1. What minor did you take? And where?

I chose to do my minor myself and not follow a fixed program. I took three courses in HR and two courses in Psychology. All courses are offered by Tilburg University.

2. Why did you choose to do this?

When I started thinking about the future and the work I would like to do, I found out that I don’t see myself working in marketing. Communication appeals to me, but especially internal communication in organizations and corporate communication. Besides these parts of communication, I have always found psychology interesting and through this combination I came to Organizational Psychology and Personnel Science. I thought it would be very interesting to delve further into Human Resource Management. This is about the behavior and well-being of employees and how this can be effectively used to achieve the strategic goals of the company.

Therefore, I designed my minor in this way to see if Human Resource Management (HRM) suits me and if I would possibly like to pursue a master’s degree in that direction. Of the three HRM courses, two are pre-master courses, so if I like it and want to do the master Human Resource Studies, I don’t have to take these courses in the pre-master. The Psychology subjects also tie in nicely with the HRM subjects and focus more on the human side of HRM.

3. What courses did you take?

From HRM, I took Work and Health Psychology, Strategic Human Resource Management, and Introduction to Human Resource Management. From Psychology, I took Work Psychology and Organizational Psychology.

4. Did you go to a room for it?

No, I already lived in a room in Tilburg and all the minor courses were also offered in Tilburg.

5. How did you like it?

I liked my minor very much. All the courses were very interesting, and I enjoyed following them. What I really liked is that assignments for these courses are much more practical. For example, in one course I had to choose an existing company with an HRM-related problem. We had to analyze this based on interviews with the staff and management and then use literature and theory to give advice to the company to solve the problem. This way you immediately see how you can apply the material and you have the idea that you can really contribute something with an assignment.

I also learned a lot from the presentations and pitches we had to give. This is an important skill to have and at CIS you hardly have to present. In the beginning, I didn’t feel comfortable presenting, but since I had to do it regularly for my minor subjects, I’ve gotten more used to it.

6. Was it difficult to switch?

It was not very difficult for me to switch. Because I chose to take the course Introduction to Human Resource Management first, which is a first-year course, you really start from the basics. You are not expected to already have knowledge of HRM, which is very nice to start with. I also took Work and Health Psychology in the first block, but this was also easy to follow without prior knowledge. In the Psychology courses I sometimes noticed that I already had some prior knowledge. Some of the topics covered were also discussed in the course Communication in Organizations and I also saw parts of Methodology come back.

I had to get used to the fast pace of the courses. Both Human Resources and Psychology work in blocks, which means that you cover twice as much material per week. For example, in one week I sometimes had pre-recorded clips that I had to watch, literature that I had to read, a Q&A session, a working lecture and meanwhile I also had to work on a group assignment. This sounds pretty intense, but it made sure that you were actively working on the material and I noticed that I didn’t have to study as much for the exam.

7. Did you know anyone else who was also taking this minor?

For two courses I saw a fellow student during the lectures, but for the rest I didn’t know anyone who took the same courses as I did. I really enjoyed meeting new people and working with them on assignments.