‘Just Graduated’ Tom Janssen

My name is Tom Janssen, 25 years old and born and raised in Breda. After completing my high school education here, I started at Tilburg University with the bachelor International Business Administration. After this bachelor, which gave me a broad perspective on the business of corporations, I decided to enroll for the Strategic Management master. The content of this master definitely matched my interests, however I believed the program did not fulfil my needs in preparation for a role in this field. Nevertheless my internship at HLB Van Daal & Partners, were I wrote my master thesis, provided me an opportunity to apply my theoretical skills in practice. Here, I realized that I enjoyed working together with clients and discuss potential solutions of their problems. Finally I defended my master thesis, which was titled ‘Social media as a strategic value driver: A case study in the Dutch accounting industry’, successfully in June 2012 with a 7.0 and graduated for my master.

As explained my needs had not been fully met by this program and during the completion of my thesis I decided to pursue another area of my interest by beginning my second master, in finance. At the same time I figured out that I wanted more out of my student life and became an active member at Asset | Accounting & Finance as Vice-Chairman in the iFinance committee of 2012. I fully enjoyed the life at the student association and was asked to join the board of 2012, a position which I proudly accepted. As board member External Affairs I learned and improved a large number of organizational, process and social skills. But most importantly, I have met a great variety of very nice and interesting people, of whom I still have regular contact with and consider my friends. One of the highlights of this year was the studytour with destination India, which I will never forget. Therefore I would recommend any student a very active student life, and not comply to the increased focus on finishing your studies as fast as possible under pressure from more governmental pressure. This is the period were you can meet loads of new people, and find out your personal talents and interests. Finally, I ended this fantastic period by graduating from the Finance master with an 8.0 on CEO compensation, firm risk and the effect of CEO characteristics: Evidence from the U.S. financial industry in December 2013.

As External Affairs I already had a great opportunity to get to know a lot of potential employers. During my studies I found out that I wanted to work in consulting, since I enjoyed looking for solutions to complex problems for a wide variety of clients. After my graduation I talked with a number of companies and decided to join the consulting firm of PwC as of May 1, 2014. The company fits my personal preference for an informal organization, with an international network and a great potential to learn perfectly. Reviewing and getting in touch with a lot of potential employers has certainly benefited me in selecting the right match and is something I would recommend any student. As a member of the finance competence of PwC consulting I am currently staffed at a big regulatory reporting project at a large international bank as part of Basel III requirements. The first couple of weeks of the working life were pretty exhausting, with a lot of new impressions combined with the time I had to travel between Tilburg and Amsterdam, before I moved there. Looking back at my first six months at PwC, I am still convinced I have made the right choice and enjoy my work very much!