Would you like to stay in the North after you graduate? Career Services is happy to help you.

Hanze wants to help international students who wish to pursue a career in Groningen after completing their studies. That’s why project leader Sophie Tillema set up Hanze Career Services.

‘More than enough international students want to work in the north after completing their studies. Finding a job and figuring out where to start is not easy. Hanze Career Service wants to help internationals to find their way into the job market in the region.’

How do you go about something like that?

‘It’s a mix of providing information and offering support. There are job vacancies in the northern Netherlands, particularly in small and medium-sized enterprises. But international students face plenty of hurdles and barriers on their way to securing those jobs. That’s why our first service is basic career advice. A one-to-one conversation about a problem you’re facing. During this, we work out where the problem lies. It may be that your cover letter isn’t getting past the selection stage. If that’s the flaw, you can focus on that. Perhaps it’s simply a case of your letter not standing out enough. You can work on that, and we can help.’

Are you the one who provides this help and advice?

‘We mainly point students towards the opportunities that are available. I make good use of what Make it in the North has to offer. You can find lots of practical tips there. How to write a CV? How to build your professional network? Those sort of things.
‘There’s also a great deal of expertise within Hanze itself. We are here to bring all of this together and make the navigation of the job market a little easier.’

Recently I read that employers still tend to favour Dutch applicants.

‘That’s definitely a problem. Let me put it this way: perhaps, as an institution, we also have a role to play in educating companies. Prejudices do exist, of course, but exclusion is largely unconscious. In an application process, for instance, people often spend just a few seconds on an initial screening. With such a superficial assessment, biases can easily creep in.
‘Speaking Dutch properly certainly increases the opportunities. On the other hand, there are also employers in the North who work internationally. For them Dutch is not a requirement. Of course there are other reasons to learn Dutch, especially for those who aspire to a long-term career and a rich social life in the Netherlands.’

Apart from providing basic career advice, what else does Career Services do?

‘We run four workshops in each term, so that’s four times a year. To take part in these, students don’t have to know exactly what they want to do with their career. One of the workshops is on CVs and cover letters, one is on networking and pitching, there’s one on Dutch workplace culture, and the last one is on LinkedIn.’

LinkedIn? Why is that?

‘You don’t need to tell Dutch people that LinkedIn is a good way to network and find job vacancies. But it’s not nearly as well known amongst international students. In the workshop, they can get to know the platform and discover all sorts of ways to use it effectively. Besides, LinkedIn is, of course, also a digital professional network.’

Networking probably is the best way to find work, does that apply for international students as well?

‘It certainly is a good way to get in touch with employers. Employers do their best to meet students. In some sectors, they even recruit staff whilst they’re still at university. One way to get in touch with employers is attending career events, so we want to guide international students towards these events. That’s our third activity: drawing students’ attention to the many career events in the north.’

To be honest, I hadn’t heard of Career Services before  – have international students?

‘We’re only just getting started. And it seems very clear to me that there’s a demand for it. During the recent Welcome Day I had joined in the Make it in the North stand. It was heaving, students have lots of questions about practical matters. There are a great many rules for international students who want to work here, especially for students from countries outside the European Union. They have to deal with visas, student finance, taxes, and their individual circumstances. Students can come to us for advice on these matters.’

Isn’t that also the job of the International Office?

‘It is, and we work closely together. Career Services adds a piece to the puzzle internationals have to solve: what happens after your graduate? What happens when you start thinking about your future and your career? We want to make sure students don’t have to figure that out on their own.’

How can international students get in touch with Career Services?

‘We start online.  Keep an eye out for Career Services on campus, through Hanze’s communication channels and our workshops and events. Of course, you can send us an email and make an appointment. Don’t hesitate, if you’re not sure whether your question is something we can help with, just ask. We can always help to find the right place to start.’

Foto: Sophie Tillema (r), project leader Hanze Career Services