When I started my Master program in Accountancy one year ago, I would not have expected to interrupt my studies and start a board year at Asset | Accounting & Finance. Yet after a short period of hesitation, I decided to commit myself to this wonderful association for a whole year. After a few weeks of conveyance, I could officially name myself External Affairs.
During the committee work for Accounting Insight 2018, I got in touch with a board year at Asset | Accounting & Finance (also known as A&F). I spent just several hours at the A&F rooms, where the former board was there full-time in order to ‘steer’ the association. After a fluent conveyance of my predecessor Femke de Boer, it became my task to fulfill one of the six positions on the board of A&F without exactly knowing what I could expect.
“Additionally, having a function within the board helps you to develop your soft skills and building a network.”
To me, there were several reasons to choose for a board year. Because I completed my bachelor program fairly smoothly, I would have started my professional career at an early stage. Therefore, I saw a board year as a useful way to incur a study delay of one year. Additionally, having a function within the board helps developing your soft skills and building a network. Since you primarily focus on contact with companies as an External Affairs, you will get the opportunity to get into contact with a broad range of companies. Furthermore, your task is to coordinate several committees, which means that you steer the committee wherever needed and lead the committee together with its chairman. By doing so, you will develop leadership skills which you do not learn when studying. These skills will benefit you in your future career!
As the Financial Business Dinner is just over, an event that I contributed to as a coordinator, I can already look back at a successful event. It is good to see that the committee was fully committed to make the Financial Business Dinner a success. Despite good preparations and effort, there was a small issue. We forgot to bring a goodie which would be handed out at the end of the event. To be able to hand them out, Louk and I drove back to the rooms during the dessert. When we walked back to the restaurant through the rain with all the goodies, we were only noticed by an individual. This person started laughing when he saw us walking in the dark, which undoubtedly must have made a strange impression on his conversation partners. Besides the Financial Business Dinner, I coordinate the Finance Expedition together with an Asset | Econometrics colleague. In order to make this event a great success as well, we are very busy with preparations.
As winter external, I am responsible for the association’s social media channels. In addition, I maintain company contact and acquire new partners together with the summer external. Via this way, you get to know many companies and their employees. This is something that could be useful when choosing your career path. Naturally, I am someone who likes to be challenged. That is also my perspective towards the acquisition of new partners. It gives me energy and satisfaction if this ultimately leads to a valuable partnership. However, there are always setbacks during a board year. This makes you realize that you do not have everything under control, and it requires you to think out of the box when finding solutions.
“The best thing you can do is simply take the step and make it a unique experience.”
Now that I look back at the past few months, I can say – with full conviction – that I made the right choice. It is difficult to describe everything that I have experienced, and it is also difficult to choose an absolute highlight or all-time low. The best thing you can do is simply take the step and make it a unique experience. Therefore, I would recommend a board year at Accounting & Finance to everyone.
If you would like to know more about my board year after reading this article, feel free to bring a visit to room E1.07 and ask your questions during a cup of coffee! In addition, you can get to know more about the specific division of roles within the board via this link.
