Like every graduate student in the second-year of his or her MSc studies, I suddenly woke up to the fact that my academic life will soon come to an end.
So, I should better start looking for a job. The big question of ‘To PhD or not to PhD?’ was also looming in the background. But I first wanted to find out what industry had to offer me.
I decided to participate in the ‘De Delftse Bedrijvendagen’, ‘the biggest technology oriented career event in The Netherlands’. The best part of this career fair was the interview with the company representatives, who were also TU Delft alumni. It was also fun to participate in the company workshops during the In-house days. I had thoroughly enjoyed the career fair in my first year. However, this time I was aiming for more than just a fun ride to their workshops. Armed with my resumé, dressed in a three-piece suit bought a week earlier at C&A, and shiny black shoes borrowed from my flat-mate, I approached my prospective employers.
“Do you have any special soft-skills?” asked the interviewer.
“I am very good in Matlab and I have always scored above 8/10 in my technical courses.” In short I am a genius, I smiled proudly.
He wasn’t impressed. “Of course, being a student of TU Delft your technical skills are undoubtedly very good. What about your presentation and leadership skills?”
“Umm…I have never tried them out, but I’m sure I will do fine.” What does this have to do with my technical profession? “My thesis might be approved for a conference – would you like to see the abstract?” I added hastily, not too proud this time.
“No, I’m sure it’s an interesting project, but what interests me more are your extra-curricular projects. Have you ever worked on projects as part of a team?”
“Oh yes, I often work on assignments with my fellow students. And they always get 9/10 when they work with me.” Something told me this wasn’t a good reply either. Before I could say anything more he asked,
“Do you speak Dutch?”
“No”
“Do you speak any European language, other than English?”
“No”
“Thank you for your interest in our company. We are currently not employing new recruits.”
I left the DDB podium shocked. Soon, the shock morphed into disappointment and then fury. I was not going to be led into thinking that all my technical education was worthless in the face of these so-called soft-skills. I headed back to my lab to find salvation in my thesis project after a lousy day.
The Nightmare
Finally, D-day arrived. As expected, I was invited to the Eurocopter workshop. I had been preparing for this workshop for over a month. I’d followed lectures on rotor aerodynamics at TU Delft and browsed the website of Eurocopter extensively, memorizing the facts and figures of interesting projects. This time I’d show them my true genius. Ha-ha!
The Eurocopter workshop was held in one of the Aula’s conference rooms on the Mekelweg. The workshop organizer explained to us the task of the day: the participants (students) would be divided into different groups, with each group representing a subsidiary of Eurocopter in a different part of the world, and having special technological expertise and production capacity. The task was to win the largest consignments from a client-set across the globe.
Now, wait a minute. This was not what we had been taught in our MSc program. This was not related to our technical education. I panicked, but saw my Dutch teammates take up the challenge as if it was their daily job. I tried to look intelligent and listened to the argument of one of the team members. He talked boldly and clearly, stating the problem at hand in simple terms. Leadership skills! He looked into the eyes of every person while speaking and made sure everyone understood what he was saying. His rhetoric clearly defined our problem and I realized that the entire task could be solved by applying pure common sense and high school math. Soon, I found myself brainstorming about the problem together with my colleagues. Team skills! However, every now and then, my Dutch teammates regressed to their mother-tongue, apologizing every time they saw my blank face. It would’ve been nice if I could even remotely understand what they were saying in Dutch. Language Skills!
The Awakening
It dawned on me that I am not prepared for the work environment outside this university. Industry requires a completely different skill set. Are we, as students who are potential actors in that environment, aware of these needs? Is TU Delft empowering us for the challenges we are going to face in the real world?
The Action
I found a list of career advice tips floating on Internet, and they made a whole lot of sense to me.
- Get involved on campus
Technical education only gets you so far. When it comes to career success, social skills to connect to and lead others are crucial. Volunteer for social organisations, student projects and sports. You need to try your hand at different activities outside the academic regime. - Mend your language!
Surrounded by scientists and engineers (read: nerds) at the university, we speak in technical jargon and accept it as normal. But at work we will be required to deliver technical know-how in layman’s terms without talking down to clients, colleagues and management professionals. All this makes persuasive presentation skills, clarity in communication, and language proficiency an indispensable tool-set. - Get a good internship.
The way to a successful career is balance – balance between study and application. This is where internships play a pivotal role. A good internship ought to show you the current state of the art, hone your professional intuition and teach you the tricks of the trade. - Make your job search a top priority
There is no silver platter with jobs awaiting you. You have to hunt, and hunt hard. Especially if you’re picky about the work you’re interested in doing. The job market is a jungle and to get the best out of it, you have to exert yourself and not just wait for something to come along.
What does TU Delft offer?
- Communication:
TU Delft offers a range of courses that prepare you for communication in the workplace, like the courses ‘Written and Spoken English for the Technologist’, and ‘Technical Writing and Oral Presentation’ at TPM, and ‘Science Journalism’ at the Faculty of Applied Sciences.
Unfortunately, students from other faculties are unaware of these courses and/or their relevance in their technical education. Also, it is difficult to obtain credits from courses outside the domain of your MSc specialization. Professor Hulshof, course coordinator in Aerospace Engineering, agrees that the technical courses at the MSc level do not offer sufficient opportunities to hone your communication skills, and that therefore courses from TPM must be included in our electives. - Dutch:
The Faculty of TPM offers Dutch, Spanish and French courses, from beginners to advanced Level. However, due to the limited capacity of TPM’s ‘Elementary Dutch’ course, you may find yourself on a long waiting list. If you are eager to learn Dutch, you can also join the Delft International Neighbour Group, which provides Dutch courses for just €5 to students and employees of TU Delft. - Campus Activities:
Newspaper Reading with the Rector, Yearbook Committee and Student Editorial Team activities are only a few examples of the range of opportunities available to international students to network and get involved on campus. All this requires is your enthusiasm, passion and love for integration. As Penelope Trunk so rightly puts it: “Try new things that you’re not good at. Ditch the superstar mentality that if you don’t reach the top, president, ‘9/10’, editor-in-chief, then the effort was worthless.”
Student Projects: - You can also work part-time with a group of students on projects like DelFly, Formula Zero Team, and Superbus. Unfortunately, international students have to wait for months before they can get a work permit and start getting paid. However, it’s important to work with a passion for participation and integration without expecting recognition (or payment).
- Sports and Cultural Centre:
Cheerleaders do better in business than everyone else except athletes, who do as well as cheerleaders. So be a joiner. You don’t have to be a sports champ to participate in a team. Christiane Müller, who came to Delft as an Erasmus student in aerospace engineering, took up ultimate frisbee at the Sports Centre. Not only did she make friends within the Force Elektro Frisbee team, but also built a network with teams across the country in Frisbee tournaments and in the national competition. For a Frisbee newbie, there are Dutch beginner tournaments. Guess which team won the last one? Christiane was a happy team captain. “You learn essential skills in a sports team, such as team work in an international environment, relying on one another, following a strategy, keeping appointments, taking responsibility. And you learn all this in a fun way without anyone forcing you to do it,” she says.
Daarom is een groepje onderwijsdirecteuren en een medewerker van de directie O&S bij elkaar gezet. Zij gaan kijken waarom bepaalde specialisaties bestaan. Soms zijn er bijvoorbeeld maar heel weinig studenten die zo’n specialisatie doen. Daar is in principe niets tegen, alleen moeten er wel goede redenen zijn om zo’n ingewikkelde organisatie in stand te houden. Hetzelfde geldt voor onderwijsprogramma’s in samenwerking met andere universiteiten. Die kosten relatief veel geld en de vraag is of het echt nodig is om studenten bijvoorbeeld in één jaar aan drie verschillende universiteiten te laten studeren.
I decided to participate in the ‘De Delftse Bedrijvendagen’, ‘the biggest technology oriented career event in The Netherlands’. The best part of this career fair was the interview with the company representatives, who were also TU Delft alumni. It was also fun to participate in the company workshops during the In-house days. I had thoroughly enjoyed the career fair in my first year. However, this time I was aiming for more than just a fun ride to their workshops. Armed with my resumé, dressed in a three-piece suit bought a week earlier at C&A, and shiny black shoes borrowed from my flat-mate, I approached my prospective employers.
“Do you have any special soft-skills?” asked the interviewer.
“I am very good in Matlab and I have always scored above 8/10 in my technical courses.” In short I am a genius, I smiled proudly.
He wasn’t impressed. “Of course, being a student of TU Delft your technical skills are undoubtedly very good. What about your presentation and leadership skills?”
“Umm…I have never tried them out, but I’m sure I will do fine.” What does this have to do with my technical profession? “My thesis might be approved for a conference – would you like to see the abstract?” I added hastily, not too proud this time.
“No, I’m sure it’s an interesting project, but what interests me more are your extra-curricular projects. Have you ever worked on projects as part of a team?”
“Oh yes, I often work on assignments with my fellow students. And they always get 9/10 when they work with me.” Something told me this wasn’t a good reply either. Before I could say anything more he asked,
“Do you speak Dutch?”
“No”
“Do you speak any European language, other than English?”
“No”
“Thank you for your interest in our company. We are currently not employing new recruits.”
I left the DDB podium shocked. Soon, the shock morphed into disappointment and then fury. I was not going to be led into thinking that all my technical education was worthless in the face of these so-called soft-skills. I headed back to my lab to find salvation in my thesis project after a lousy day.
The Nightmare
Finally, D-day arrived. As expected, I was invited to the Eurocopter workshop. I had been preparing for this workshop for over a month. I’d followed lectures on rotor aerodynamics at TU Delft and browsed the website of Eurocopter extensively, memorizing the facts and figures of interesting projects. This time I’d show them my true genius. Ha-ha!
The Eurocopter workshop was held in one of the Aula’s conference rooms on the Mekelweg. The workshop organizer explained to us the task of the day: the participants (students) would be divided into different groups, with each group representing a subsidiary of Eurocopter in a different part of the world, and having special technological expertise and production capacity. The task was to win the largest consignments from a client-set across the globe.
Now, wait a minute. This was not what we had been taught in our MSc program. This was not related to our technical education. I panicked, but saw my Dutch teammates take up the challenge as if it was their daily job. I tried to look intelligent and listened to the argument of one of the team members. He talked boldly and clearly, stating the problem at hand in simple terms. Leadership skills! He looked into the eyes of every person while speaking and made sure everyone understood what he was saying. His rhetoric clearly defined our problem and I realized that the entire task could be solved by applying pure common sense and high school math. Soon, I found myself brainstorming about the problem together with my colleagues. Team skills! However, every now and then, my Dutch teammates regressed to their mother-tongue, apologizing every time they saw my blank face. It would’ve been nice if I could even remotely understand what they were saying in Dutch. Language Skills!
The Awakening
It dawned on me that I am not prepared for the work environment outside this university. Industry requires a completely different skill set. Are we, as students who are potential actors in that environment, aware of these needs? Is TU Delft empowering us for the challenges we are going to face in the real world?
The Action
I found a list of career advice tips floating on Internet, and they made a whole lot of sense to me.
- Get involved on campus
Technical education only gets you so far. When it comes to career success, social skills to connect to and lead others are crucial. Volunteer for social organisations, student projects and sports. You need to try your hand at different activities outside the academic regime. - Mend your language!
Surrounded by scientists and engineers (read: nerds) at the university, we speak in technical jargon and accept it as normal. But at work we will be required to deliver technical know-how in layman’s terms without talking down to clients, colleagues and management professionals. All this makes persuasive presentation skills, clarity in communication, and language proficiency an indispensable tool-set. - Get a good internship.
The way to a successful career is balance – balance between study and application. This is where internships play a pivotal role. A good internship ought to show you the current state of the art, hone your professional intuition and teach you the tricks of the trade. - Make your job search a top priority
There is no silver platter with jobs awaiting you. You have to hunt, and hunt hard. Especially if you’re picky about the work you’re interested in doing. The job market is a jungle and to get the best out of it, you have to exert yourself and not just wait for something to come along.
What does TU Delft offer?
- Communication:
TU Delft offers a range of courses that prepare you for communication in the workplace, like the courses ‘Written and Spoken English for the Technologist’, and ‘Technical Writing and Oral Presentation’ at TPM, and ‘Science Journalism’ at the Faculty of Applied Sciences.
Unfortunately, students from other faculties are unaware of these courses and/or their relevance in their technical education. Also, it is difficult to obtain credits from courses outside the domain of your MSc specialization. Professor Hulshof, course coordinator in Aerospace Engineering, agrees that the technical courses at the MSc level do not offer sufficient opportunities to hone your communication skills, and that therefore courses from TPM must be included in our electives. - Dutch:
The Faculty of TPM offers Dutch, Spanish and French courses, from beginners to advanced Level. However, due to the limited capacity of TPM’s ‘Elementary Dutch’ course, you may find yourself on a long waiting list. If you are eager to learn Dutch, you can also join the Delft International Neighbour Group, which provides Dutch courses for just €5 to students and employees of TU Delft. - Campus Activities:
Newspaper Reading with the Rector, Yearbook Committee and Student Editorial Team activities are only a few examples of the range of opportunities available to international students to network and get involved on campus. All this requires is your enthusiasm, passion and love for integration. As Penelope Trunk so rightly puts it: “Try new things that you’re not good at. Ditch the superstar mentality that if you don’t reach the top, president, ‘9/10’, editor-in-chief, then the effort was worthless.” - Student Projects:
You can also work part-time with a group of students on projects like DelFly, Formula Zero Team, and Superbus. Unfortunately, international students have to wait for months before they can get a work permit and start getting paid. However, it’s important to work with a passion for participation and integration without expecting recognition (or payment). - Sports and Cultural Centre:
Cheerleaders do better in business than everyone else except athletes, who do as well as cheerleaders. So be a joiner. You don’t have to be a sports champ to participate in a team. Christiane Müller, who came to Delft as an Erasmus student in aerospace engineering, took up ultimate frisbee at the Sports Centre. Not only did she make friends within the Force Elektro Frisbee team, but also built a network with teams across the country in Frisbee tournaments and in the national competition. For a Frisbee newbie, there are Dutch beginner tournaments. Guess which team won the last one? Christiane was a happy team captain. “You learn essential skills in a sports team, such as team work in an international environment, relying on one another, following a strategy, keeping appointments, taking responsibility. And you learn all this in a fun way without anyone forcing you to do it,” she says.
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