I am based in London and work as a senior research manager in a big international digital market research agency and am the team leader of the UK Product Innovation team. The study has enabled me to deliver high quality, well thought through analyses.

My study is completely in line with what I do on a daily basis as I work in market research and we apply behavioural economics in all our research projects. However, I don't only apply this in the projects but also in managing the project teams and individual development of the research managers. It is really cool to be able to share the knowledge across the team and inspire not only the team but also clients by learnings from my master.

What I liked most about the ECP master, was the practical application to daily life and being inspired to think deeper. Behavioural economics is all around us and getting that nudge to recognise it in everyday situations, and then apply it and see it successfully work is very inspiring. The most difficult thing of the master was the realisation of the amount of information you have to absorb, i.e. it is much more than in your Bachelor and at a faster pace. However, at the same time this is the most fulfilling part: knowing you can do this and finish it: it prepares you for the amount of information you need to digest on a daily basis in your professional life.

"In my job at The Hague Business Agency, influencing decision-making processes of others through marketing initiatives plays a huge role. Luckily, I feel well equipped to apply my knowledge, thanks to my master programme."

The thing I liked most about Economic & Consumer Psychology, is that it provides a lot of insights in day-to-day behavior, making it useful and relevant in everyday life as well. I currently work for The Hague Business Agency, an organization that promotes the city of The Hague as a destination for foreign companies to invest in. In my job, influencing decision-making processes of others through marketing initiatives plays a huge role. Although the decision-making processes involved in this line of field may not the same as the more straightforward consumer behavior, I believe that the underlying mechanisms are pretty much the same.

On a more critical note, just be aware of the fact that it is not a very job-specific study. The lack of a specific profile might make it hard to find a job at first. On the other hand, the wide scope of this study creates plenty of options to further develop your skills later on.

The knowledge I gained during my E&C Master specialisation has helped me to optimise my marketing strategy for my career as a DJ, mainly through social media.

The Master Economic & Consumer Psychology was definitely my favorite part of the Psychology curriculum I went through. It feels like yesterday, but it has been five years already since I have graduated.

After graduation I worked at a software start-up for a period of two and half years. In 2015 we split ways and I started figuring out what next I wanted to do. It was not an easy road and in 2016 I had two temporary jobs, one as a marketing manager at a recruitment firm and one as a process coordinator for PostNL.

In 2017 my second passion, music, came to life and the bookings as DJ came from all over the place. I played at some wonderful gigs and festivals in the Netherlands, Wildeburg Festival being the biggest, I had adventures abroad in Paris and Tunisia, along with many other adventures and last but not least: ADE 2017! The knowledge I gained during my E&C Master has helped me optimising my marketing strategy, mainly through social media. I have built an extensive and reliable group of followers. For my online podcasts I have been applying branding and naming tactics as to gain as much attention as possible.

Next to that I am starting my own private practice and from 2018 I will be giving workshops for firms in the Netherlands. I want to address and target (preferably by prevention) the mental health problems in Holland. Next to, and after, my studies in Leiden, I kept on educating myself and found out that I want to focus my attention on helping people facing their daily struggles in this hectic, digital world.

I want to combine my two passions Psychology and Music, by developing a program where I can use music in one-on-one sessions as well. At the moment I am helping hundreds or thousands of people at a time by telling a story through my music, where the crowd can dance and temporarily forget about their daily struggles. This energizes me and motivates me to continue on this path.

It took me a while to figure out what direction I wanted my life to go to. Initially I was focused on what society and my environment was expecting of me, based on e.g. the study I have done. This lead me to pursue jobs where I could not put my full energy in, as my heart was craving for a different direction.

What I have learned most in these years? To follow my intuition/heart/passions and not let my life be decided by what I thought society/my environment/family/friends wanted me to do.