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Marketing uncle
“Marketing has appealed to me ever since I’ve seen my uncle at work. He has a marketing agency and one time, a few years ago, I sat in on one of his meetings. It was a brainstorm session and I was amazed at how that went. People were speaking their mind and coming up with creative ideas. That’s when I knew that I would really like this type of work. It was always my goal to study abroad and NHL Stenden was basically one of the first educational institutes I encountered online. All the reviews about the school and programme were very positive, so I didn’t need a lot of convincing. I applied and luckily, I got in!”
Dutch education
The way they teach in the Netherlands is quite different from Spain. It is so interactive, I like it! It’s not just the teacher doing all the talking or reading out loud from a book. The whole study environment is different from how it is in Spain as well. Here, students are more relaxed, they drink coffee in between class and it all feels very friendly. Even with the teachers. I think this is great. When you have a better relationship with a teacher, they know how to help you. Working in projects was mostly new for me too, but it’s exactly the kind of thing you would do in your job later on. And on the whole, you have to figure things out yourself. It’s your responsibility to keep up and I think that’s a great way of learning, even if it is difficult sometimes.
“The way they teach here is quite different from Spain!”
Play to your strengths
“One more thing I really like are the feedback sessions, they’re so useful. It allows me to learn about my strengths and weaknesses, so I know what I should focus on. For example: I like working with social media like Instagram and Facebook and I’m good at it. In fact, as student ambassador I’m responsible for our ambassador Instagram account. Thinking about the best way to reach our target audience is very satisfying for me.”
The best marketing subject
“Sales is one of the most useful subjects in my opinion. At first, I thought it would simply be about selling products, but it’s more. You look at how customers make decisions, which I find very interesting. The teacher is great and I’m learning about how to conduct myself in a marketing meeting, among other things. Body language, for instance, is very important in your relationship with customers. It’s all very practical and I’m sure I can use this in my future job.
“It’s about understanding how customers make decisions”
Learning by working
“First, I want to soak up all the knowledge during my studies and I’ll decide what I want to do based on that. I will probably do my third-year internship in a cosmopolitan city like Amsterdam; I just like to have a lot of people around me. And after that, I want to work in a marketing department to learn the ropes and to fully understand what the work is about, before moving up to a management function. Who knows, maybe I’ll have my own agency someday, just like my uncle.”
To find out more about this programme, visit the programme’s website Marketing Management.