Issue 2 / February 2017
The work of a Communication and Media professional
All about working in marketing, political communication, journalism and entertainment education (p. 6)
An entertainment guide to your future career Some movies and TV-shows that every IBCoM graduate must have seen (p. 13)
Master soulmates don’t exist
Why finding your perfect master is a lot like finding the love of your life (p. 28)
IBCoM finished! What’s next? An overview of the more and less obvious options (p. 30)
Editorial Life after IBCoM
Being a student is awesome: we get little responsibility, lots of freedom and making a wrong decision from time to time most likely doesn’t cause the world to stop spinning. People expect us to have ‘the time of our lives’, so why not take full advantage of that? Enjoy the student parties, watch too many Netflix shows in a row and travel whenever our wallets allow us… as long as we pass our courses, we can pretty much do whatever we want! There comes a time, however, when we need to start thinking about what comes after we graduate. Where do we want to go, what do we want to do? Who do we want to be when we trade the safety of university for the unpredictability of the professional world? For some, this time comes already at the end of year one, when they start
choosing focus areas and electives, already with possible Master’s options in mind. Others start pondering about their future just before applying for internships in their second year, and some even prefer to leave the issue to the very last minute, until right before they graduate. In any case, we are here to help you through the tough decisions with this career-themed edition of IBCoMagazine.
In this issue, we paired our usual light-weight content with a little more serious stuff: we delved into the working world of Communication and Media to explore the many possibilities that are out there and how we can best prepare for what is to come. What are previous C&M students doing now and how did they get there? What skills and habits come in handy in your future job or internship? Should you really do a Master after graduating from IBCoM and, if so, how do you find ‘the one’? If you find yourself asking these and similar questions, this issue may help you out. And if not, they will at least get you inspired to start thinking about them.
Yanniek van Dooren
Content
p.04 How to prepare for life after
IBCoM
• To help you mentally prepare for life after university
The work of a Communication and Media professional p.06
p.23 Life after academia: who is
calling?
• All about working in marketing, political communication, journalism and entertainment education
• Why lecturer Emy Koopman left her academic career to be a writer
p.24 The C&M people behind Donald
p.08 Become your best self for the job • Which non-academic skills will impress your future employer?
J. Trump
• A closer look at the work of campaign manager Kellyanne Conway
p.10 Healthy with a student budget • Quick recipes for when you haven’t scored that million dollar job yet
p.26 The nonverbal art of
p.12 A student’s view on
Communication and Media Practice • The benefits of your CMP course
p.28
p.13
An entertainment guide to your future career
• Why finding your perfect master is a lot like finding the love of your life
communicating your love
• The IBCoMagazine how-to guide for Valentine’s
Master soulmates don’t exist p.29 Speeding up your morning
routine
• Some movies and TV-shows that every IBCoM graduate must have seen
• Surviving early lectures or your 9-5 internship
p.15 Protecting your harrassed wallet • Top tips for managing money while living off a student loan
IBCoM finished! What’s next? p.30
• An overview of the more and less obvious options
p.18 CV’s and cover letters: the
essentials
• Three steps to your perfect job application p.20 Inspiration from the pro’s • What we can learn from previous Communication and Media graduates
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How to prepare for life after IBCoM As university students, we are expected to figure out what we want to do with our future and to start working towards that goal. Theoretically, that sounds great. But as many of us have experienced, figuring out what you want is not as easy as it sounds; let alone we feel prepared to make it happen. What do I want to do? Am I good enough? After three years of studying IBCoM and possibly finishing a master, will I be prepared for whatever comes next? You can never be sure, but there are some ways to increase your confidence as well as your chances at the labour market. These are my personal favourites:
Don’t drown yourself in extracurricular activities
Extracurricular activities are a great way to boost your CV and increase your social, professional and practical skills. That being said, try to resist the urge to apply for every opportunity that presents itself. I made this mistake, and halfway through my second year, I found myself buried in activities that I didn’t enjoy and couldn’t really contribute to. In my experience, a better approach is to find one or two activities that you are truly passionate about and match your skills. That way, you’ll find that it won’t be a problem to put effort into it
and your unique contributions will follow naturally. Instead of filling your CV with a list of activities that say little about you as a person, you can baffle your future employer with your enthusiasm and the value you’ve added to a few particular causes. Of course, this requires knowing what you’re good at and interested in. If you don’t have a clue about that yet, here’s where my next tip comes in.
Talk to as many people as possible
This is easier for some people than for others and I am definitely in the “others” category. But trust me, it’s worth it! Talk with your classmates, friends and family, IBCoM support staff or lecturers, especially professionals in the field, if you know them. Not only can they tell you what they think you’re good at, they may also help you realise what topics you like to think and talk about, introduce you to new areas of communication and media, or show you that a certain job or activity is totally different from what you expected. Recognising your own strengths and interests is hard, because both are tightly connected to your norms and values. Getting to know other people’s goals and perspectives may help you realise that the things you take for granted are more unique than you assumed. And as an added benefit, you’re actively building a profession
al network that may come in handy when looking for jobs or internships later.
Make mistakes
Such a cliché, but I have to remind myself of it all the time: it’s okay to make mistakes. Choose some courses that you don’t like, get rejected for an internship or two (or five, or ten) and sit through a couple of awkward coffee dates with people who are a lot less inspiring than you thought they would be. All these experiences teach you about yourself and help you choose and do better next time. It’s the mistakes that we learn from most, after all.
Take your time and don’t worry
Finally, although this is easier said than done, try not to beat yourself up for not having it all figured out. The times when your university course and first real job determined your career course have long gone (if they ever really existed) and there are plenty of options to change your mind, even after university. So don’t worry too much if you can’t decide on the right courses, the perfect master or the best internship company. Choose what feels right for now and be honest with yourself about the things you like and don’t like to do. Take a gap year, if you need to (Check out pages 30-31 to find out the pros and cons!) or spend a summer travelling or volunteering to discover yourself. Chances are that when you figure it all out, the things you’ve chosen to do will be just the things you needed. And if not? Well, you’re never too old to learn.
Extracurricular activities: what are the options?
Student job
Perfect if you want to earn money while boosting your CV. There are plenty of paid positions available on campus, including IBCoM Ambassador and Student Assistant. These allow you to get to know the University and staff in a different way and don’t require a Bachelor’s degree!
Honours Programme
Perfect if you’re looking for additional academic challenge and/or are interested in an academic career. There are different programmes to suit your personal preference, so don’t be afraid to ask our support staff for advice on this one.
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Student association
Perfect if you want to build a network and have an active social life during your studies. A guarantee for making friends for life!
Join a board or committee Perfect if you want to gain experience in organising events or activities and get to know new people in the process.
Join the IBCoMagazine
Perfect if you aspire a career in journalism or if you’re into writing, blogging, photography, or art. There’s a role for every creative soul. Yanniek van Dooren
The work of a
Communication and Media professional Sandra Post
Many IBCoM students end up in fields like marketing, journalism, politics or entertainment. Some of you already have a specific idea of what your work life will be like and how you will get there. Others are still figuring out their options. Whatever your case may be, we interviewed four IBCoM lecturers, who are experts in either one of these fields, to tell you about the reality of work in these areas and how to get there.
Marketing – Daniel Trottier
Daniel Trottier studied the Marketing and PR field after he obtained a Bachelor at McGill University in Psychology and Sociology and a Master in Sociology at Concordia University. The most interesting about the marketing field for him is that marketing has played a very important role in the development of unknown technologies into essential or daily tools.
Different jobs “There are quite a few options. You can think about work in the marketing department of multinationals or work in smaller start-ups. There are also jobs where you will have to try to make sense of new information that is available to marketers, considering also the ethical or privacy issues. There are a lot of conversations going on in which students can contribute.”
Preparation during IBCoM “Classes like Introduction to Social Science Research (ISSR) and Key Concepts in the Social Sciences (KCSS) in your first year are very important. Operationalization skills and other basics, like sampling and bias, are what really matters. “Often when we see an advertisement that doesn’t work, there seems to be cultural lag, making it difficult to actually speak to the person in question. Therefore, it’s important to look at the circumstances in which these decisions emerge. These are essential skills for a marketer, so you should never underestimate the basics you learned in your first year.” But also the second and third year offer interesting courses, like Global Advertising. This course teaches you about different tools that researchers
and marketers use to bridge and understand cultural differences. Developing these skills is useful to find your way in the marketing field.” “When choosing an internship, take into consideration whether you want to commit to a certain company or if you want to engage with a variety of clients, that’s an important decision to make.”
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Political Communication – Vasiliki Tsagkroni
Lecturer Vasiliki Tsagkroni is a political scientist, who has worked for a political party, pursued a career as a political analyst and has even worked as political advisor. I wondered why we should study politics. Her answer: “Politics is about how the world works. By studying this, eventually you start to understand a bit more the complexity and why certain decisions were made. Politics is all about being critical and challenging what you see.”
Different jobs “When you study political communication you will most likely end up in communicative research. It is also very common to become part of a political party. People from communication and media can work in the communications department, for example by helping out with political campaigns or trying to analyse what the voters think and want.” Preparation during IBCoM “There are specific courses about political communication in the second and third year. For the first years, politics is covered in many courses, like Media Systems in Comparative Perspective (MSCP).” “Looking at internships, it is a very enlightening experience if you could work for a political party or a non-governmental organization (NGO).
NGO’s challenge specific issues of nowadays and achieve certain goals, like improving human rights or saving animals. However, if you have the opportunity to help with a political campaign, that would be a recommendation as well.”
Challenges in the political field “The most challenging matter is being able to distinguish yourself from the political ideology you’re examining. Politics is a very personal matter, so you need to distance yourself. Challenge yourself to be objective and critical at every stage.”
Journalism – Bernadette Kester
To learn more about the field of journalism, we talked to Bernadette Kester, who teaches at the master Media and Journalism and was previously researcher for the Dutch Institute of Military History. In her research she focused on how Dutch peace operations were portrayed in the media. Becoming a generalist “Journalists are actually generalists: they know a little bit about everything. The IBCoM program can be a perfect preparation for this field, as you will automatically stay up to date with the world around you. With up to date topics as examples, lecturers teach you to look at media in a creative and analytical way.”
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Preparation during IBCoM “In the first year, especially Media Processes and Influences and Communication as a Social Force are important courses. They are more about the backgrounds of media and society, which will be your groundwork. One seminar in the second and third year focuses explicitly on journalism, which is the International Journalism seminar.” Some second and third year courses you might want to consider are ‘The Business of Media’ and ‘Media Industries: Trends and Strategies’. These don’t focus on journalism specifically, but do provide information on how the media work nowadays. “There is always a possibility for a journalistic internship somewhere. It does not always have to be about writing. Some students have an internship with radio or television, which is also journalism.”
The issue with journalism “Journalists often bring themselves into discredit by publishing facts that have not been correctly checked or by only focusing on juicy and vivacious stories. It is, however, important that news is properly contextualized and based on a variety of sources.” A final tip “Always keep asking questions, try to find as much information as you can. Keep on developing and stimulating your curiosity. Observing your surroundings and writing it down in your diary can be the start of your writing skills. It teaches you to express what you see around you.” Curious about the experience of an IBCoM graduate in this field? Go to page 20 for an interview with ex-IBCoMmer Liza.
Entertainment Education – Martine Bouman
For the past thirty years, Martine Bouman worked in the Entertainment Education field. This entails using popular media to educate people about social problems in an entertaining way. She established the Media & Health centre in Gouda and works at Erasmus University as Special Chair Entertainment Media and Social Change. Marketing and Entertainment Education “I have had a lot of students who found out that they could use their marketing skills to help develop ideas to motivate people in thinking about social problems. It is about ‘social marketing’, using marketing strategies to influence people’s behaviour in order to fight social problems.”
Different jobs “Of course you can always end up in the entertainment sector. You could be working for a producer, doing research in how to use different types of media, like social media or traditional media, to reach a specific audience. You could also do preliminary inquiry about your target group. But you could also end up in a social organization, helping with the communication policies.” “Timing and framing is everything” “You always have to keep in mind that when you’re working for a producer and you want to do research, there is not always the time and money. In that case you’ll need to find a ‘third way’ to a solution, maybe find a compromise. Therefore, it’s important that students can put themselves in someone else’s position. Timing and framing is everything. When do you say something and how do you bring it.”
Even though all these fields require different skills, they all agree on one thing. IBCoM is a good preparation for the practical work field. Whether you want a career in marketing, politics, journalism or the entertainment (-education) business, there are plenty of options for you and many ways to get there. Also, don’t forget that we only highlighted four broad fields for communication and media scholars, but there are a lot of different directions in which you can take your career.
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Become your best self
for the job
In a field as dynamic and multifaceted as communication and media - in its many shapes and forms - there is a constant need for more and improved skills. Not just as a requirement, but also because it looks good on your LinkedIn profile and CV. Moreover, it shows employers that you’ve dedicated the time to learning these skills and are thus a hard worker. After taking a brief look at what some jobs require, we have compiled a list of skills that would improve your likelihood of getting that job or help you be the best employee that you can be.
Personal presentation
To start off, knowing who you are and what you want is important and should become a part of you and how you present yourself. Perhaps this is best categorised as a life skill, but knowing who you are and what you want, so not just what you can, is one of the most valuable things to think about. Remember that when you need to show yourself, you should stick to what’s important to you – it’s those things that make your eyes shine and your body language shift to excitement. They are important and they contribute to you getting to do what you love in the long run.
Administrative skills
Here is some food for thought: How do you organise your folders on your computer? Do you always remember to stay on top of things? How long does it take you to respond to emails? It might seem a little silly to look at this as a skill, but more often than not, you will be making your life and that of your future colleagues easier if you stay on top of your own things (or perhaps, even on top of other people’s things). The great thing is that you don’t really need to take a class for this - though if you’re hopeless at it, you sure can! - and it’s even better if you can find a system that works for you. Do you like colour-coding? Alphabetical orders? Both? If it fits, it sits!
Creative thinking
Whether you believe creativity can be taught or not, there are still tons of ways to think out of the box and be your most inspired self. There’s
a little bit of creativity inside of us, but here are some tips for you to actually find that creativity. When you want to come up with a brilliant new idea, start with the old ones - what is wrong with them? What can you change to make things awesome? This creative thinking is very much prioritised by employers these days; when entering the workforce, it’s nice to be able to contribute in meetings or brainstorm sessions, and practicing your creative thinking through short exercises will make you more valuable and more appreciated on the work floor.
HTML and CSS
With the increasing use of software and websites in the various communication and media fields, it’s a good idea to at least be able to understand these two. HTML is what creates the structure and form of a web page; CSS is what you use to style HTML content. Even if you are not good with creating these codes from scratch, knowing how to customise them is not very difficult, but will be very useful in the future. In addition, you could code yourself an entire website as a CV - now that will be a show of skill. A good place to start this is either to attend a class with Turing Society on campus (check their Facebook page for information) or learn it by yourself using Codecademy. com. Both are free resources, at least for the basic understanding of HTML and CSS.
Editing skills
It’s always a good idea to get a grasp of this before you enter a field, especially if it’s creative. There’s a variety of programs - for example, Adobe Photoshop or Adobe InDesign for design, as well as Adobe Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro X (For Mac OSX) for video editing. There are tons of places to learn skills in these programs - Adobe has a variety of tutorials on their website, Lynda.com offers a 10-day free trial to learn just about anything on the computer and if you can’t find it there, someone on the internet has probably wondered the same thing as you and a simple Google search will take you to the answer.
Valerija Denaityte
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Healthy
with a student budget
Studying, partying, sleeping, cleaning... and somehow also trying to stay healthy? As a student, it can often be difficult to find a balance between all the things you have and want to do. Either you cannot find the time or you are limited by your bank account. As the healthy lifestyle is currently growing in popularity, you may have you found yourself looking for new ways to join this trend as well. However, due to the busy lifestyle and a small budget, it often seems to be more convenient to stick to the cheap and unhealthier meals while enjoying student life to the fullest. However, eating healthy with a student budget is easier than you might think. Here are three recipes which will help you through the day!
Breakfast: Oatmeal and Banana Pancakes
Tools • A frying pan • A blender, food processor, or just a simple hand blender. • A spatula • A fork
These are your steps • Put the oats in the blender and blend it until it becomes flour. • Mash up the banana with a fork and add it along with the egg in the blender. • Add as much milk as you like, but keep in mind not to make the substance too liquid or too chunky. • Blend for about 15 seconds until you get a creamy substance. • Heat up a bit of oil in the frying pan. • Pour the substance in the pan, creating small pancakes. Usually you can make around 4 pancakes with these amounts. • Bake the pancakes on a medium-high temperature for about 5 minutes and turn them regularly using your spatula. They turn golden-brown pretty fast, so pay close attention! • Put your pancakes on a plate, and decorate them with any kinds of fruits you like. • Enjoy!
Lunch: Whole Wheat Wraps Ingredients • 1 cup of oats • 1 banana • 1 egg • A little bit of milk • Any kinds of fruits that you like (Tip: go to the market at Blaak on a Tuesday or Saturday to get loads of fruits for a cheap price!). • Olive oil (or coconut oil if you have a bit more to spend)
Still have that bowl of salad in your fridge from yesterday? Or some leftover vegetables and meat? Wrap it in a whole wheat wrap! There are various ways to create a nice lunch with a wrap. Ever thought of tomato sauce, mozzarella, zucchini, mushrooms, red pepper and Italian herbs? Heat up the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, bake the wrap for about 8 minutes, and enjoy your pizza-style wrap!
Dinner: Zucchini Pasta
We all love pasta. Add just some tomatoes and pesto and you can have a delicious meal done in no-time. Unfortunately, this is definitely not a guilt-free kind of meal. However, there are many alternatives to the well-loved dish which are based on vegetables. For instance, the zucchini pasta: Ingredients • 1 zucchini • Plain tomato sauce • Italian herbs & oregano • 100-150 grams of chicken (or turkey) breast • Any other kind of vegetable you like. • Olive or coconut oil Tools • A wok • A frying pan • A kitchen knife • A cutting board • A cheese or spiral slicer, or a julienne peeler
These are your steps • Cut off the ends of the zucchini and slice it into thin straps. Leave the straps on a plate instead of the board before you start cutting the chicken. • Heat up the oil in the frying pan, and add the pieces chicken as soon as the oil is heated. • While frying the chicken, put the zucchini straps into the wok (without any oil!). Let them warm up on a low temperature for a minute before putting them on a plate. • Add the tomato sauce to the frying pan and mix it with the herbs. Let it heat up for about 3 minutes. • Add the now golden-brown chicken to the sauce, give it a good steer and leave it for another 3 minutes. • Pour the sauce on the zucchini. • Enjoy! Lianne Dusseldorp
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A student’s view on
Communication and Media Practice Communication and Media Practice (CMP), one of the more practical and future oriented courses in IBCoM, is primarily focused on helping second year students get their professional profiles sorted out. The course takes you through the job search process; from creating a LinkedIn profile and writing your CV or cover letter to helping you perfect your interview techniques and finding an internship for the end of your second year. The course takes place over two terms and consists of guest lectures taught by media professionals and tutorials where the real hands on learning takes place. You even get to visit a media firm with a group of students to experience how a real life work environment feels. The benefits of this course are obvious, but it's the choices you make that allow you to make the most of it. I decided to speak to a few other students and see what they thought of CMP and how it helped them in the practical world.
The course allowed me to find a couple of really interesting companies to apply to for my internship, which is a mandatory part of the second year. If you haven't experienced the job search process yet, I would highly recommend paying attention during all the guest lectures and participating intently on your field trip, as these are great ways to get a foot in the door with companies. During tutorials you receive advice on your assignments, which translate into real life job application documents. Be sure to listen to your teacher and build a very strong profile, because it's a dog eat dog world out there and you need all the support you can get. The most helpful feature of the course is the focus on self-improvement and reflection. This allowed most students I spoke with to discover themselves and find a job path that they would enjoy, so I urge all students to really consider the course as a stepping stone to future employment and as a way to finally shed the bonds of uncertainty.
Let’s start with the big impact, most of all being practicality, as you really gain first-hand knowledge on what qualities certain jobs in the media industry require as well as how to present yourself in the best possible way to companies. Another positive would be the self-reflective aspect of the course, as it requires you to constantly look over your past experiences and draw from them. Certain students felt that this helped them realize what made them unique and helped them decide where they would like to work in the future. Another student mentioned that the interview training and field trips were really helpful, as you got the chance to immerse yourself in an industry of your choice and improve upon skills you had or needed to create.
Perhaps you could find yourself running media campaigns for Nike or attending conferences at the UN, there is something for everyone in this course. It all depends on your ambition and ability to go out on your own and make it happen. Overall, CMP is a welcome relief from the regular courses, as it boasts a unique format with hands-on practical experience and activities. I feel like it does a really good job providing us with numerous media firms to visit and interact with, so I only hope it gets bigger and better as the years go on. Reyhaan King
An entertainment guide to
r yaofuur tfuurtuerecacare e reer Procrastinating? Looking for a glimpse into what you could do with your degree? Lured in by clickbait phrases? With the anxiety of prospective jobs in mind, we have made a roundup of some of the most interesting movies and TV shows featuring careers that we can definitely consider after graduation. Keep in mind: they’re slight exaggerations, but you can still get a good idea of some careers that you can consider - ranging from journalism and TV production to politics!
Spotlight
Movies
In the mood for some intense emotions and stellar acting, centred around a group of investigative journalists? This movie, based on real events in Boston, won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2015 and is very critically acclaimed. Be aware that it deals with quite a serious topic, namely the child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests. In the movie, this is being investigated by The Boston Globe’s ‘Spotlight’ team, which is an investigative journalist unit. With investigative journalism in great decline, it instils you with hope and might awaken the fire inside of you to become one of those people in the future that uncover injustices and hidden crimes of the world.
The Truman Show
out his entire life is based on a reality TV script, you should go watch this movie. It’s definitely worth it and, I assure you, you will check your room for hidden cameras afterwards.
Imagine your whole life is a show, staged for the most popular television live show in history. Regarding all the exams you have failed, all the deadlines that are torturing you since day one and all these annoying people around you, this doesn’t sound too bad, right? Well, for Truman Burbank, an insurance salesman, living a peaceful life on Seahaven Island in Florida, this dream – or nightmare – came true. Everything around him is part of a massive set, the entire island is a fabrication, every single person around him is an actor or actress and everyone knows what’s going on, besides him. If you’re curious about what happens after he finds
The Social Network
Did you ever hear about Erica Albright? No? Well, you better be thankful she broke up with Mark Zuckerberg in 2003, as we would not have this wonderful, addictive, but also annoying social network platform, called Facebook. The Social Network is a movie about the development of Facebook and the people behind it. Facebook, the largest social network in the world, which initially started as a website on which male Harvard students could rate the attractiveness of female Harvard undergraduates, has become an indispensable tool, hobby, particularly in lectures or tutorials, for many of us. This movie offers an entertaining,
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sometimes questionable, point of view on the emergence of and the individuals involved in the process of developing Facebook. Although, no one knows what really happened, this movie deserves to be watched by you!
UnREAL
Series
For those of you who still believe in all the drama, lies and intrigues happening in reality TV shows, like ‘The Bachelor’, this show is not recommendable, as it would destroy all your hopes and dreams. However, for the rest UnREAL is a must-watch! After having a mental breakdown, former producer Rachel Goldberg returns to ‘Everlasting’, a popular American dating show. Together with the executive producer, Quinn King, she continues doing what she is so great at; manipulating the contestants,
bringing out the worst in them and thereby making ‘Everlasting’ the most watched reality TV show in the United States. For me, UnREAL is one of the best series ever, and if you haven’t watched it already, get in front of your TV, laptop or tablet and give it a try!
The Newsroom
Do you ever wonder what is really going on behind the scenes of a news channel? The drama, the intrigue and the discourse that takes place before, around and after a large feature story? ‘The Newsroom’ is a show that ran between 2012 and 2014, following the fictional Atlantis Cable News channel and its employees. While the episodes are a bit long at an hour, they are filled with enough intrigue and character dynamic to grip you. Not only does it display the hardships of anchors and news channel staff, it shows how their morality and values come into question when reporting, or perhaps not reporting, on certain events. The characters are cynical, caring and sometimes even downright awful, but they're enjoyable and relatable. So, if you have the time and enjoy something in the style of ‘The West Wing’ or ‘House Of Cards’, this is definitely your thing.
The Thick Of It
Do you think you have seen the best of British TV productions? Think again! ‘The Thick Of It’ is perhaps one of the funniest and most self-deprecating things that the BBC has ever produced. It shows the everyday working of modern British government in a way that spares no one. It mocks existing ministries for being useless and modern day politicians for being complete idiots. You might wonder how this plays into what we are studying – one of the main characters is the brilliant Malcolm Tucker, who will put your own cussing in the far shadow. Portrayed by the brilliant Peter Capaldi, Tucker has the job of fixing every dumb mistake and preventing mistakes from happening, not always necessarily in the right order. In all this, there's a big consolation: if you ever think you've made a huge blunder, at least you're not a politician who openly made a very offensive joke. (Spoilers?)
Patricia Wahren & Valerija Denaityte
A $tudent’$ guide on protecting your harassed wallet My dad often says that college students are among the poorest in every society. It is no wonder, given the cost of tuition, textbooks, accommodation and many other little hassles that are part of our everyday life. As undergraduates, probably one of our biggest concerns is ensuring that we still have money to buy food at the end of the month and not giving in to the temptation of buying every cute pair of shoes or every game that we come across. When we graduate, we will hopefully earn decent wages. By then, we will have a little more room to breathe, but right now, as students living off our parents’ money or student loans, we all need as much help as we can get. I cannot claim to have mastered the art of managing my finances – as I am still guilty of giving into my needs to buy too much chocolate for my own good – but there are a few tips that I have learned since starting university and living on my own. I hope that in some way, they can help you to protect your poor wallets, which ought to be as harassed as they possibly could be.
which is an excellent tool to help you with your finances and extremely simple to use. I also have an Excel spreadsheet where I update my spending every week.
Set out a limit The first thing that you should do at the start of every month is deciding the amount of money you allow yourself to spend in general. Start by stating the total sum, then make a list of things that you have to spend on (such as housing, transportation, food, fun, etc.) and divide the money between those categories. You should indicate the lowest and highest amount you expect to spend to allow yourself some flexibility during the month.
Managing your finance is a part of growing up and, like everything else, it’s difficult and it requires a tremendous amount of self-discipline. It is easy (and tempting) to give into your own desires, but you won’t be so happy when you notice you check your bank account halfway through the month and realize that you are broke, or worse, in debt. So, save yourself some grief by controlling your impulses – it will be worth it in the end.
Keep track of your budget The downfall to credit cards is that, unlike cash or debit cards, you are not always aware of how much money you have left. It’s so easy to just swipe your card and then move on to another store without having to think about how much you have spent and whether you budget is running low. As such, you should keep track of your spending by saving the bills and write down what you spend in a little notebook. In my case, I prefer using an app on my smartphone called Monefy,
Buy second-hand Probably one of the most effective ways to save some money is to invest into second-hand stuff such as textbooks, furniture and even clothes or shoes. Let’s face it, as college students, we don’t have that much money to throw around and textbooks are ridiculously expensive. Fortunately, there are older students, who are willing to sell their used books at a much lower price. As IBCoM students, you can search for the group ‘IBCoM book exchange’ on Facebook, where you are sure to find textbooks that you need for a very good price. Additionally, you can also look into buying a second-hand bike from people online or someone you know. Be sure to check the condition of the bike, though, and invest in a good lock – or a couple of them.
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Chi Mai
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CV’s and cover letters: Few experiences match the nervousness, panic and doubt associated with writing your first job application letter. For me it was at the tender age of 13, where I was thrust into the working world for ‘character building’ and it was probably the best thing that could’ve happened to me. I didn’t get the job, probably due to child labor laws, but I did gain experience, which put me on a path to building a robust CV with years of work experience and useful marketable skills. Nowadays, application letters and CV’s are child’s play and it really doesn’t take much to get started. In this article, I’m going to share with you what I have learned in creating the perfect CV and cover letter, which is really easy to do and the results are priceless.
Step one: creating a good CV
Let’s start off with the curriculum vitae, CV in layman’s terms, which is a short document that showcases your skills, talents, educational level and previous work experience. A CV should be concise and easy to read. It's always good to have a general one and then create a more custom one depending on the job position you’re applying for. As a rule of thumb, creative companies usually expect more creative CV designs, whereas more regal and serious firms would appreciate something more formal. Things to include in your CV are, most importantly, your work experience, practical skills or qualities you have, education and an ‘about me’ section. The about me section bring out the human side of the CV and gives an indication to employers whether your personality fits with the company. If you don’t have any work experience yet, that’s okay, we all start somewhere; just include any community service or physical work you have done. For instance, organizing a charity run or reading to elderly people are great ways of showcasing marketable skills without formal employment. A personal tip: by the end of your first year of university you should have some work experience. If you don’t have it yet, you might run into difficulties later, so I suggest finding a part time job to fill the gap or working during summers.
Step two: applying for the job
Once you have the CV out of the way, the next stage is to find a job and apply. To successfully secure the position, you need to have an outstanding cover letter that highlights your greatest achievements and how they will make you the most suitable person for this job. Always begin your letter by addressing the person and stating the reason for writing the letter. This requires some research on your part, but will come in
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the essentials handy later on in the interview process. Avoid cheesy opening lines like ‘since a young child I’ or ‘why should I be chosen for this position’, because recruiters have seen them thousands of times and they won’t have a strong impact. Begin with how you heard of the company or a story about a past work experience that inspired you to apply for this position. Immediately follow up with a few mentions of what the company does and why that is important to you, as employers want employees that like the firm. Then you can begin describing why you are a good fit for the company. Keep your description concise and focused, only put in skills or experiences that are relevant and when you mention skills, describe a moment where you used those skills in real life as recruiters love story telling instead of just listing off of qualifications.
Step three: on to the interview
If all goes well, the next step in the recruitment process is the interview. More tips on that will be on our blog soon, so I won’t go into much detail, but the key here is to just be yourself: they know about what you have done, they just need to know about you. Job interviews and perfecting your professional image require a skill that only comes through practice, so it's totally okay to fail the first few times. I cannot stress how important it is to get a handle on these basic skills, especially in your first year of university where there are plenty of opportunities for CV improvement. On top of a killer CV and cover letter, it wouldn’t hurt to register for LinkedIn and get your online professional image going. You wouldn’t want your Facebook feed to be your only online credentials now, would you? The key to anything work related is to remain calm, honest and focused and you will find a position that fits you and your skills. Now go out there and market yourself like the champ you are! Most appreciatively,
Reyhaan King Editor IBCoMagazine
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Inspiration from the pro’s You may have heard it before: getting a job within the field of Communication and Media can be quite difficult. First, you need to figure out what type of career you want to pursue and then it’s a challenge to get there. This prospect can be daunting, but luckily we’re not the first ones facing it. We decided to catch up with three former Communication & Media students to see what they are up to and how they got there. Meet Marissa, Liza and Alicia.
Marissa van Adrichem
Programme Digital Manager at Heineken Nederland Bachelor: International Bachelor in Communication and Media, Erasmus University Master: Marketing Management, RSM
Back in 2009, Marissa was part of the first generation of IBCoM students. However, after a few months, she was diagnosed with Pfeiffer, which forced her to bring her studies to a halt. Luckily, the year after, Marissa was allowed to re-enrol at the start of the third term. Now, she works as a Programme Digital Manager at Heineken Nederland. This is Marissa’s story on how she has been climbing the career ladder ever since she arrived at the world’s best known beer company. Just like every IBCoM student, Marissa had to do an internship. Yet, she stood out from the crowd by being pro-active and vigorous. “I didn’t know anyone who worked at Heineken. That is why I just picked up the phone and started calling. Eventually, I was invited for an interview.”
After her Social Media internship at Heineken, Marissa started with her Master in Marketing Management at RSM. Yet, she continued working for Heineken on a part-time basis. “I didn’t face any issues, so it all went really well.” Eventually, in the summer of 2013, she was rewarded for her hard work with a permanent contract. Marissa continued to advance her career by becoming the Programme Digital Manager last December. First and foremost, her task is to make ‘Heineken Biertegoed’ a success. This app, which was launched a couple of months ago, allows people to
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get a free beer in hotels, restaurants and cafes when buying beer in retail or supermarkets. “Our goal is not to persuade one consumer to drink a lot, but we try to make sure that a lot of consumers get the opportunity to explore our beautiful Heineken bars and drink a Heineken beer of course.”
Looking back, it all started with one phone call. “Don’t be afraid to reach out to a person or a company. Just convey your message in a calm, well-considered manner and make sure you are aware of what you are going to say. Then, the world will be your oyster.”
Alicia Vargas Velásquez
Internal& ExternalCommunicationsAdvisorat ING Bank Bachelor: Communication Science, University of Amsterdam Master: Corporate Communication, University of Amsterdam
Alicia graduated from her Master’s in 2015 and has already secured a permanent contract at ING Bank, a company that inspires her and allows her to grow. What’s her secret?
Alicia started off working on the internal communication of some major restructurings. With her team, she made sure the people involved knew and understood what the organisational changes meant for them. A challenging task, given the emotions that these changes could provoke. But very interesting, too: “with Internal Communication, you solve strategic issues with a communication approach. You work very closely with board members, and think about issues like employee engagement, pride and motivation. That’s important, especially in such a big organisation.”
But Alicia does more than just internal communiThe beginning of Alicia’s story dates back to 2014, cation; after indicating her desire to grow in other areas, she got to work with topics like PR, brand when she started her Internal Communication internship at ING. She fell in love with the compa- management and reputation. “As a Communicany, so when she quit to start her Master, she made tion Advisor, I work all-round; you can’t just think sure to keep in touch. Before long, she was asked about your colleagues or the media. The whole picture needs to be right. The stakeholders and to come back as a Communication Advisor. Even objectives are different each time and that makes with her studies on the side, she impressed her each project a challenge.” colleagues and eventually got offered a permanent contract. “You just need to learn fast and go the extra mile. I gained experience in many differ- Afinaltiptostudents:“Takeadvantageofyour internship. Your experiences will be very helpful ent areas during my internship, so after a while to your future job, but they will also help you tie I could tell what works and what doesn’t. That’s everything you learn during the rest of your studhow I could add value.” ies to real life. That’s invaluable."
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Liza Karsemeijer Freelance journalist
Bachelor: International Bachelor in Communication and Media, Erasmus University Rotterdam Master: Media Studies: Journalism & New Media, Leiden University
Liza Karsemeijer has been working as a freelance journalist since the beginning of 2015. She also owns an online magazine, which was founded during her Masters and now consists of six journalists and photo volunteers. Liza was in the first IBCoM intake and studied our programme along with seventy people between 2009-2012. After her Bachelor, she took a gap year, travelling and working, which helped her to realise her interest in writing and to make the decision to pursue a journalistic career. Then, she found a Master study in Leiden that caught her attention and graduated a year later. Currently, there is another project she has taken on, which is an editor-in-chief position at the magazine covering culture in Rotterdam, a temporary job.
Liza likes her standing right now, because she is interested in a lot of things and couldn’t choose one subject to focus on. That is why her freelance position is more suitable at the moment than a permanent one-newspaper job would have been. In a few years, she might prefer something steadier. Moreover, she has started as a freelancer, because it was hard to find a permanent contract, but later realised that it is exactly what she likes among the journalistic opportunities. Now Liza enjoys being able to decide on her own schedule and being flexible, even though it demands self-discipline.
A daily routine for the freelance journalist with diverse interests differs - for the current longer project, she tends to work from the office. However, in the past two years her workplace usually was either home, a cafĂŠ or even working during the meeting by herself. As for the benefits and disadvantages of being a freelancer, the first group includes an ability to take different projects in diverse areas, great flexibility and the fact that it never gets boring. However, some cons are the need of extremely strong self-discipline, occasional feeling of being lonely, due to the lack of colleagues, for example, and the fact that income changes every month.
On the whole, Liza likes her job very much and feels happy about the variety of projects she has (which add, of course, also to her extensive portfolio), but she warns the students to be prepared that it is not the kind of job that pays a lot.
The stories of Marissa, Liza and Alicia show just three examples of the careers you may want to pursue after finishing IBCoM. Whether you’re drawn to the corporate world or want to work independently, whether you are interested in journalism, politics, entertainment or business, your career is out there and as long as you are willing to work hard, you will reap the benefits. For more inspiration, keep an eye on our blog for the coming weeks! Jeroen Adriaanse, Anastasia Tumchenok & Yanniek van Dooren
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Life after academia: who is calling? It’s been 257 days since I’ve left academia. I did not necessarily have to leave when my contract ended. I could have held on some more months in a temporary position that would have allowed me to apply for a Veni, a grant for young researchers. The Veni has a success rate of less than 15%: of the about 1100 researchers who apply each year, only a couple more than 150 ‘win’ the funding. Among PhDs, the Veni is therefore called ‘The Lottery’ (‘Are you joining The Lottery this year?’, ‘Not yet, I first have to publish two more articles in peer reviewed international journals to boost my Impact Factor.’)
I did not leave because of The Lottery. I didn’t even leave because of that Impact Factor that modern academics have to be concerned about. I left for a reason that the famous sociologist Max Weber would have approved of: there was no particular scientific question that was burning inside me. Science has to be a calling, Weber argued in a lecture he gave in 1917 – Wissenschaft als Beruf – or one has to get out.
make it, but in the meantime, the chances of being able to put hagelslag on your bread are much flimsier. The risk of failure is high. In the 257 days, there have been moments of doubt. When former colleagues told me about exotic places they will visit or about exciting new research projects they won funding for. Or when they talked about other former colleagues, evoking visions of the 8th floor of the M-building, with its glass walls that made us able to wave at and spy on each other. Those moments, however, were as feeble and fleeting as Dutch spring sunshine.
Perhaps someday a burning scientific question will be shouting my name in a voice too loud and menacing to ignore. If it’s still possible then, I might get back in. But now, I am glad to have chosen the option that allows me to say, pretentiously and unapologetically: my calling is to write.
Emy Koopman
The questions that still keep me awake are either of the kind that can be answered after a few weeks of interviewing people and reading reports or of the kind that can never be fully answered, that you can only find your own preliminary, insufficient answer to. The first type of questions I now try to answer as a research journalist, the second type as a novelist.
This was not a sudden decision; I had been working on my first novel, ‘Orewoet’, during the entire PhD-period. ‘Orewoet’ was published last September. Had I been someone braver and richer, I might have become a full-time writer years ago. Yet, after my masters, academia flaunted its charms: status, intelligent colleagues, conferences in exotic places, the freedom to answer a burning question and income security for four years. I fell for that. Being a writer is far from secure. Just like academia, it takes hard work and loads of luck to
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TEACHER’S COLUMN
The Communication & Media people behind
Donald J. Trump
Every IBCoM student knows how powerful the media are, what influence they can have and what damage they can cause. One person that immediately comes to mind when thinking of the media’s impact on society is Donald John Trump, who has been dominating the headlines of almost every media outlet in the past year. A man known as an American businessman, television personality, wrestling enthusiast, sexist, racist, and recently also as the 45th President of the Unites States of America. On January 20, 2017 he officially took office.
Many people wonder how Trump could make it that far and why so many people voted for a man that publicly discriminates basically everyone that is not white, hetero, male and American. One way to look at this ‘phenomenon’ is the media’s influence on people’s voting behaviour and Trump’s success within the United States. Although Mr. Trump is probably in charge of his Twitter account himself, most of his media appearance was organised, structured and conducted by a campaign advisory team that decided what he’s posting, when he’s doing so and how
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he is being presented. This article will shed some light on a job that requires very good knowledge of media and communication within the field of politics, while also looking at it from a critical perspective.
Kellyanne Conway is an American Republican campaign manager who started working for Trump in August 2016, after working for a super PAC that supported Senator Ted Cruz, Trump’s rival in the 2016 primaries. She has been Trump’s third campaign manager after he fired the other two. Apparently, she was hired to convince female voters for Trump, particularly after he publicly insulted women. Having been in the business for over 21 years, Kellyanne Conway has quite some experiences being a so called ‘spin doctor’. If you have taken the course International and Global Communication, you probably know what a spin doctor is. To provide you with a short explanation, a spin doctor is a person that is responsible for ensuring that others interpret an event from a particular point of view, thus they are trying to control the way certain matters or happenings are presented in the media to the public. Conway was recently appointed to be the Counsellor of the President, which makes her a highly ranked assistant of the President of the United States and a senior member of the Executive Office. Trump initially asked her to serve as press secretary, one of the most visible staff roles in the White House. However, she did not accept this offer because of her role as a mother of four young
children, taking into account the amount of time and workload a job like this requires.
When thinking about my career within the media and communication field, I could not imagine to work as a spin doctor one day. Why not? Well, being a spin doctor means that you have to do no matter what it takes, in order to let a person, company or country appear to be flawless and clean. In the case of Donald Trump, for example, Conway had to ensure that the tape that became public shortly before the election in which Trump boasted about groping women, would quickly be forgotten or not taken as important by potential Trump voters. I could imagine that having to defend a man who publicly humiliates and insults women, has not been the easiest task for Conway, as I would imagine that his behaviour is also not reconcilable with her ethics. Though, she has to do what her job requires her to do.
Personally, I would want to work in a job, which lets me stand in for my ethics and ideally represent my own creation, thoughts or opinions in my work. Moreover, I cannot imagine myself to enjoy doing work, which I do not 100 % stand behind. Of course, you cannot always choose your job or boss, but I believe that when I will start working in the field of communication and media one day, I would prefer a lower paid job to being a spin doctor for a person or company that I would not support or vote for myself, no matter how much they would offer me.
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Patricia Wahren
How to communicate
your love life
The greatest thing about being human is not our intelligence, our creativity or even our appreciation for all that is beautiful and precious – no, it is our never-ending ability to love. The greatest feeling in the world, then, is to be loved in return; to know that somewhere among those seven billion people out there, there are people who love everything and anything about you. Such is the power of love. It’s no wonder that we have one single day every year to celebrate love. Valentine’s Day is an occasion to show your loved ones just how much you appreciate their presences in your life. There are more than two hundred languages in the world, which means that there are more than two hundred ways of saying “I love you”, but there is only one feeling being communicated – that is, the feeling of love. However, as an old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. Professing your undying love out-loud requires courage and passion, but communicating such feelings without having to say a word asks for finesse and creativity and much more. Valentine is coming up and the IBCoMagazine team has prepared a little gift for all of our dear readers: a few tips on how to express your love through gestures rather than words. We can-
not claim to be love experts (could anyone ever?), but we are hoping to become communication experts one day and we think that these pointers can assist you in some way or another.
Flowers
Do you know that in 2013, Americans spent 1.9 billion dollars on flowers for Valentine’s Day? It is no coincidence that flowers is the top item on our list. As one of the most traditional and popular way to show how you feel, flowers are always the first choice when it comes to Valentine gifts. Delicate and elegant, flowers are the embodiment of all that is beautiful – and as such, very befitting to express one’s feelings of love. You can never go wrong with a bouquet of red roses, but if you are feeling more adventurous or simply if your loved ones prefer something else over roses, then there is a myriad which you can choose from. Keep in mind that each type of flower communicates a different meaning and remember to consult the florist before making your purchase. To illustrate, daisies symbolize beauty and innocence, while tulips stand for perfect love and orchids speak of luxury and strength.
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Chocolate
It wouldn’t be Valentine’s Day if chocolate wasn’t involved at some point. In many countries, it’s traditional to present chocolate as gift on this day as a declaration of love and affection. However, each country varies in their rules and expectations. In Korea and Japan, for example, it is often the women who will gift their loved ones with chocolate. Then, on the 14th of March, which is also known as White Valentine, the people who receive a gift are expected to give the women something in return. The chocolate can either be store-bought or homemade and can be of any flavor that you prefer. Many people claim that homemade chocolate expresses more genuine feelings, but there is nothing wrong with a box of truffles bought from the store, as not everyone is gifted in the kitchen. The important thing is your sincerity and the degree of your affection – though, of course, the quality of the chocolate itself is also a contributing factor.
Home-cooked meals
Nothing speaks louder of love and affection than food. It’s often said that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but this holds true for women as well. Whether you are young or old,
happily married or still in the tender stage of your relationship, a romantic dinner for two is always something to take into consideration when planning your night together. Do not fret over how elaborate the meal should be and how many courses you should serve – the secret ingredient to a truly magical meal is love. You can cook anything you and your partner want, be it pasta, steak or just a simple sandwich, as long as it is made with love. You can also consider making the meal together for a memorable Valentine’s Day experience.
So, these are a few things that you can do on Valentine’s Day to show your love and appreciation for your partner without having to say the words. There are, of course, many other activities that you two can engage in. However, in the end, the most important thing is not what you do or how you do it; it’s with whom you are spending time and how sincere you are in your love for that person. With love, even the most mundane, overlooked thing can become something worthy of admiration. Chi Mai
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Master soulmates DON’T EXIST With Valentine’s Day coming up, people are increasingly looking for someone to spend it with, which is not an easy task. When it comes to finding love, there are three different types of ‘romantics’. You either believe in one soulmate for life, or different people per stage in your life, or that a significant other doesn’t exist and we’re all just random individuals trying to find some company. It’s different for everyone and everyone may have a different reality when it comes to love – I guess that’s a typical IBCoM answer. In my opinion, finding love is similar to finding a master programme: the perfect one doesn’t necessarily have to exist, but it could happen if you commit. Despite all the choices we make regarding lectures, seminars, internships and other fun stuff we get to do in IBCoM, the biggest choice comes after we graduate. Even though our Bachelor seems like the most important thing we’re faced with today, it only lasts three years. Three years and one degree later, we are still at the beginning of our adult life. This means that we have a lot to figure out, with three ‘obvious’ paths to choose from; start working, keep studying and get master’s degree, or travel the world (or some SouthEast Asian country where their English fluency is at a comfortable level).
one master’s since last year, Global Business & Sustainability at RSM, but it still seemed a bit abstract to me. As I attended the seminar, everything fell into place. All my interests, classes I took and my minor seemed to lead up to this one master. However, as I left the open-day, it didn’t seem like ‘love at first sight’. It was as if it was maybe even too familiar to everything I have done. I wasn’t sure if this open-day experience gave me more clarity or if I was even more confused. I was expecting to attend the seminar and instantly realise if this is ‘meant to be’, hoping on the ‘love at first sight moment’ that you see so often in movies. It seemed like a natural choice, but maybe it could be seen as ‘settling down’? But, just as how I am in my romantic life, I had to adjust to the thought of this opportunity. Maybe this is not the perfect master programme for me, maybe I could thrive in other opportunities too and maybe this programme will break my heart into a million pieces (probably not, though). But then again, what if my soulmate Master programme doesn’t exist? This one could still make me very happy for the time being.
Jessica van Wijgerden
Of course, these choices aren’t always black and white and work/ study/ travel- fusions are always possible. However, to get anywhere, we have to make and initial decision on where we want to go. Personally, I was on the fence on what exactly I would do after graduation. I was asking the opinion of everyone around me who I was close to, hoping they knew me well enough to make the right decision for me. This didn’t work; it just stressed me out even more. I attended an open-day at the Erasmus University, hoping it would give me clarity. I had my eye on
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STUDENT’S COLUMN
Speeding up your morning routine The most important part of the day is undeniably the morning. What you do in the morning will set you up for what you do for the rest of the day. As students, we are notorious for rarely seeing the morning. You may be reading this in a morning, with your hair all over the place and feeling a serious lack of motivation. I am going to give you a few tips and tricks, which you can use in order to wake up focused, energised, and motivated. What good is going to a 9am class if you haven’t properly woken up yet? We often don’t think about the night before, when we think about getting up in the morning, but the night before actually holds a key to your morning success. As adults, we should be getting around 7-9 hours of sleep a night for optimal functionality and if we have a regular bedtime and set regular alarms then we’ll be more productive. A regular sleep cycle is important, and although the results won’t be visible overnight, a regular sleep cycle will help you maintain energy levels throughout the entire day. If you ensure that your evenings and mornings are relaxed, you will reach optimum energy and concentration levels throughout the day. I remember how easy it used to be to wake up after nights out when I was a fresher, but I was never attentive or alert. If you do feel the need to go out the night before a day in which you have lectures and classes, ensure that you drink plenty of water right before you go to bed. This isn’t a struggle and it will make you feel much fresher in the morning.
For many of us, the morning is the most rushed part of the day. Many people wake up in a morning, wash, drink their coffee and eat their breakfast before they rush out of the door. If you often find yourself often waking up with a lot of things to do before you even consider going to that 9am class or beginning that next big assignment, you can ease up your morning routine the night before by having a shower in the evening. Nighttime showering can be an effective way to reduce time spent getting ready. If we are to give ourselves a little bit more time in the morning and take everything a little easier, the rest of our day will be much better. It’s important to keep ourselves relaxed as we let our bodies wake up.
If you want to spend your days with an elevated mood and a productive attitude, it’s vital that you treat your evenings and mornings with respect. Of course you can’t spend your whole life going to bed at 10:30pm, so that you can wake up at 7am to work, it would drive you crazy! But it is important to bear in mind that your motivation for your day’s activities come from the night before and the morning. Fabian Gartland
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Wh at’s
IBCOM FINISHED!
next
?
Making decisions is difficult; everyone knows that. But sometimes you really can’t avoid making a decision, especially the career related ones. Some people already know what they want to do from very early on and some people just make a decision, based on their feelings, instead of really thinking things through. And then you also have a group of indecisive people, like me, who change what they want to do approximately every month. For the indecisive people like me, IBCoM hasn’t really forced us to actually choose, because there are still so many different paths that we can follow after obtaining our bachelor’s degree. That’s also what makes it so hard! My fellow third years and I will graduate soon (no… please don’t say that out loud) and we need an answer to the question: what’s next? There are many different paths to choose after graduation, but they practically narrow down to one main decision: to master or not to master? specially designed for talented and driven students, who have a nose for research within the Getting a master’s degree seems like a logical field of sociology of culture and in media studies.” option after obtaining a bachelor’s degree, but A perfect fit if you especially enjoyed the research which one do we choose? With six main focus aspect of IBCoM. areas within IBCoM, there are still so many fields that we could end up in. We’ve listed five interest- • Where: Erasmus University Rotterdam, ESHCC faculty ing master programmes for you: • Duration: 2 years – with a possibility to apply for an abridged version. Journalism and Media • Language of instruction: English “Journalism and Media is a dual master programme that combines an academic education International Relations with practical experience in the field to deliver “This master programme in International Relahighly trained journalists.” A perfect fit if you estions provides you with the contextual knowledge pecially enjoyed the media aspect of IBCoM. and analytical ability to study and comprehend • Where: University of Amsterdam the vast diversity of our rapidly changing world.” • Duration: 18 months – including an intensive A perfect fit if you especially enjoyed the internainternship for 3 months. tional aspect of IBCoM. • Language of instruction: Dutch • Where: Leiden University – the political university of the Netherlands Marketing Management • Duration: 1 year “This Master of Science (MSc) programme gives • Language of instruction: English insights into consumer behaviour and practical tactics for integrating this knowledge into solid marketing strategies.” A perfect fit if you especial- Communication and organizaly enjoyed the business aspect of IBCoM. tions • Where: Erasmus University Rotterdam, RSM “In this master programme, we take the time to faculty learn how to analyse, evaluate and improve the • Duration: 1 year communication in organisations.” A perfect fit if • Language of instruction: English you especially enjoyed the organizational communication in IBCoM. Research Master in the Sociolo- • Where: University of Utrecht • Duration: 18 months gy of Culture, Media and Arts • Language of instruction: Dutch – English varia“This Master of Science (MSc) programme is tions also taught at different universities.
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The public perception of a master’s degree has changed over the past decade; it used to be ‘normal’ to continue with a master right after obtaining a bachelor, but today, it’s not so ‘normal’ anymore. Gap years, jobs and committees are becoming increasingly popular choices, so you should definitely consider them in your decision making path. After deciding that you are not going to do a master’s degree (right away), there’s a second choice to make: do I start looking for jobs or do I take a gap year and then continue studying?
Gap year: internship or paid Work: you could try to find a job work. after obtaining your bachelor’s Pros: • You will learn a lot and it could also help you degree. Pros: • You can immediately try to work your way up within a company that you like. • You earn a lot of money to do fun things with. Cons: • Companies generally prefer people with a master’s degree. • Why not extend your student life with another year or two, because you’ll never have as much freedom anymore once you start working.
decide what you want to do later in life. • You gain more work experience, which looks good on your CV. • You could earn some money and use that to travel or for other things that you’ve wanted to do since you entered university. Cons: • You’ll have to work for the rest of your life, so why not obtain a master’s degree first, as this will probably allow you to find a better job right away.
Pros: • You will get to know yourself in an entirely different way and it will also buy you some time to explore your options. Cons: • It costs a lot of money to travel the world • You might lose the flow of studying when you’re traveling, which makes it hard to start a master or internship once you get back.
Pros: • Similarly with traveling, you will buy yourself some time to figure out what you want to do later in life. • You will learn a lot from it and it’s a good addition to your CV. Cons: • It is hard work that doesn’t pay (a lot), so you really need to find something that you love to do. Sophie Defaix
Gap year: travel around the world.
Gap year: fulltime board or committee.
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Credits EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
MANAGING EDITOR
COPY EDITOR
WRITER
WRITER
WRITER
Yanniek van Dooren
Reyhaan King
Sophie Defaix
Patricia Wahren
Valerija Denaityte
Chi Mai
WRITER
WRITER
WRITER
WRITER
WRITER
WRITER
Jeroen Adriaanse
Anestasia Tumchenok
Lianne Dusseldorp
Jessica van Wijgerden
Fabian Gartland
Sandra Post
BLOGGER
BLOGGER
BLOGGER
PHOTOGRAPHER
PHOTOGRAPHER
PHOTOGRAPHER
Anaelle Do Rego
Cara Sainsbury
Jiyul Lee
Camiel Endert
Fiandra Dewabrata
Ha Hoang
ART DIRECTOR
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
“Thank you for reading!” - The IBCoMagazine Team
Joshua Kruter
Alp Gasimov