We set up this workshop in collaboration with our Board of Advisors (BoA). This is a group of four representatives from our graduates’ future possible employers, who advise us on the connection between our program and the requirements of the job market. We also invited four recent alumni (2019 – 2021) to share their views and experiences with the students.
We identified four themes to discuss during the session:
- Career dynamics: from first job to the next, lifelong learning and your professional profile.
- Work of the future: what are future jobs and required skills, and how do we prepare for them?
- The practice shock: transitioning from university to practice.
- Ethical dilemmas in practice: data, algorithms, and general tensions in work practice.
After a general introduction of the participants and these themes, a little warm-up, the group split up into breakout groups to discuss one of these themes. Each group consisted of one member of the BoA, one alumna/us, and three to six students. The discussions were very lively and engaged, and we really had to put a stop to them to also allow for some integration of all the insights.
An example of “what” was discussed about “the practice shock”.
In the plenary discussion, we first focused on “what” the groups had come up with – the ideas, observations and insights that were shared about the themes. It became clear that the discussions had been very diverse, while often also addressing the other themes. Examples of lessons that could be taken from the topics discussed: the future role of technology (specifically AI) in relation to human work and that tech will always develop and disrupt, the uncertainty that students are faced with before they graduate but that they should be “nicer” to themselves (lower expectations and perfectionism), the importance of having room to experiment with your career to and allow yourself to make “wrong” choices, and a need for an understanding of the wider system you become part of when you start working.
Then, we discussed “so what” – in other words, what are the implications of these observations and insights? One central implication was that education is and remains to be important, and that connecting theory and practice remains crucial here: luckily this has always been a top priority of our program. Also, it was implied that soft skills are even more important to teach and train than hard skills. Another implication that came to the fore is the importance of “purpose” for the current generation of students: goals that go beyond having a nice career and a good salary, but that also involve larger societal issues such as sustainability, equality, global developments – and work-life balance. So hiring organizations need to accommodate for those values and desires.
Finally, we addressed the question “now what?”, focusing on the concrete actions to be taken by us as DBI program management, by the students, and by organizations in the labor market. For instance, for DBI, the connection with practice is essential. Although participants agreed we already do a lot in that respect (also compared to other programs/universities), it would be good to include some more “stories from the trenches”, for instance: people from practice telling stories about how they dealt with challenges during projects, how certain activities failed, what they learned, etc. This in addition to the cases with practice we already organize in many courses. For the students, it is important to realize that purpose is important, but that it does not mean that they have to “carry the weight of the world on their shoulders” – or that everything needs to be (Insta)perfect. Finding the job that fits you is a process, and there is always a learning opportunity – even in jobs that turn out not to be a good fit. For employers, it is important to realize how important it is to focus on purposes broader than individual careers and salaries – as said, this is crucial to attract and keep the current generation, especially in the current job market.
We concluded the workshop with drinks, where the lively discussions continued in a more informal setting. On the whole, participants indicated that the event was very valuable, so we will certainly be organizing it again!