My name is Ties and I’m a 5th year student, who is planning to graduate next January. I have started the Consultancy Track of the master Strategic Management last September. Next to my studies I have been active at Asset | IB&M, Vidar and I did…
Can you give us a short introduction about yourself? I’m Timo, 24 years old, and I studied IBA at Tilburg University from 2013 to 2016. Originally, I am from the Netherlands, but I currently live in Geneva, Switzerland, where I work for Procter & Gamble.…
Hey all!
I am Koen Salet, currently 22 years old and following the master’s in Accountancy. If you are a member of Asset | IB&M, you might know me from the committees I participated in during the last couple of years. I started in 2016 as a writer of the blog committee, followed by a year as the chairman of the activities committee, and last but not least, I was a member of the first ‘Manager for a Day’ event. In between the last two committees I also went on exchange to Finland, a time I will genuinely never forget in my life.
As said, right now I am following the master’s program in Accountancy at Tilburg University. Before I started this master’s program, I finished the bachelor business economics, also at Tilburg University. I already liked all of the accountancy courses that were offered in the bachelor’s program, and that is the main reason I chose to continue with the master’s in Accountancy. Also, I was not really interested in the other masters that Tilburg University has to offer, so it was a clear choice for me.
As of this year, the program of the master Accountancy is completely renewed. The thesis of this master is divided into three minor assignments; (1) a business application, in which you link a relevant academic accountancy topic to a company that faces a problem related to that topic, (2) a replication study, in which you compare a study that already has been conducted with a study you do yourself in a different setting, and (3) a research note, which is a small research you do on your own topic, comparable with a bachelor’s thesis. Because of this so-called ‘Master File’, the workload is more dispersed throughout the year, and your master’s does not end with a big thesis. Therefore, all the four periods (since you work in quarterly periods) include two courses and one assignment of the master file. However, the research note takes two periods, so it starts in February and ends around June.
“All of the courses lineup really well together, and there is a really good distribution between academically relevant and practically relevant courses”
All of the courses lineup really well together, and there is a really good distribution between academically relevant and practically relevant courses. The academically relevant courses can sometimes be a bit long-winded, but afterwards you will have a lot of knowledge on all kinds of different topics in the accountancy world. Therefore, one may experience these courses as ‘boring’, but if you are interested in accountancy, you will see the bigger picture throughout these courses, and it is actually quite interesting.
The biggest difference with my bachelor’s is that I really am doing something right now that I enjoy. In the bachelor’s we face courses on all the four pillars of business economics, where I just had no or little interest in the other three pillars. It is, therefore, in my opinion way easier to motivate yourself to follow the lectures and study for the courses that you are interested in. Another big difference is the amount of group projects. Every course in the master has one or more group assignments, which can be annoying but also really educational. These assignments are constructed in such a way that you will better understand the course materials and that you can apply them in the future at your job. It’s also really convenient that you can discuss certain issues that you are facing in the course with your fellow team members.
Currently, I am writing the last past of my Master File – the research note – at one of the big four accounting firms in Eindhoven. Due to the corona crisis, which we are now all facing, I am also working from home, but the first 2 months at the office were actually really nice. The thesis internship is a very common thing to do when you are doing your master’s in accountancy. Because most of the people that study Accountancy are going to work at an accountancy firm, it is really nice to already get to know your colleagues and the workplace environment. I personally chose for a big four firm, but there are also lots of smaller firms where you can start a thesis internship. I would really encourage this if you think about working in the accountancy sector, since it is a really nice step into the world that follows after university.
I hope that my personal experiences can help you in choosing whether this master’s is something for you, or maybe it is not at all. If my story still left something unanswered, feel free to contact me!
Good luck with your study choice!
What it is like to be an International Management Masters Student… My name is Charlie Mhaitang. I am 24 years old. Born in Thailand, raised in the Netherlands. I am a master’s student studying “International Management” at Tilburg University. In my professional career, I want…
Hi, I’m Julie and I’m 20 years old. For my exchange semester, I went to the University of Central Florida. An experience to never forget. What reasons did you have to choose the country/city you went on exchange on? I always wanted to go to…
The University elections are coming up! On April 21, 22 and 23, you can vote for who you would like to see as your representative in the University Council and Faculty Council.
The University council decides on projects concerning the entire university, such as study places or international student housing.
The Faculty Council is working on the level of TiSEM. They can discuss faculty specific subjects like quality of education and career orientation.
In this article, you can read what drives Michelle Engelen, #3 on the list of Student Party ECCO, to participate in the elections for the Faculty Council.
My name is Michelle Engelen and I am currently in my final semester of IBA. About a month ago, I was elected by ECCO to become a member of the 2020-2021 board. For the ones who are unfamiliar with ECCO: ECCO is a student party that represents all students of TiSEM in its faculty council. Our areas of focus are career development, quality of education, and student welfare.
During my first and second year, I have noticed that many students, including myself, have many thoughts about how to improve the courses, content, teaching, etc. of our programs. I believe that we, as students, can provide valuable feedback and ideas to our academic directors and the faculty TiSEM to increase our student experience at Tilburg University. For this reason, I have joined the Sounding Board from year 1, and I have been a member of the Education Committee in my second year. During the sounding board meetings I really noticed that everyone and every critique, opinion or idea is taken seriously by the academic director. You could tell that she is continuously trying to improve the program, and in this way trying to improve our student time at Tilburg University. The impact that students could make motivated me to join the Education Committee in my second year of IBA. The Education Committee provides (un)solicited advice on, amongst others, the quality of education to the Academic directors and the Vice-Dean Education. I am truly convinced that it is important to get students involved in the decision-making at all levels of the university because we might view or experience things differently.
“I really noticed that everyone and every critique, opinion or idea is taken seriously by the academic director”
Again, I noticed the value of students at university boards and that is why I decided to take the next step, which was applying for a board year at ECCO. Hopefully, I can give a voice to all TiSEM students, including (and importantly) international students, via this position. I aspire to increase or improve the opportunities TiSEM offers to prepare you for the real deal, namely your future job. Besides, I want to focus on improving the internationalization of our programs, as I think it is important for both Dutch students and international students to get (the best) international experience possible.
If you have any suggestions or points to put forward regarding the faculty, please send me a message via email, Facebook or LinkedIn.
The elections will take place from April 21st– 23rd this year, so vote to be represented!
The University elections are coming up! On April 21, 22 and 23, you can vote for who you would like to see as your representative in the University Council and Faculty Council.The University council decides on projects concerning the entire university, such as study places…
Over the course of the past 9 months, I have had the opportunity to be the External Affairs Officer of the Board of Asset | International Business & Management. In this blogpost, I will tell you more about what has made this such a great…
Over the course of the past 9 months, I have had the amazing opportunity to be the Secretary of the Board of Asset | International Business & Management. In this blogpost, I will tell you more about why I decided to do a board year and what my experiences were.
About me
Before getting into more detail about why I did a board year, the tasks of a secretary and my experiences in general, I will give a short introduction about myself. My name is Cliff de Peijper, 21 years old and grew up in a small village called Oud Gastel. In my second year of IBA, I moved to Tilburg and became active at Asset | IB&M in the IBA Committee. After this first year at IB&M, I went on a great exchange to Hong Kong. In the last semester of my Bachelor, I wanted to develop other skills than in the IBA Committee and joined the Business Club Committee. By being in one of the most time intensive committees, I realized that I really enjoyed my time at IB&M, both because of the fellow members but also the committee work, and was not ready to leave the association yet.
Why a board year?
As mentioned above, I really liked the two years of being active at IB&M. After finishing my Bachelor, I was not sure yet which Master to do and. Apart from that, I did not feel like being graduated and starting to look for a job in a year from then. Furthermore, being able to run your own little ‘company’ including several teams, seemed to be an opportunity that cannot be done in any other situation at this age. Apart from that, there are certain skills which you cannot obtain by just studying, that I thought I could learn by doing a board year. These skills include a professional way of communicating, team management, crisis management, and time management. Hence, during my last semester of IBA, I decided that I wanted to apply.
Tasks of a Secretary
As a secretary, there are several core tasks which you will take on. These include: making minutes during board meetings, responding to incoming email and coordinating committees. Apart from that, a secretary has to attend two Faculty Wide Organs every week: the Webmasters Meeting and Secretary Meeting. In these two, you will meet with all fellow Webmasters and Secretaries of other departments to discuss issues that concern all departments or Asset | Tilburg.
Next to that, there are several portfolios that will be divided among boardies. I was responsible for study support, internationalization, the lecture talk schedule, formal social media and the coordination of 5 committees. This might sound like quite a lot of side-tasks. The reason for this is that a secretary usually has more time available to work on projects because the core tasks tend to take less time than in other functions. Other interesting projects I took on were: having a supportive role in organizing events for the IBA Business Class, representing IB&M in meetings for the upcoming ‘Board Connection Day’ and setting up the new ‘Manager for a Day’ event together with the committee.
In short, a secretary has a wide variety of responsibilities. In this way, you will be involved in a lot of operations going on within the association and you will be in touch with several organs. Apart from that, there is a lot of time to take on projects of your own interest.
Key skills that I have developed
In the paragraphs above, I have been talking quite a lot about developing myself during the past year. I can imagine that this seems quite abstract, so I would like to point out some of the skills I have developed in the past year.
– Planning
– Leading
– Argumentative skills
– Crisis Management
– Organizing events
All in all, my board year has been a unique opportunity to develop myself, meet a lot of wonderful people, expand my professional network, and above all, have lots of fun. The formal events we organized were a great experience, but of course all our informal events with members were unforgettable and gave my motivation a boost.
Now it is time for me to continue with a Master and pass my function on to someone else.
Are you possibly interested in becoming my successor? Subscribe for our virtual board information session on Monday March 30 at 13:00 ‘o clock via: https://www.asset-ibm.nl/event/board_info_session/. Moreover, you can always shoot me a message or an email to secretary@asset-ibm.nl to plan a (virtual) coffee to discuss my experiences in more detail and/or answer all questions you might have!
For the past 9 months, I have had the pleasure of being the treasurer of the board of Asset | International Business & Management. Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Myrthe Heuer, I am 22 years old and am originally from Kaatsheuvel,…
Over the course of the past 9 months, I have had the amazing opportunity to be the Chairman of the Board of Asset | International Business & Management. In this blogpost, I will tell you more about what has made this such a great experience…
During my internship at Heineken I was able to evolve both my work experience as well as myself. I expected to learn what it is like working a job with colleagues, standardized times and responsibilities as well as discovering what it is like working in the finance branch. The latter gave me a great insight what to expect from the finance master.
I had two main tasks during my internship. The first task was activating assets, meaning that I had to administrate them correctly. I had to allocate them either to the balance sheet or the income statement. The second task was reviewing investments that had been done in the past such as new machines or new product introductions. I was able to review these investments based on all four IBA pillars; finance, accounting, marketing, and management. I was given a lot of freedom and responsibility to carry out these tasks.
This internship allowed me to experience a company’s work environment as well as experience how I am able to put my IBA into practice. Next to this, I think that it has been a great enrichment to my curriculum vitae along with my professional attitude.
Therefore, I think that offering an internship in combination with a minor is an excellent idea and I strongly recommend students to take this opportunity.
Georgeena Regan
Hi everyone, my name is Sven Promper. I studied IBA from 2013 to 2016 and I am currently working as a consultant at Rembrandt Mergers & Acquisitions. After graduating IBA I did a full-time board year at the study association (Asset IB&M) and in 2018…
As a consultant for Capgemini Invent for over two years now, looking back on my student life brings back fun memories. I started IBA in 2011 and was extremely active in terms of doing committees. Eventually I did a board year at Asset, where I…
Being the External Affairs Officer of Asset | International Business & Management, what does that mean? Besides your main task, keeping in contact with companies, there are many other tasks you have to fulfill. But let’s not skip ahead, and start from the beginning.
My name is Margot Janus, 22 years old and for the last 10 months the External Affairs Officer of Asset | IB&M. I was born in Veldhoven, but moved to Veghel when I was 5 years old. After my primary school and high school, I decided to take a gap year and go abroad for 9 months. I went to New York and London to improve my English, but also to step outside my comfort zone and go all by myself to other countries. During my gap year, I had to decide what I wanted to do after that. The international experience was something I really enjoyed: I enjoyed being with other cultures and meet new people. Therefore, I decided to apply for the International Business Administration program at Tilburg University. Luckily I got accepted, and started the program in September 2017. Immediately from the start, I was introduced by a friend at Asset | IB&M. Doing committee work seemed interesting to me, and therefore I started in the First Year Committee. After a year full of new experiences, I applied again for a committee, and was placed in the Intercontinental Travel Committee, where we organized a study trip to Miami and Mexico City. While really enjoying being in a committee, I also started thinking about a board year, and how that would be a great possibility to develop myself. I applied for the function as External Affairs Officer, since I wanted to improve my acquisition skills, and wanted some insight into different kinds of companies. Furthermore, I was excited to keep the good contact going with companies that we were already in contact with. During this year, I also got very enthusiastic when new companies participate in our events. It feels good that they have faith in our events and our students. I met many great people
Besides learning the acquisition part during my board year, I learned many other skills. You experience how it is to lead a ‘small company’. You have different types of committees, which all have their own events. You are the person that needs to check if they are still on track with all their tasks. It can be challenging since committee members sometimes have another view on how things should happen.
If I have to name one skill that I learned most last year, it is definitely teamwork; you work with your fellow board members for 50+ hours per week. Sometimes this can be quite challenging, since we do not always have the same opinions. We debate, and together come to the best possible solution.
Concluding, a board year consists of many highlights. For me personally, the Active Members Weekend and the study trip to Miami and Mexico City were two of them. Unfortunately, I’m almost finished with my board year.
If you are interested in a board year at Asset | IB&M, please do not hesitate to contact me or stop by E114 to drink a cup of coffee!