Photo: Sarah-Maria Scheid. Orion and Forum were the spill of WUR Career Day this Wednesday. An opportunity for students wanting to score a job, traineeship or internship. Student editor Sarah-Maria Scheid investigated whether they were successful in doing so.
‘I expected to see companies in my field, marine science, or at least one or two companies I knew. That’s not the case’, said Deuika Suresh (25), an Erasmus student from India, MSc Aquaculture and Marine Resource Management. Many students shared Deuika’s opinion: ‘I did not expect to have so few options in the climate and environmental science field. I found mostly food and nutrition companies’, said Luca Sarobe (22), MSc. Climate Studies. Similarly, Gerben Scholman, double MSc. Biotechnology and MSc. Management, Economics and Consumer Studies, argued: ‘I want to work in the biopharmaceutical industry, and Wageningen strongly focuses on food and agriculture. It is a Food Valley university, so I expected to find nothing that suits me.’ Two more MSc Plant Biotechnology students agreed on missing companies in the medical sector. Elena Basili (26) MSc Animal Sciences continued: ‘In animal sciences, there are fewer businesses than in the food industry. So, I was a little bit disappointed.’ Simone Cattabemi (23) MSc Environmental Science agreed: ‘Only a few companies were concentrated on policy and focussed mostly on research. I found companies in the infrastructure consultancy sector but not specifically in the area I am interested in: environmental risk assessment.
Positive
In contrast, Bart Post (25), who is doing a master’s in Food Technology explained, surprised: ‘There are many more opportunities than I had expected, and I talked to more companies than I thought I would.’ The food technology sector was highly represented. Pascal Wendel (25), a masters’ student in Plant Sciences continued: ‘For me, as a plant scientist, I would fit in with most of the companies, but as a German, non-Dutch person, intending to return to Germany after my studies, it is not perfect that Dutch municipalities are offering jobs.’
Needs
What could be improved? Scholman suggested: ‘I was thinking about it with some friends, and we came up with the idea that students could influence what kind of companies are represented at the fair. It would be helpful if we could influence the distribution of the companies, for example,, through a survey among students.’ Sarobe continued: ‘I would like to ensure an equal balance between Dutch and international companies.’
