External Affairs Officer: My Experiences
Over the past 10 months, I have been the external affairs officer of the board at Asset | International Business & Management. In this article, you can read about my experiences over the past months and get more insight into what my function entails.
Let me start by introducing myself shortly. My name is Nicole van den Bos, I am 22 years old and was born in a small village near Roosendaal and right now I live in Tilburg. I am studying International Business Administration, which I will finish in the upcoming year. Over the past 10 months, I have had the function of External Affairs Officer. Let me tell you a little bit about my motivation to be part of the board and my experiences over the past months.
Why a board year?
Up to one year ago, I never saw myself as a person that would do a board year. This changed when I went to the board information session, where I gained insight into what it means to be a board member at Asset | International Business & Management. At that time, I was at home busy with my minor courses because my exchange to Athens was canceled due to COVID-19. This meant studying at home for me, as it was for almost everybody.
After the information session, my curiosity for the function had grown a lot. This is why I decided to have a talk with one of the two external affairs officers at that time. She was very enthusiastic about my interest and answered a lot of questions I had. I decided to apply, I was making the decision, in contrast to my exchange and online classes that were due to the virus.
My experiences
When I was officially installed as a board member, I was sitting in my room, behind my laptop because of the curfew that was applicable at that time. The first months were filled with online workshops and beer tastings as well as virtual game nights. When the temperature was going up again, the measurements were lifting as well. We were able to host physical events in small groups and later on even at the terrace. Right now, it is allowed to go clubbing again and we can work at our office every day.
This major change in the year has made it possible for me to learn a lot of different things. Where in the start, we had to adjust to the measurements and do everything differently than we were used to in the years before. We had to be creative and we could implement our own ideas, which made everything great in its own, unique way.
At the moment, my board year is different compared to when I started. As mentioned, we are now allowed to work at the office all workdays. Besides, we are able to organize parties again. This also means physical meetings with committees and seeing different faces coming by the rooms during the day, which is a lot of fun.
The main task of an external affairs officer is doing acquisition. During summer, as an external affairs officer, you will have the summer rounds, meaning a lot of cold calling and company visits. Where, at the beginning of the summer this was mostly online, at the end of summer we were allowed to visit almost all companies physically. It is of course a lot of fun and very interesting to see many companies from the inside.
Would definitely recommend it!
The past year has been a great learning opportunity for me, as well as a great way to expand my social and professional networks. I would definitely recommend doing a board year! It gives great opportunities to develop yourself personally and professionally. I really feel like this has been a highlight of my student career and definitely a time to never forget where I made friends for life!
I hope this article has given you somewhat of an insight into what it entails to be the External Affairs Officer of the board of Asset | International Business & Management. If you ever have any questions about my function, Asset | IB&M in general, or anything I wrote in this article, do not hesitate to contact me via externalaffairs@asset-ibm.nl
Are you possibly interested in becoming my successor? You can take a look at our website for more information about my function, the other opening functions, and how to apply!
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