Who are you and what study did you do?
Hi! I’m Hester. It’s been 2,5 years since I last walked around the most beautiful and cozy campus of the Netherlands. After the bachelor CIS with specialization in Text and Communication, I started the master Communication Design (now Communication and Cognition).

Can you tell us something about the company where you are working now?
For over a year I have been working for a small company in Breda as an online marketeer and writer.

How did you get there?
Through Startersbeurs, a kind of apprenticeship-workshop for 5 months. After that I worked at another company, but eventually I went back to the 1st company, then as a real job.

How quickly did you find a job after you graduated?
Immediately after my studies I found the vacancy through Startersbeurs. It wasn’t a real job yet, but in the end it was the stepping stone to the beginning of my career!

How did you select the type of job you wanted to apply for?
I found that difficult, I still do. CIS is a very broad study with many possibilities. My approach was to just start and learn from the workplace what suits me well and where my strengths lie. You only learn that during your career. Step by step you get closer to your dream job.

What is your job at this moment?
Online marketeer and text editor. Oh, and I check theses as a side job.

Can you tell us something about your everyday operations?
Because I work for a small company, my tasks are enormously varied. An average day goes from writing web texts and blogs via SEO and SEA to drawing up a content strategy for the coming quarter.

To what extent do your study(s) come back into your work? Does it match well?
I now notice that my current work is very practical compared to the study. The study was more theoretical. Nevertheless, academic skills such as critical reasoning, research and analysis certainly come in handy. And I also use the theory I learned in courses about cognition and influencing. How can you influence clients? What tricks are there for that? How do you write a good text with which hooks your target group? What is the best way to combine text and image on a page? I still sometimes look at my lecture notes from back then.