Fieke Offergelt, Mathematics master student
"After I finished my bachelor mathematics, I realized that doing research was not what I wanted to do in the future. In stead of spending several years on the same subject I want to use my knowledge and skills in a different way in different areas. I decided to follow the course Science Based Business (SBB) Fundamentals, in order to get a clearer image of all the possibilities in the business world."
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“How I experienced the SBB Fundamentals course? Well, the first week started with two games, a networking game and a business game. This was a perfect way to get to know the other participants and to get a glimpse of all the things that are important in running a successful business. After the introduction, the main courses started…”
- SBB alumni gave a good image of different career possibilities
“The first main course was Strategic Marketing Management (SMM). With several lectures, case studies and case discussions the basic marketing principles were explained. I thought the theory wasn’t that hard, but the difficulty lay mostly in preparing the case discussions. As a mathematician I am not used to read much and under time pressure.
Besides this, every sentence in a mathematical article contains important information and this was not the case in the articles we had to read for SMM. Preparing the discussions I learned how to scan an article really fast and still get all the important information.
The financial management (FM) course had the same structure. This was the course I enjoyed the most and from which I learned very much. Now I know what kind of legal business forms there are, I understand all the financial statements, I can do several financial- and risk analysis and much more. I consider financial management as a good future career possibility.
Project management was the third main course, in which we had to describe a detailed plan how to get a specific product to the market. All the theory we learned in SMM and FM we could apply in this course. The course really gave a good inside of all the things you have to take into account in doing a project. You have to think of every little detail and really explain what you will and won’t do. As a mathematician I really liked this analytical way of approaching a project.
During SBB there were a lot of guest lectures from former SBB participants. They explained where they were working and what they were exactly doing during a workday. These presentations gave a good image of all the different career possibilities. I especially liked the presentations from the strategy consultants from Boston Consulting Group and Ronald Berger and I consider strategy consultant as a good future career possibility as well.
Overall learned a lot from SBB and I got a good inside of all the different career opportunities there are in the business world.
At this moment I only have to write my thesis to finish my master applied mathematics. I’m planning to combine this with an internship, to get some experience at this area.
And hopefully I will find out, whether I want to have a job where I’m still doing a lot with mathematics. If that is not the case, I will definitely apply for a job as strategy consultant.
So, I still do not precisely know what I want to do, but now I know a lot more of what is possible. Therefore I can recommend SBB to everyone who does not yet know what they want to do with their scientific study or everyone who is interested in business management.”
By Fieke Offergelt participant in SBB Fundamentals Spring 2010.
Read more testimonials or check out the complete SBB programme.
