Can you shortly introduce yourself?
My name is Linda, I am 26 years old and I graduated in June 2016. From my first year on, I have been an active member of Flow. In the first year I mostly participated in activities, after that I was a member of several committees.

Can you tell something about the company you now work for?
Since September I work for WebdesignTilburg. This is an internet company that offers a complete package of internet services; from building a website to online marketing. The team consists of ten employees, which are complemented with one or two interns most of the time.

How did you end up here?
I came here through a vacancy on Startersbeurs. With Startersbeurs you can gain some working experience during a period of six months (32 hours a week). This is subsidized by the municipality.

How fast did you find a job after you graduated?
After I received my degree, I first enjoyed a long holiday. In the meantime I looked at vacancies every once in a while to see what actually appealed to me in the area of Tilburg. Most of the vacancies said that 2-3 years of working experience and certain skills were required. Because of that, I thought that many vacancies would not be suitable for me. I also did not find the vacancy that I really wanted to do my upmost for. That was the moment that I started looking on Startersbeurs. I immediately noticed three vacancies that appealed to me. I reacted on my first choice and the next day I got a call to come by for an interview. The week after that I started. This was actually quite an ideal scenario!

How did you select the type of job you wanted to apply for during your job hunt?
I first looked for ‘communication vacancies’ which obviously is very broad. Doing this, I saw that the field of online marketing left me feeling the most enthusiastic. I then started to look for these kind of vacancies and especially for vacancies in which there were possibilities for me to learn. I looked for traineeships and through Startersbeurs.

What is your current function at the moment?
Junior online marketer.

Can you tell something about your daily work activities?
I am mostly busy with SEO, SEA, email marketing (with Mailchimp) and social media (namely Facebook) for several clients (at the moment about 20). These clients are very diverse, for example a webshop for bags for children, an (online) mortgage advisor and a camping side. This makes my work very diverse regarding the topics. What I do regarding SEO is the writing of blogs and texts for product or information pages. These texts are based on search terms resulting from information from Google Analytics. I also work on link building and other kinds of website optimization. Besides that, I keep track of campaigns on Adwords. This includes the writing of text advertisements, biddings on search terms, Google Shopping campaigns, analyzing the results and thus optimizing the campaigns.

To what extent does CIS come back in your work?
A little bit. CIS is mostly focused on the scientific research. You learn a lot of theories but sometimes you miss the part of how you apply this in practice. For example, I work with Google Analytics and other tools for website analysis. But if you already know which direction you want to go, you can already orientate yourself. My advice is also to read blogs and articles like Frankwatching to be aware of trends and developments. The writing of website texts is very different than writing academic papers of course. But you can easily make the switch.
Even though I did not do it myself, I would advise you to do an internship during your study. You can gain experiences in the work field and it gives you a lot of advantages if you are going to look for a job. I did this after my study with Startersbeurs and that was definitely worth it! I got the time and space to get different certificates and courses. It even resulted in a contract!