5 years of SECTOR
Dear readers,
Last academic year, I had the honor to chair the SECTOR committee one last time. I was in the committee several times during my career at Kraket. My first idea for this article was to just summarize the year and wish the new committee good luck, as it is normally done. But I changed my mind and want to tell you more about my history in the committee.
Most students who know me, know I’m from an older Kraket generation. In 2017 I started at the VU and like all econometrics students do, I became a member of Kraket. I went to some activities, but as shy as I was, I didn’t want to join a committee in my first year. However, after a conversation with Mandy, the internal officer of 2017-2018, I decided to join a committee in my second year. The SECTOR committee looked like the best fit for me. I was really interested in writing articles and was very curious about interviewing companies. Moreover, the SECTOR was still a booklet when I joined the committee and as I liked being creative I was curious how Adobe InDesign worked. This year was really fun. I got over my social fear of mailing and calling people and I did my first company interview with MIcompany, which was really interesting and fun. As a second year student I was in a committee with many older students. It was a really nice to also meet people that were not in my year.
For me this was only the beginning, so in 2019 I signed up for the committee again. There was only one thing I didn’t know when I signed up: the SECTOR was changing. It wasn’t the booklet anymore, but it became an online newspaper. At first I was a bit sceptic about this decision, but when we started, I realised how valuable an online platform is. What I also didn’t miss was putting 300 copies of the SECTOR in envelopes to mail to the students. A digital edition is more sustainable and we could reach a larger target audience. For me, one of the highlights of this year was an interview with Rob Naber, one of the co-founders of Zanders. Of course something else happened as well during this year. The outbreak of COVID-19. With this happening, I was even more happy the SECTOR was online and we were able to continue publishing articles. In this period a highlight was the interview with professor Ines Lindner about blended learning, something she already started before the pandemic. Very interesting if you read about her view then, especially when we know now how fast the technological advancements changed.
In 2020, while everything was still online I decided to stay in the SECTOR committee so I had something to do. I have to say that the online meetings with this cheerful committee were one of the highlights of the week. This was one of the most creative years of the committee. I think we got so creative because the pandemic gave us more time to spend. Fun fact: first time we met in real life as a committee was in April 2021, until then all our meetings were on Zoom. It’s the year where the committee interviewed names like: Mirjam van Praag: as president of the VU who once studied econometrics, Hans Zaaier of Sanquin who describes why the answer of COVID-19 might lie in our blood, Michel de Coevering who is a CFO with four master’s degrees and Bo Paulle about the battle against educational inequality.
After this year, I was not in the committee… as a member. I did a board year at Kraket and supervised the SECTOR. 2021-2022 is a year with a special place in my heart. My year in the 50th board of Kraket was the best year in my time as a student. And as the secretary I also got the task of becoming the supervisor of my beloved SECTOR committee. It was so different to supervise. Sometimes I had to held myself back, so the committee could think of their own ideas. This year the first international student joined the SECTOR committee, giving different insights which I really liked. Watching the committee grow in its role was a nice experience.
Then in 2022, it was finally my time to hand over the committee to the next generation. At least, I thought so until in 2023 when internal officer Maarten asked me again to participate, which was really difficult to say no to.
So last year I decided to go for it one more time and I didn’t regret this decision for a single moment. Two weeks ago I had a reunion with Helena who I met during this year in SECTOR. Then I realised that by doing a committee you don’t just learn new skills, but you can also make new friends. I have to admit that besides the serious parts of our meetings this year, we also had a lot of unproductive and fun time with each other. The combination of the serious role in the committee and having a nice time together is what I have always enjoyed in the many committees I did at Kraket.
Last year we did many interviews. The guys of the committee went to interview EY and got a lot of new insights.
Other interesting articles are for example the interview with Career Services SBE about tips for success in your career (and how they can assist you). We also interviewed Lotteleert about her TikTok success and the book she wrote. And we found some professors to tell about their research!
The new academic year has started and it’s time for students to sign up for committees again. I would definitely recommend to sign up for one. Now I’m not studying at the VU anymore I won’t do SECTOR again, but if you are doubting about joining the SECTOR committee, I hope this article helped you to clear your mind.
