A board year as External Affairs at Asset | Accounting & Finance

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As External Affairs, Celine is responsible for liaising with current and prospective partners of Asset | Accounting & Finance. In addition, she coordinates the Accounting Expedition Committee and the Orientation Committee. She is also responsible for organizing the Master Experience Days Accountancy and Finance and for the FinanceDay. In this article, Celine talks about what her position entails and how she experienced a year as External Affairs of Asset | Accounting & Finance.

Who am I?

My name is Celine van Es and I am 23 years old. I have lived in Tilburg all my life and did my bachelor’s degree in Business Economics here at Tilburg University. In my last year of my bachelor I decided to become active at Asset | Accounting & Finance where I was an active member of the Orientation Committee for my board year. This is one of the two committees that I now also coordinate!

Why did I choose to do a board year?

Before I became an active member of Asset, I never had a good idea of what a board year at a student union exactly entailed and therefore had never really considered it. When I became an active member of Asset | Accounting & Finance in my final year of my bachelor I quickly got to know a lot of nice people and found out what kind of cool events we organize besides all the informal activities we do. My master’s choice was getting closer and closer and since I wasn’t sure which master’s I wanted to do, I started to consider the idea of a board year. This would be the ultimate opportunity for me to find out which master’s degree suits me, to develop myself both personally and professionally and to boost my CV.

What exactly does the position of External Affairs entail?

As External Affairs, you are responsible for all business contact and therefore also deal with everything that concerns the partners of Asset | Accounting & Finance. A big part of this is acquiring partners for events and exposure opportunities. When you start your board year as External Affairs, you will visit with your predecessor over the summer to visit all the partners to discuss partnership opportunities for the coming year. This is a fun way to get to know the partners you will be working with that year and to get a good idea of their expectations and goals. At the end of your board year, you and your successor visit all the partners again in the summer and you can reflect together and look back on the cooperation. Besides the company contact you are responsible for keeping the Career Platform Tilburg up to date, where partners can post a vacancy or company profile. In addition, throughout the year you are often asked for advice or help by companies, which sometimes requires some creativity but allows you to actually mean something to companies. This also gives a lot of space for your own interpretation of this function.

Point of contact for companies, what else?

Besides maintaining good contact with all partners, you also keep yourself busy with other tasks. As External Affairs, you also coordinate several committees and in my case they were the Accounting Expedition Committee and Orientation Committee. The Accounting Expedition Committee organizes a two-day corporate event and the Orientation Committee deals with informal activities and actions within the association. So they are two very different committees, which also makes coordinating them very fun and varied! Besides the Accounting Expedition, you also organize the FinanceDay with a fellow board member. Because you are responsible for the organization, you learn a lot in terms of planning and communication. You also learn how much it takes to organize a great event. In the end, one of the best things about my job is to be able to look back on a successful event where both companies and students were enthusiastic. During such events you also get many opportunities to network with companies and of course you often speak to your own partners. Furthermore, once a week you will also participate in the Acquisition Meeting with all other externals from Asset’s departments. Here you will discuss all external matters of Asset such as the acquisition of new partners or things about the Career Platform Tilburg. Each external also has one or more task forces within the Acquisition Meeting. Mine is General Revenues/New Business Model, where we look at all ways to make money for Asset Tilburg. Here you make sure the brochure is updated, but you also brainstorm on new events and opportunities.

What are the main points of development as External Affairs?

During a board year you will learn a lot on a personal as well as a professional level. You will definitely face certain challenges where you have to learn not to let stress take over in situations and to keep an overview. You will also learn what it is like to work intensively with a group of people and how important it is to communicate well with each other. We keep each other informed about what we are doing and what we are up against. This way you can keep each other on your toes and help each other out. You also learn that it is important to indicate your limits in time when it becomes too much and to dare to ask for help. As External Affairs I also had to step out of my comfort zone at times because it is a job where you often have to defend certain positions and as External Affairs you are of course in contact with everyone. If you set certain goals for yourself at the beginning of your board year, you can achieve a lot!

What I would like to give my successors

In the beginning a board year can be quite hectic and you will have to find your bearings. Don’t worry about this. In the end you always have your fellow board members around you who can help you and it is quite normal that you have to learn a lot in the beginning. Also, everyone makes mistakes and as a board you only learn from them. It is important that you do not forget to enjoy all the beautiful and fun experiences you are having and that you do not forget to look back once in a while at what you have achieved and what you can be proud of.

Does this appeal to you and would you like to know more about my experience? Or do you have other practical questions about a board year? Feel free to contact me or stop by room E1.07 at Esplanade building!