Looking back at the board year of Folkert & Ruben

It has been almost a year since Folkert and Ruben started as board members at deBetaStudent. Read more about how they experienced their board year and what is involved in a board year at deBetaStudent.[caption id="attachment_5216" align="alignright" width="194"]

Name: Ruben So
Age: 23 years
Study: BSc Econometrics & BSc Business Analytics
Board member since: July 2021[/caption]How did you end up at deBetaStudent?Folkert: I had known deBetaStudent and its founders for a long time. At the end of my Bachelor's degree, when I was looking for a fun challenge to do next to my Master's, I came into contact with deBetaStudent. Soon I worked together with Ruben and we got a lot of responsibilities.What does an average working day at deBetaStudent look like? Ruben: During a weekly meeting, we discuss what we all want to do in the coming week and we make a schedule for the working day. We discuss per person who likes what and who is good at what and then divide the tasks. Sometimes we focus more on acquisition, for example. This means that we email and call new companies to have a conversation with us. Another day we focus more on marketing and see how we can make our social media posts more interesting.Folkert: Because most directors come from Amsterdam, we often work together at the VU or at someone's home. On working days we can make great strides together and quickly develop new projects.[caption id="attachment_5219" align="alignleft" width="202"]

Name: Folkert Post
Age: 23 years
Study: MSc Engineering and Policy Analysis
Board member since: July 2021[/caption]What do you find most valuable about a board year at deBetaStudent?Ruben: The most valuable thing I've learned is to constantly improve the company, so become entrepreneurial. During a board year at deBetaStudent you get the freedom to implement all your ideas and because we are still relatively young there is a lot of room for that. For example, I spent some time working on strategic issues such as 'How do you allow our reach to grow consistently?' and 'How do you make deBetaStudent visible to students?'. There are also a lot of things you should pay attention to when managing a company and you will learn a lot about this.Folkert:Because of the different companies you come into contact with and the students you talk to, you get a lot of different perspectives. In addition, at deBetaStudent you can easily pick up projects that you are interested in. This way you develop all kinds of new skills and you make many new contacts.What major steps have been taken since the start of deBetaStudent?Ruben: When I joined deBetaStudent we had 6 business partners, now we have 19. Turnover has also increased about 5 times since I started working there and our reach has doubled (Instagram from 1300 to 2700 followers, LinkedIn from 3000 to 5100 followers and our BetaStudent pool from 300 to 600). It is very nice to experience the growth of this company and to contribute to its development. I personally believe that deBetastudent can grow much further.Folkert: We now know better what we are good at. The student pool is growing every day and we expect a new house style, website and even our own office in Amsterdam soon. Furthermore, our team has grown and we are always looking for new talent. How do you see the future of deBetaStudent?Ruben: I think deBetaStudent still has a lot of potential to grow. There is an abundance of technical students in the Netherlands who do not yet know what they want. We are in favor of helping them make the right choice. In the future I can see that we will have many more students and companies linked to us. We can also hopefully expand to other technical cities such as Delft and Eindhoven.DeBetaStudent is looking for new board members! Would you like to hear more about this and speak to one of our board members, fill in this Tally and we will contact you! Also check out the vacancy for more information!