Sikko Onnes has seen the job-market dilemma of new graduates on their first steps into the world of work from more perspectives than anyone. First, back in the 1970s, as a graduate in business economics from the University of Rotterdam, he embarked on an international career in logistics and retailing. During his second career, as a partner of the executive search firm Egon Zehnder, he came face to face with the job market in all its bewildering breadth. Over the course of 30 years with the firm, he supported hundreds of people, as they wrestled with their own versions of the job-market dilemma. He set up a highly acclaimed University of Amsterdam course, first for master’s students and then for older MBA participants. He turned his extensive experience in a book from which anyone in - or about to enter - the working world can benefit. Sikko is already the co-author of a publication about a special case of the job-market dilemma: that of top sports people preparing for a second career (based on his involvement with organisations such as the Dutch Olympic Committee).
Ron Soonieus may be the living embodiment of The Job-Market Dilemma. He studied international management and business administration at the University of Huddersfield and is now in his fifties... but still hasn’t discovered what he wants to be when he grows up. Instead, he has built himself the ultimate portfolio career, covering the entire spectrum of the working world. He started his career with a small, local Dutch firm. Very quickly realising this was not for him, he joined a large telco company, an ICT company and then a bank, before leaving to work for himself. Ron subsequently evolved into a strategy consultant and non-executive board member for a range of organisations. Today, his main professional focus is on integrating sustainability into corporate strategy and governance, topics on which he advises, teaches and writes. As well as working on Sikko’s programme at the University of Amsterdam, he is a Senior Advisor with Boston Consulting Group and a Director in Residence at INSEAD, the most international of the world’s top business schools. Rémon Jasperse graduated just a few years ago with double master’s degrees in international business and economics from the universities of Groningen (the Netherlands) and Fudan (China). He initially met Sikko when organising a careers event for fellow students and the pair hit it off immediately. His own dilemma as a graduate was that he didn’t know which of his passions to follow - from supply chain to strategy to sustainability. By applying Sikko’s structured approach, he was able to see the advantages, disadvantages and long-term implications of a whole range of options. Rémon successfully secured his dream job in strategy consultancy and he feels 100% confident that he is exactly where he wants to be right now. He is now informally supporting his friends and colleagues with their own career dilemmas, passing on the learning and applying the structured approach of this book that served himself so well.
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