The diplomatic prowess

Hi! This article is part of the series “A week in the life of” of board 50. Let me first introduce myself and my positions on the board before heading into a description of a week in my life. I am Mirte Pruppers, 21 years old and I am the external affairs officer and vice-chairman of the 50th board of Kraket. As an external affairs officer, I am responsible for maintaining and initiating good relations with our partners. At the beginning of the year, the external affairs officer meets with and visits companies during the summer break to discuss potential collaborations. During the rest of the year, I keep in close contact with our partners through emails and phone calls. For instance, I have contact about vacancies for the monthly vacancy mailing, about vacancies and company profiles on our website, about in-house days or other events and about promotion that companies would like to do through social media posts, mailings, advertisements, etc. I additionally keep searching for new opportunities for collaborations and contact new companies, where I aim to realize a great match between what Kraket has to offer, what our members wish for and what a company is looking for. Besides this, I am also the vice-chairman and hence a sounding board for our chairman, Tristan Wennink. I additionally take over some of his tasks whenever he is unable to do these himself, for instance due to having several meetings at the same time.

Next to being a board member, I am also following some courses of my master in Econometrics and Data Science this year. So far, I have passed one course per period, i.e. three in total, and I am aiming for two more. It is noteworthy that you are thus able to continue your studies during a board year. It is also good to mention that I still have enough time for my hobbies, such as hockey and road bicycle racing. I additionally visit my parents almost every weekend and meet up with friends there, next to which I do some voluntary work there every Sunday. Keeping this in mind, let me now outline a week of my life.

Monday (February 28)

On Monday morning, I started my week with our weekly board meeting at 9:00 in the Kraket room. During this meeting, we updated each other on what we have done during the previous week, we discussed policy based actions and points of attention for the upcoming week. This meeting lasted until 11:30, after which the Kraket room was opened again. I then investigated a new company and prepared for a meeting that I had with their founder at 12:00. This meeting took place online via Microsoft Teams, where we introduced ourselves to each other and provided each other with an introduction to the company and to Kraket. I always like to have such conversations, as it is interesting to hear about what a company does and stands for while at the same time it is a challenge to find a match between the company and Kraket, collaboration wise. After this, I sent an email to the founder to highlight the most important things we discussed and some further information about the possibilities. From 13:00 onward, I had Kraket room duty, which implies that I had to be in the Kraket room to ensure that there is a board member present so that members can visit the room. Whenever I have this duty, I try to plan no meetings and therefore I had time to do administrative tasks. I first checked my mail, which is something I actually do very often each day. I answered all emails that I received from companies this morning and over the weekend, and additionally sent an email to four companies to ask for a vacancy that I could highlight in the next vacancy mailing. I also created an evaluation for the sustain-a-business day of last week, and sent it to the participants. Finally, I contacted companies about updates of their content on our website, which I found to be a bit outdated. After a productive day, I went home at 17:15 to quickly have dinner after which I played an indoor hockey match with our Kraket team at 18:15. Thereafter, I again went home to have a quick shower and then I headed to the Groene Paleis for our Master's cocktail workshop, which I really enjoyed.

Tuesday (March 1)

On Tuesday, I slept in a little after having had a long day yesterday. I then went for a run at 10:00 in the morning, which I enjoy doing to clear my head and to have a fresh start of the day. I had no meetings planned so I stayed home for a day, since I can work a bit more efficiently there than in the Kraket room. I worked on an overview of what information I am missing from which companies, and also immediately asked those companies for the information. In addition, I had contact with Optiver regarding the in-house day that we will organize in collaboration on April 5. At 13:00, I had a meeting with one of our main partners to reflect on the past few months and to look forward to what is yet to come. I finished my day early at 16:45, since I had to provide tutoring in mathematics. I like to plan things beside tasks for the board, which also makes sure that I don’t get into a rut. 

Wednesday (March 2)

Wednesday morning I also had no meetings planned, so I seem to be a bit lucky this week as it enabled me to again do some sports. That is genuinely something I love to do, so whenever I have the chance to do it, I take it. After two hours of road bicycle racing, I again checked and answered my mails. One of my emails was from a company that wanted to promote something on our socials, so I made sure that our marketing affairs officers received the correct information to post this. In addition, I drew up a contract for another company that wanted to promote something on our socials. Thereafter, I walked to the VU to have an active member conversation at 13:00 with one of our committee members. Right after, I had a meeting with my project group for our course to discuss our progress. Next, I got in contact with a company to discuss some practical matters regarding a contract for the Diversity and Development committee, after which I adapted the contract and sent it to the committee. At 15:30, I had a meeting with the Diversity and Development committee since I am their supervisor and hence always join their meeting to check whether everything goes according to plan. After this meeting, I made some adjustments to a vacancy of a company. I also published a new version of the company profile and some new vacancies of another company. Shortly after 17:00, I walked home to have some dinner and then went to the game marathon, where we gathered at 18:45 to have a nice evening together. I returned home at approximately 23:30, and ended the day with an episode of De Bachelor.

Thursday (March 3)

On Thursday morning, I went for a walk at 9:00 with one of my housemates to catch up a little. When we returned back home, I packed my stuff and walked to the VU at 10:00. At the VU, I once again checked and answered my mails. Thereafter, I had another active members conversation at 11:00. When that was finished, I made sure to do all my administrative tasks for the day, since we had to gather at 13:00 in the NU for the Kraket Inspiration Day. This day started with Han Dieperink as an interesting opening speaker, followed by an insightful interview with Leen Stougie. I had to leave this interview a bit early, as my task was to be present in another lecture room to welcome employees from several companies for the information market. We then had several rounds of the information market, where we could have a chat with people with an econometrics background working in all different kinds of sectors. We ended the day with some drinks together with those people. Afterwards, I went home, did some groceries and made myself dinner. After some time in the living room with housemates, I went to my room and watched the newest episode of Kamp van Koningsbrugge to end the day.

Friday (March 4) 

Today, I started my day at 10:00 at home by again checking and answering all the emails that I received during the KID yesterday. Thereafter, I got ready to walk to the VU, where I continued doing some administrative tasks. Next, at 11:50, I walked to a company close to the VU to shoot some shots with the electoral committee as a promotion of the search for the new board. Thereafter, I returned to the VU where I had my second Kraket room duty of this week in the afternoon. I updated the list of companies that I have, contacted two new companies and drew up a new contract for the Diversity and Development committee. I answered a phone call from a company that I had a conversation with last week, which had a few questions about a specific possibility at Kraket. I made sure to answer those questions, after which the contact person agreed to go for the opportunity, hence I thereafter drew up a contract and sent it to him. After mostly doing administrative tasks again, I went home shortly after 17:00 and then headed straight to Nieuw-Vennep (where my parents live) to meet with some friends for dinner as a great start of my weekend.

I hope to have hereby given you a better idea about what the life of an external affairs officer looks like. In case you have any questions or would like to know more about this position of the board, feel free to contact me anytime!