Malene Geertsen is 24 years old, a sixth-semester student of information studies with a supplementary subject in media studies. During her Bachelor’s programme, she got a job as a dance instructor at a school of dancing in Aarhus. Since then, this job has developed into a position as a customer experience coach at the same school. She helped to create and define her student job herself, and it’s a great addition to her CV. 

Finding a student job

When Malene finished high school, she played a lot of music and was actually planning to study musicology. But while working at Fårup Sommerland one summer, she realised there were plenty of other interesting options:

“I learned how important communication and IT are in any company. And I’m particularly interested in options for development, improvement and innovation. Which is why I chose information studies, because it includes all these areas.”

She also wanted to find a job that was relevant for her studies. So she found a job as a dance instructor at Let’s Dance. At first she worked as an instructor. But after working there for about a year, she was asked if she fancied working as a customer experience coach instead. This was a brand-new position, the main goal being to find ways of improving the school with the focus on service. “I was offered the job because I was already part of the team and had done a variety of jobs for them. This was a win-win situation.”  

A different kind of student job

IT and communication might not be the first things that spring to mind in connection with the job of customer experience coach. But Malene was convinced that the knowledge she had gained as a student would be useful in her new position:

“My main focus was to join forces with the staff to develop and improve their roles both internally and externally. The information studies programme has taught me a variety of useful, practical methods such as creative idea development, design processes and data collection methods. It’s a good way to try some of these things in practice. As a student, I sometimes get a bit frustrated because we’re always being asked to observe, register and discuss things. We don’t always get the chance to implement the solutions that we find. But I can definitely do this in my job – it’s a quick way to find out what works, and how it works best.”

Experience, networking and personal competences 

The job of customer experience coach hasn’t only given Malene the chance to try out some of the things she’s learned during her degree programme. It has also expanded her network and given her a wealth of experience and competences to add to her CV.   

“The job has given me a fund of experience that equips me to deal with the demands of the labour market. I’m more aware of my strengths and weaknesses, and I think this is pretty important. The job has also provided me with a variety of contacts and connections, and this will be a useful string to my bow.”

She has one useful tip for other students looking for jobs that are relevant for their degree programmes: “Predefined student jobs involving working once or twice a week in a specific organisation aren’t the only kind of jobs that are relevant for your studies. You can easily make an ordinary job relevant, as well. And you can still gain useful experience and develop competences if you want to. So you don’t necessarily have to resign from your old job to find a new one with a title that seems more relevant for your degree programme. It’s much more a question of motivation and enthusiasm, a question of trying out theory in practice.”

This article was written in April 2018.