External Affairs Officer
As the External Affairs Officer, you are responsible for all the contact that takes place with companies. Besides this, there is a lot more which you can be doing during a board year as an External Affairs Officer at Asset | International Business & Management.
First, contact with companies will be done in two different ways: warm and cold. You will get to do both a lot during a year. For Asset | IB&M, we are looking for companies for the events, but also for exposure, for example on our own Website, our social media channels, or on Career Platform Tilburg.
A warm contact is a company, which you can reach via someone you know. This can be because the company was/is a partner of our association and therefore, you/your predecessor knows the recruiter of that specific company. The contact can also be warm because someone you know personally works at that company. Warm acquisition is always easier than cold acquisition because people seem to be more willing to help you further when you know them or when someone you know knows them.
Furthermore, you get to do cold acquisition, which means that you will try to arrange new partnerships with companies that are interesting in the members of the association, and interesting companies for the activities the association organizes. During summer, you plan a lot of summer talks with (new) companies, to discuss the different cooperation possibilities.
My favourite aspect of the External Affairs Officer role is definitely the Partner Conversations. Everything you have learnt or can learn about this function comes together in the partner conversations you have with current or potentially new partners, and the deals make or break in these meetings. You prepare partner conversations beforehand by doing your due diligence, and by making a draft of what you want the company to participate in. Here is where your communication and negotiation skills can really come alive!
Aside from contact with companies, there are more important function-specific tasks. In practice, you will also help the External Affairs Officers of the committees with their company contacts. For example, you will advise them on how to approach a company, check the company requests done by committees, or advise them on how to maintain contact with recruiters. Furthermore, you will keep track of the acquisition progress of all formal committees, which you sometimes coordinate yourself. Besides being responsible for the acquisition of Asset | International Business & Management, you are also responsible for the acquisition of Asset Tilburg. All External Affairs Officers of the different Asset departments meet weekly during the Acquisition Meeting. Together with them, you discuss faculty-wide career activities, like the Master Experience Days, and other matters that involve multiple departments, such as Career Platform Tilburg or the Asset Member Card Deals. By having these weekly meetings, you get to know your fellow departments as well!
Furthermore, you will spend a lot of time on general board tasks. Together with the other board members you will draft and implement the policy for Asset | International Business & Management for upcoming academic year, you coordinate (in)formal committees, have contact with the active members, and arrange events or work on other projects of the board. You can also come up with projects yourself. You are free to give your own twist to the association, which is fun!
As an External Affairs Officer, you work closely together with the other External Affairs Officer of the board. This includes having partner conversations together, brainstorming about the new set-up of events, working together on Asset General tasks, and look for improvements for the new partner brochure. You do both have your own companies with whom you are in contact with and you have your own committees.
Some of the things you can get to learn during a board year as an External Affairs Officer is to become more professional in your communication, get more independent when working on tasks, become better at small talk, be a coordinator for your committees, create a clear overview for yourself to keep track of all your tasks, and learn how to work closely together with 5 people with various personalities. Besides these, there are a lot more things to learn. It is all in your own hands.
If you would like to have more specific information about being the External Affairs Officer of Asset | International Business & Administration, you can always contact our current External Affairs Officer, Sebas Krijgsman, via [email protected]
