One of the key reasons Alice chose VU Amsterdam for her master’s was the opportunity to do three months of on-the-ground research. Because of the pandemic, many of her fellow students carried out their research online – but Alice was keen to get out into the community in Amsterdam and talk to people face-to-face. Her dissertation investigated the effects of Covid-19 policies on people experiencing houselessness in Amsterdam – which meant talking not only to those people themselves, but also to staff working in shelters and many others involved in the issue of houselessness.
“That research was a big part of my getting my current job,” Alice explains. “I wanted to work for a charity, but I also wanted it to be something systemic – something process-oriented. Being a consultant for a charity is the best of both worlds!”
Social impact at scale
Spring Impact is a charity that aims to help mission-driven organisations to create social impact at scale – whether that’s through strategy development, practical tools for execution or partnering with funders. Alice’s consultancy role heavily reflects what she learned at VU Amsterdam: “My job is all about bringing stakeholders together, getting their voices heard and understanding the nuances,” she says. “I carry out interviews, do desk research, facilitate dialogue between different parties – and essentially gather all that information together and then narrow it down to the interesting and relevant points.”
Direct correlation
Alice typically works on four projects at a time, doing everything from writing reports to travelling to the client’s location to run a strategy workshop. She explains more: “When we start a new project, we explore how an organisation’s programme works: that means understanding everything about the organisation and where the people involved are coming from, and then boiling that down into a project. My master’s programme really taught me how to take a big idea and turn that into a question (or research topic) that I can then set about answering. I can see a direct correlation.”
Transferable skills
When it comes to the master’s programme, Alice says that there’s a lot of focus on anthropological theory. “But you’re also taught about the ‘how’: how to come up with a brief, how to manage your time and how to structure your research – these are essentially project management skills that are transferable and relevant in any job.
“At the same time, you get out what you put in: you have the freedom to choose whatever research topic you like (the teachers will help you hone in on that) and you can apply the theory you’ve learned to that topic.”
