A 10-day careers bootcamp involving 19 national and international companies encouraged more than 500 business and management students to think about the values that they stand for and how to bring the best of themselves and their values to their career choices. The RSM Career Bootcamp at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) invited companies to host their own sessions and conduct speed interviews, in addition to career-boosting sessions hosted by specialists from RSM’s own Career Centre. A recurring theme in many of the company sessions was sustainability, such as food waste, reducing emissions in logistics, and improving products and packaging. 

The RSM Career Bootcamp 2022 – for all master and bachelor students at RSM – began with four workshops from the RSM Career Centre to prepare students for activities in the company sessions and encouraging them to be confident in their speed interviews. There were workshops to help with preparing CVs and LinkedIn profiles, and sessions called ‘Networking is not scary’ to coach students on how to network effectively with the companies coming to meet them. 

Stepping onto the career ladder 

Sessions featured different aspects of stepping onto the career ladder. Some presentations profiled the participating companies as employers to encourage the international master students to apply, others were about career planning – for example Craig Norris, Senior Talent Acquisition at PCN Capital, hosted an interactive session that asked students to think about the values that they stand for and how to bring those values to career choices.  

Many companies participating in the bootcamp sent C-suite executives to meet students. They included Deliveroo’s Director of Operations Taco van Voorst – who is also an RSM alumnus (MSc International Business Administration 2006); HelloFresh CEO Benelux Pauwel Wiertsema; and Van Oord Director of Procurement and Supply Chain Sander Korving.  

Events took place online and at company offices. The Advisory department of PwC in Amsterdam welcomed 12 students for an in-company day to get of feel for what it would be like to work at PwC. 

Alumni coming back to recruit graduates 

Several RSM alumni, in addition to van Voorst, were among the company representatives meeting students.  

Priscilla Asante, Inside Sales Manager for Hewlett Packard Enterprise graduated from RSM’s MSc Marketing Management in 2018. She was enthusiastic about the start of her career at HPE. The company has provided her with a lot of opportunities including working abroad. She said she had been given responsibilities early on, and had learned how to deal with them as a new professional. 

Other alumni returning as potential recruiters included Coolblue’s Marta Gnjatovic, Head of Category Teams, (MSc Marketing Management 2011); Carolina Seve-Gutierrez, Partner Program Specialist at Celonis, (MSc Business Information Management 2021); and from Inverto, Julia Berhard (MSc Supply Chain Management 2015) and now Senior Project Manager; and Gustav Scheffler(MSc Supply Chain Management 2015), Senior Project Manager. 

140 speed interviews  

Students could apply for online speed interviews in advance. Fourteen companies selected 10 students each to interview as potential recruits once they have graduated.  

Companies taking part in the April event were: 

  • RBI
  • Inverto
  • Deliveroo
  • Celonis
  • Philips
  • Uniqlo
  • HelloFresh
  • JDE
  • Bayer Business Consulting
  • Van Oord
  • Mount Consulting
  • C.H. Robinson
  • PCN
  • Fisher Investments
  • Coolblue
  • PwC
  • KPMG
  • Hewlett Packard Enterprise

More recruitment and career events coming up 

The RSM Career Bootcamp is one of several opportunities for students and recruiters to get together, and is organised by the Career Centre. Forthcoming events include the RSM Graduate Recruitment Event on 1 and 2 June, and the RSM International Career Event (ICE) in November, to which companies are invited to host sessions and conduct speed interviews. More information about recruiting RSM students is on RSM.nl/careers

More information

Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM) is one of Europe’s top-ranked business schools. RSM provides ground-breaking research and education furthering excellence in all aspects of management and is based in the international port city of Rotterdam – a vital nexus of business, logistics and trade. RSM’s primary focus is on developing business leaders with international careers who can become a force for positive change by carrying their innovative mindset into a sustainable future. Our first-class range of bachelor, master, MBA, PhD and executive programmes encourage them to become critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinkers and doers. www.rsm.nl

For more information about RSM or this release, please contact Erika Harriford-McLaren, communications manager for RSM, on +31 10 408 2877 or by email at harriford@rsm.nl

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Alumni , Bachelor / Bedrijfskunde , Bachelor / IBA , Companies , Homepage , International , Newsroom , Master , MBA , Sustainability , China , MiM - Master in Management