Looking for a job with impact – Check the webinar!
Marliese Vollebregt (BA International Studies, MA International Relations) works at JINC, a Dutch NGO focusing on equal opportunities for children. After graduation, she first became a ski instructor for kids in Austria, something she had dreamed of for a long time. “My biggest advice for all of you would be: follow your dreams and if there’s something on your wish list: Just do it! It is not a big deal to start your fulltime job half a year later.”
In the webinar she gives career tips and advice. She tells students about what she did after graduation, how she went about her job search and her current job as a project employee at JINC; a Dutch non-profit organisation, which strives for a society in which a child’s background does not determine a child’s future. In her job, Marliese works with children/youth in cooperation with schools and business partners.
If you are curious; Marliese’s webinar is still available to view! Check out the link at the bottom of this article, and/or read on about Marliese below.
‘A combination of all the things that I liked’
Marliese was part of the first class of International Studies in 2012. She chose this BA “because it was very broad, it was multidisciplinary and it actually was a combination of all the things that I liked”. After her BA, she did two masters: the MA International Relations and Public Administration (MSc) at Leiden University.
During her BA she was very active. She went abroad and spent a few months in Spain. She became a member of the board of her student association SSR Leiden during the gap year she took between her BA and MA. She was president for one year and very much enjoyed this role. “That was also where I found out that I was good at that, that I liked to do external affairs, that I really enjoyed communicating with different people, and I think that also helped me in my job search.”
Becoming a ski instructor in Austria
In the second year of her MA she did an internship at the Dutch embassy in Prague, where she learned a lot, but also found out that diplomatic life was not what she wanted, even though that was what she actually had been thinking about for a long time. Marliese: “Sometimes it is really good to do something to find out that it’s not what you like to do”.
After graduation, she first became a ski instructor for kids in Austria, something she had dreamed of for a long time. “It was really good to do something more practical”, Marliese says, “My biggest advice for all of you would be: follow your dreams and if there’s something on your wish list: Just do it! It is not a big deal to start your fulltime job half a year later.”
A very diverse job
Marliese then found a job at JINC. JINC organizes projects with companies to make sure that kids growing up in less affluent neighbourhoods get acquainted with the job market. For example, kids get the chance to do a flash internship, to see what kind of jobs there are at various companies. Marliese’s tasks include Project management, account management, sales and event management. She likes her job at JINC very much because it is diverse, she gets to meet loads of people and organizations, and it gives her the chance to have an impact. Marliese concludes: “I like to see direct results of what I’m doing. And I’m lucky because that’s what I found in my current job.”
Check out Marliese’s webinar here
