Wereldtalentblog
Via het Wereldtalentfonds komen buitenlandse studenten met een gebrek aan eigen financiële middelen een jaar aan de faculteit studeren. Ze houden een blog bij over hun studie, het leven in Amsterdam en hun veldwerk.
Erika Guanilo Contreras comes from Peru and is student in the master Culture, Organization and Management in 2009-2010. Her background is in Business Administration and with the master's programme she wishes to learn more about identity and diversity in organizations. Her final goal is a career in Human Resources.
21-5-2010: Dear All
This is my last blog, and at this point I cannot believe how fast time goes by! I’d like to share with you great news! I finished the first version of my thesis and I must admit it was not as easy as I thought it would be. Well, for sure everything that is worthy in life takes time, so we must enjoy the road while going through this. As you can see from the pictures, all the books and schemes helped me to come to a conclusion I’d like to share with you.
The international students who come to VU University Amsterdam for their Master program expect to have not just an academic experience, but also the beginning of an international career path. As part of the Generation Y community, they realize that they are living in an accelerated era in which there is much competition around, and they know that learning and development are the principal tools to become a competitive professional. They believe in themselves not because of their parents encouraging them, but because they know how to use the technology and Internet media for all purposes. The interaction they use in their daily life has never been seen in any generation before. They build their own network on-line, and establish relationships instantaneously regardless of location, thanks to their ability to take the bets from the Internet. They search for job opportunities or scholarships that will give them the change to keep exploring the world and thus achieve their professional dream.
After interviewing international students, I found that their careers are a priority in their life, but they do not expect to become “work alcoholics”. What is more, their goal in life is to be happy by finding a balance between personal life and work, but with a good financial backing to support their future family. For this generation, there must be a work/life balance and integration but at the same time with excitement for their responsibilities. While for other generation work was a priority, for Y-ers life comes first. And while seniority at work was the path for promotion, it is talent now that matters for the next step in career development. This is why managers must learn how to embrace and recognize the quality of life they want to offer to their employees; otherwise there would be commitment with their colleagues and bosses but not with the company.
From the beginning of my research I tried to link the social and business approaches since I do believe that these two sciences both complement very well since the focus has a human side and I cannot ignore the consequences of behavior in society. I hope the future scholars who continue to study career expectations as well as generation Y take in the consideration that we all have, to be involved as a citizen and not just as an individual, in order to construct a better world for future generations. Me as part of this generation Y, see that we are always changing, but we cannot forget our purposes in life. There will be many barriers in our path, and many fall as well but it is on us to pursue what we want in life. So there is no need to label generations, if we do not take responsibility of our actions and actually do something that would be so relevant that future generations will later study us and say that we are recognized not just by using the Internet, but also as a member of a community that inspired the upcoming generations.
Finally, I would like to thank the students, staff members and professors who could manage to fix their agendas and give me a little bit of their time and of course to my supervisor who encouraged me to be creative. I am close to go back to Lima, Peru – and I am very happy to see my family again. I did miss them a lot, but to be an International Master student at VU University has been by far the most incredible experience I could ever imagine. So for you who is wondering whether or not to come, do not mess up your brain with questions, come to VU University and you will know what I mean.
I wish you all the best and hope my stories have inspired you to take the risk and explore what is out there. Remember that with passion and commitment to yourself you can reach any goal, but at the same time with lots of effort and sacrifices. So at the end of a great day, when you are about to sleep, just say to yourself: bad dreams, bad dreams go away, good dreams, good dreams are here to stay…
31-03-2010: Hello again!
Times goes really fast and finally spring has arrived with the sound of birds singing and sunshine in the parks. This is an inspiration for keep working on my thesis, which finally has a focus. As I shared with you before, we are living in a very fast and accelerated era and we evolve in the same rhythm without even notice it. My aim with my research is to make relevance and remark the importance of this Generation in our time.
Everytime I go to the VU, there is something going on, for instance career fairs, environmental movements, debates and parties that is organised by student and the common factor of these events is the faculty where these students belong to, which is the Economics and Business Faculty and more precisely students from the Msc Master Business Programme.
For my research, I am working with international students from this program since I want the language not to be a barrier for my research and the fact that this community is English speakers, makes it very available and interesting. Furthermore, they are close to finish their studies and look to get into the labor market whether in The Netherlands or in their home countries and my aim is to understand their career expectations and what is what they are doing in order to be more competitive and outstanding from others.
Under this scenario, I see these international students with the expectation to concrete their professional aspirations, but they need two main supports. The first one is a mentor who will encourage them and guide them in the path of academic success. The abilities and knowledge learned in class will be the tools for following a successful professional development. But for this purpose, the impact of a well-recognized academic in a student’s life is vital. These academics must not play only the role of a teacher or a provider of knowledge, but must be mentors and models of these prospect graduates who look on them an inspiration for their upcoming future. The other support comes from the International Office, which is the first “face” of the University that international students meet. The importance of its role is key not just because of all the long and tedious administration procedures but also the fact to have place where foreign students can solves many quandaries help to reduce the level of stress produced by all the moving and changing environment.
Now, I had the chance to start collecting empirical data with international students from this faculty and so far everything is going really well. The last couples of weeks I was observing classes from this program. I could see how the professor were 
encouraging students with real life cases which make student be more motivated and alert to participate. Even in some classes, the fact that the professor would invite a guest speaker from a well-recognized firm was a motivation tool for students to solve and make the best presentation. Another experience for me was that I could be part of a study groups where they were solving assignments in teams with brainstorming and respect for listening to each other. It was interesting to realize that no matter of their nationality they shared the same passion: the business passion. They believe that what they are learning now is just the beginning for many other academic preparations they must follow later to be updated on their field. But of course, for now they have enough to deal with lectures and deadlines and just want to finish their Master as soon as possible and later on, look for more studies.
For the next coming weeks I will have face to face interviews with students and professors and I am exited to know more about career expectation and for sure I will keep you updated of the results!
1-2-2010: Hello everyone!
During these winter days, many things had happened in my life as an International Student at VU. At the end of this month, we had the last evaluations and hope we all did great since my classmates are not only high talented but also everyone there is real enthusiastic in the lectures and presentations.
As I mentioned you before, in my thesis I focus in the nowadays workforce, “The Y-ers”. It is well known that while years go by, one generation is not longer noticeable and new generations emerge with their different life styles and use of technologies. The most important characteristic of the new workforce is how they are reflexive about social changes and the impact this causes on our society and therefore on the labor market.
My theme focus will be on the professional development of the generation Y. The challenge of creating Talent Management practices and strategies to attract, engage and retain these young professionals is critically important to all firms. In today's war for talent, attracting and keeping members of this Gen Y community requires new competences, and often means top-level managers need to gain new skills to keep this generation engaged.
Thanks to my supervisor support, I got an interview with a professional in the field: Arlette Naus who is HR Development Advisor at Yacht. Yacht Netherlands is a consulting HR firm, leader in outsourcing and recruitment. We discussed the main characteristics of Y-ers and how she is dealing with them into her daily job. “They are looking for more flexibility and recognition”, she said, and we both agreed that even though their demands are high, they must adapt for the current offers that the labor market has. We also discussed their practices and the introduction programs Yacht offers to their new staff. It was very nice to know that there are serious and well-established companies that are highly engaged with their employees’ development. That is off course a must when it comes to rotation and employer branding and even more when companies realize that the focus on their human capital is a competitive advantage, because employees do not only make a company when they are working. The quality of life that the company offers to them is also noticeable outside of the organization.
Now I cannot stop wondering, whether companies believe that their people are their principal asset, and whether they are willing to invest in a budget: How can they adapt their current practices for this new workforce and how can the Y-ers be part of “their family”? Off course the company or the employer will have the power to select the most competitive and valuable candidate to incorporate into their organization, so we, as searchers for opportunities, must invest in our knowledge and interpersonal skills if we want to be part of an organization who will train us and give us the chance to express our ideas, and put into practice all the studies we have been working on with lots of efforts and sacrifice. Off course this is not easy at all, but our chances are there and there is no manual or book that we have to follow. We build our destiny, nothing is said and we can reach any goal we want with lots of effort and passion, as someone very important in my life told me: we write our own manuals.
Hope you all start thinking of your manual, and be sure that there are many doors open, let’s get in there with positive attitude and confident about ourselves.
25-11-2009: Hello again!
I would like to share my latest experience of this journey as a COM student. Ever since I have started this programme, I have been listening to my classmates and professors about “The Thesis” and how crucial it will be not only for obtaining my master's degree but also because it must be related to something you really are interested in and want to apply in your future career. So I started to wonder what it's going to be about? What will be the purpose? Well to be honest, I have never written one before. Instead I took three written exams and one oral exam with a jury and that is how I got my degree on Business back home, so this is completely new for me, but I am very excited to start working on it and I will tell you why.
When I talk to my friends about our next step I realize how different my generation is from my parent’s generation. It's not only the fact that we use more technology than they do, but also the way we project ourselves and how we want our future to be. Nowadays, we live in an open world where everyone is connected. Let's confess, every time we open our e-mail account, we also open facebook or linked, we read our local newspaper, check our Internet banking account, and let's not even start about the text messages, iPhones and Blackberries.
As I mentioned before, I have been working in Human Resources for around four years, and I can say that nowadays people are not looking for a position or a company to stay for long periods of time. I have seen great employees who decided to quite their job to go abroad for Master Studies in Australia, United States or Europe because their career is their priority. And this is what happened to me as well: I quit my job and came to VU University Amsterdam because I understand what Bauman mentions in his book: Liquid Modernity (2000, p.188): “The game of domination in the era of liquid modernity is not played between the ‘bigger’ and the ‘smaller’, but between the quicker and the slower”.
Then I cannot avoid wondering under this scenario if my next job will give me the real chance to develop myself professionally. This is a shared thought I have with my friends; we have this passion and enthusiasm to find a job where our capabilities go afloat and show our bosses that we can take serious responsibilities and challenging tasks, and the idea of getting the “you have done a great job!” and feel like “the key player” is one of our most valuable motivations.
During some surfing on the web, I found a nice article about the characteristics of the new workforce; the author called it “Generation Y” and how this part of society will be the fastest-growing segment of the workforce. Later on, I found that “Y”-ers will look for companies who are highly engaged in their professional development, otherwise they will just look for other opportunities that will match their expectations and life style. This is when I completely identified myself with them, and just like in cartoons, I could feel the bulb blinking up my head . I said to myself: I found a topic for my Thesis: “Career development for Generation Y”.
With this idea on mind, I decided to get together with a group of friends for a focus group and ask them if they really identify themselves with this concept of Generation Y, because I was afraid that this was just another American fashion word. And you know what, it went great! As you can see on the pictures. We not only had a nice time debating but I could also confirm what I read before about how optimistic, self motivated and filled with a sense of Empowerment they (actually we) are. I came up with the conclusion that we are just like a little bomb full of energy that must be utilized to achieve any organization mission, specially in days where most of the industries are quite influenced by our generation.
I am currently working on my thesis proposal since my theme is not yet focussed, but I have the support of my supervisor who understands where I am going with my research. So for all this I am more than motivated to work on this project and hope you enjoy reading the next upcoming blogs so you can be part of this great life experience!
20-9-2009: Who is Erika Guanilo Contreras?
Hello everyone, my name is Erika Guanilo and I from Lima, Peru. I’m a student at the faculty of Social Science at VU University Amsterdam, and I’m following a Master on Culture, Organization and Management. In 2005, I graduated from Business Administration at Lima University and I’ve followed a career path on Human Resources.
With this blog, I hope you could identify yourself with me, and hopefully here you might find some answers to those career path expectations. We live in a world full of opportunities, but we must have the right attitude to catch them because everything that is made with lots of efforts, counts and feels so much better, doesn’t it?
In Lima, when you’re about 16 you must be getting ready to get into University. Thanks to my mom’s patience in taking me to meet different people and talking to them about their careers, I decided to go for Business Administration. I said to myself: “Well if I don’t like it, I can always change to another faculty”. So it was like a “blind date”, but at the end I felt in love with my career since the 1st time I had to make a presentation about efficiencies in organizations. Understanding all those strategies, systems, people... I felt in heaven!. But I cannot say that we live happily ever after, it was just the beginning of a great story; my career story.
During my last years at Lima University, I started looking for a company willing to give me The Chance. Unfortunately, I was getting hired for positions that were absolutely boring. It was just like: me, myself, and the PC. And of course by that time I was late to tell my parents: “I might change from faculty”. After talking to my friends I noticed that they had exactly the same feelings, and then I realized: the good things in life are most worth waiting for!
After a while, I got an amazing position in Human Resources and I knew how I wanted to develop myself, and what I wanted to do. Of course nowadays I’m still looking for answers, but I’m sure about only one thing: I love my career and when you have a passion for something, you do anything to make all your dreams come true.
This is why I decided to come to Amsterdam. This is a great city, with streets full of creativity and an international environment. Although I must admit that it is funny to see executives with their nice suit on a bike. I don’t speak any Dutch yet, but this isn’t a problem, I just translate it on Google. So far I learned that when it says “Korting” (on sale) you must get it.
But the main reason why I am here is that I want to see what’s Behind the Scenes. Here you share classes with people from different nationalities, and your professors are so passionate about their fields that it made me realized that I’ve been told that the earth is flat, but now I feel Columbus and will prove to myself and to others that the earth is not flat.
To sum up, I believe that any professional who is passionate about his/her career must take it to the next level. The world is full of changes, we must adapt to them not just because it’s nice to have an iPod and have more than 300 friends on facebook, but also because the more we learn, the more we realize that we can contribute at least with a little grain of sand to our generation.
