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Economics and Business Career Centre null

Ways to gain work experience

Gaining experience is a process that encompasses all kinds of career preparation. By working, you learn more about your abilities, strengths, values, weaknesses and interests, and you develop important skills and competences. You’re also exploring the labour market and you’re establishing a network, making this an extremely valuable process. Find out more about how you can gain professional experience

Many employers ask for applicants with work experience. While it may sound challenging to gain work experience while completing a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree, there are a number of options for you.

  • Take on a study-related job

    Study-related jobs are an excellent way to gain practical experience within your field. An easy place to find these is the University of Amsterdam Job Board. It allows you to filter for (research) internships, starter jobs and study-related jobs, and you can even specify whether you want to do a job in English or in Dutch. You can also have a look at our overview of useful job websites.

  • Join a study association’s board or committee

    In the board or a committee of an Economics and Business study association, you’ll get to organise several events, interact with various academic, government and corporate bodies, and in the process you’ll attain valuable skills, experience and insights.

  • Join the Faculty Student Council

    If you want to be more involved with the faculty organisation and its students, you could try to join the board the EB Faculty Student Council (FSR). The FSR represents students' interests in matters of faculty policy.

    The board consists of up to twelve students from study programmes offered by the faculty.

  • Learn more during an internship

    An internship can do a lot for your personal and professional development. You get a taste of working life, which means you get to practice several skills and find out how a company operates, but you also find out how you respond to a work environment.

    It’s a perfect opportunity to build your CV, expand your horizons and get to know yourself. You can read up on internships on our special page dedicated to them.

  • Work on real business cases in a Business Lab course

    If you’re a Master’s student in Business Administration you'll take courses in ABS’ Business Lab in the second semester. You'll have the opportunity to choose two electives and work on two challenging real business cases.

    During those two electives, leading global companies submit a business case to your class and challenge you to solve it in six weeks. Among others, corporations like Vodafone, L'Oréal, AB InBev, Shell and ABN AMRO have previously joined the Business Labs. Find your programme in the course catalogue to see which ones you can take.

  • Learn how to start and develop your own business

    In the intensive Minor Entrepreneurship you develop a product or service that can actually be sold on the market or attract users. This way, you gain experience in setting up or further developing a real start-up, with a team of students from different backgrounds.