Interview: Esther Pieters - External Relations Coordinator, 50th Board of MAEUR

1. Who are you?

I’m Esther, 22 years old, and the current External Relations Coordinator of the 50^th board of MAEUR. After finishing my bachelor in International Communication and Media, last year I started with the master Marketing Management at RSM. Whereas I completed all the courses last year, I am currently still writing my thesis, which I am trying to finish this summer.

2. What made you choose to apply for the MAEUR board?

Several aspects were involved in my decision to apply for a board year at MAEUR. First of all, when starting my masters I joined MAEUR as an active member. I loved being part of the International Consultancy Project, I loved meeting companies and fellow students at all kinds of events, and I loved the atmosphere during the monthly drinks and other fun activities. Besides, I had already decided to extend the writing of my thesis to postpone the idea of having to work, and to give myself some time to think about what I actually wanted to do after my masters. I considered travelling (no money), doing an internship (but where?), and finally came to the idea of doing a board year, as it seemed like the perfect mix between gaining a lot of professional skills and experience, while having lots of fun. I applied for the position of External Relations Coordinator specifically, because getting in touch with so many different companies seemed like the perfect way to explore the field of marketing.

3. What is your function and what does it entail?

The main responsibility of an External Relations Coordinator is to maintain and expand relations with companies, through company visits, call appointments, and email and LinkedIn contact. Within this position, I also guide the externals of our committees, to together with them make sure that a wide variety of great companies attend our events. Monitoring the career portal and all company mailings and social media posts also belongs to the task portfolio of an External Relations Coordinator. Besides, you will of course be busy with many other tasks and general board activities!

4. Describe the day in the life of an Externals Relations Coordinator.

Every day in the life of an External Relations Coordinator is different. A random Thursday could very well look like this:

9:00 – 9:30                        
Starting the day with a coffee, breakfast, opening my laptop and receiving a little update from my fellow board members’ Wednesday evening

9:30 – 10:30
Reading and responding to emails, creating a mailing and/or posting new vacancies to the career portal

10:30 – 11:00
Meeting with the external(s) from one of our committees, to help them with acquisition and to answer any questions

11:00 – 13:30
Visiting one of the MAEUR partners at their office, to discuss upcoming events

13:30 – 14:00
Lunch time

14:00 – 14:30
Writing a few emails or making some calls

14:30 – 16:00
X-functional meeting with our Projects Coordinator, Marketing Coordinator, Treasurer and me, to discuss to progress of all committees and events

16:00 – 17:30
Board meeting, to discuss everyday business

17:30
Some beers at Smitse to celebrate a day of hard work

5. What did you learn from your time as board member?

So far, this board year has taught me many different things. This varies from learning the best ways of reaching out to different kinds of people at different kinds of companies, to learning how to best organize my tasks, to learning how to organize spot-on events, and learning how to very closely work together in a small team of different people. Besides, I have definitely developed my problem solving skills and have become better at making decisions and being proactive.

6. What is your most fun memory?

This year has been so much fun already, that it’s impossible to just pick one fun memory. Therefore, I would like to nominate a few memories. The first nomination goes to one of the weekends we have had, such as the active members weekend or the ‘wisselweekend’ in the Ardennes with which we started our year. Second, I would like to nominate ending up in Skihut (again) after one of our monthly marketing drinks, simply having ‘a few’ drinks in de Smitse after a day at the office, or possibly our constitution drink (cobo). The third nomination goes to each of the successful events that we have had so far, which always gives a feeling of extreme satisfaction. Finally, something I will never forget is working so closely with my amazing fellow board mates and all our active members. Without them, this year would never have been this much fun.

7. What are you going to do after your board year?

After summer it unfortunately really is time to leave student life and start working. This does however open a door to a major new adventure: in August I will be moving to Dublin to start working as an Associate Account Strategist at Google!

8. What’s your favorite quote?

‘Altijd gezellig. Met jullie.’

This sentence will forever remind me of visiting cobo’s together, of our WhatsApp group with shitty quotes, and generally of the amazing time we have (had) during our board year.

9. What advice would you give to someone who is considering a board year?

If you are looking for a way to gain an infinite amount of skills, develop yourself, boost your CV, and organize both professional and social events, if you’re interested in marketing, if you’re a team player, and if you’re looking for having an amazing and extremely fun year, I would definitely recommend you to apply for a board year at MAEUR. To be sure of your choice, I would mainly recommend you to have a coffee or beer with me or one of my fellow board members, to find out everything you want to know about the time investment, about the activities, about the different positions, and about the board year in general. This well help you to make the decision that is right for you!

If you are interested in becoming MAEUR’s next External Relations Coordinator or if you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to send me a message at external@maeur.nl!