experience, organization and communication skills and of course you will build on your professional network! But hurry up, many applications for various organizations have already started.
2. Go travel! This is the time: most of you would not already have an expensive mortgage, no children to take care of and no job that you cannot resign from. Of course, you will need a little money, otherwise you won’t be able to travel much further than Belgium… You might consider to work while you are abroad. If money is not the issue, you might want to do voluntary work. This is not only a great way to meet new people, but you will also get more insights into the culture and the society of the country you are travelling in.
3. Do an internship. Are you done with passively sitting in the lecture hall but do you not feel ready to apply for a job yet? An internship gives you the opportunity to get some practical experience. It will enable you to take a look behind the scenes in a company. It might help you to find out in which areas of Business Administration you want to find a job in the future and check whether you possess the right capabilities to work in this field. Take a look at http://www.ru.nl/fm/careerservice/ for a wide range of possibilities!
4. Do a traineeship. Different from an internship that usually takes a few months, a traineeship will prepare you to work for the company within at least one or two years. A traineeship offers you the opportunity to get to know and try out different functions and departments within a company while you are paid a nice salary. Many big and popular companies such as Vodafone, PWC or Deloitte offer interesting traineeship but also less known companies such as ITrainee and even the Dutch national government offer interesting opportunities for ambitious (former) students. Be aware that a traineeship is very intensive and also requires you to stay within the company for a couple of years.
5. Voluntary work. Although I have suggested that you could do voluntary work while you are travelling abroad, you of course can also find something closer to home. If you have some IT skills, you might want to help out the local sports club by building their new website. Or, if you like to do work in the field of marketing in the future, you might know a small company that struggles with its promotional campaigns. Voluntary work is definitely a nice addition to your resume but it is also a great opportunity to get some experience in the field you are interested in!
.png)
