Career prospects
The Alumnitool on LinkedIn can help you gain insight into possible careers after you finish your degree. It can also help you get in contact with an alumnus or alumna of your degree programme or other programmes. Nearly all graduates have a LinkedIn profile and can answer questions about your future career. They’re often more than happy to share their experiences with you. The video belows explains how the alumnitool works, and how you can use search criteria to find career information that is relevant to you.
Would you like to know more about how you can use LinkedIn to expand your network and put the new information into practice straight away? Take the LinkedIn workshop from Career Services. The workshop Exploring the job market & networking is also useful if you'd like to improve your networking skills, using LinkedIn and other ways.
The MSc in Multidisciplinary Economics is a comprehensive and versatile degree that will leave you well prepared for a range of different careers. As a Research Master’s degree, it provides good preparation for a PhD and content from the MSc often contributes towards a PhD programme, reducing the programme in length from four years to three. In previous years, graduates from this programme have gone on to study for a PhD at various universities. Equally, however, this MSc provides a great starting point for a career in economics and finance.
Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.) has an average of 12 PhD students who are working under the supervision of a professor towards a doctorate. As the second year of the Research Master’s in Multidisciplinary Economics covers material from the PhD programme, you can complete your PhD programme in three rather than four years. During this time, you write and submit a thesis, and we also encourage you to establish yourself as a researcher by publishing articles and contributing to seminars and conferences.
Under the supervision of one or more specialists in the field, you are employed or you receive a grant to write a PhD dissertation on a, typically multidisciplinary, economics topic in which you become a specialist yourself. Your research leads to publishable papers, and you become an academic at a university or a research-oriented economist at a national or international organisation, bank, or financial institution (see further information below). Former Research Master’s students have become PhD candidates at Utrecht University, either within U.S.E. or at another UU department such as the Department of History and Art history, at another Dutch university such as University of Tilburg, Groningen University, Free University of Amsterdam; or at international universities such as Cambridge University, University of Edinburgh, or the European University Institute Florence.
You may become an applied economist at a national or international organisation such as a ministry, a central bank, a private bank, or a financial institution. You will apply the academic knowledge you have acquired during your studies to concrete, real-life problems. Depending on the type of function, you may follow such a path both immediately after completing the Research Master’s or after first having completed a PhD. Former Research Master’s students who pursue such a career currently work at the CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, the Dutch government in several ministries, and the Asian Development Bank.
Are you considering starting your own business? Now is a good time to prepare. Utrecht University can offer you a number of opportunities to explore entrepreneurship.
You could, for instance, take electives from Master's degree programmes that cover entrepreneurship in their curriculums:
- If you’re interested in becoming an expert at creating the prerequisites for running a successful business, take an elective at the Master’s programme Business Development and Entrepreneurship of Utrecht School of Economics.
- If you have a background in Economics and Business, and wish to do a Master’s programme in Entrepreneurship: check out the Master’s programme Business Development and Entrepreneurship.
- If you have a background in Science or Medicine, you can take classes Science and Business Management classes.
- If you're interested in sustainable business practices and sustainable innovation, take an elective at Sustainable Business and Innovation.
The Utrecht Center for Entrepreneurship (CE) also organises Spring schools, Summer schools, Winter schools, Honours classes and short seminars on entrepreneurship for non-Dutch students. All courses are offered in English except when the entire group is Dutch.
StudentsInc
Would you like to run a business while still at university? Do you want to graduate on running your own business? StudentsInc (Dutch language website) is home to a number of student businesses and offers programmes to develop your entrepreneurial skills.
UtrechtInc
Have you (nearly) graduated and do you want to start a business? UtrechtInc is the place to find financing, office space, expertise and coaching. UtrechtInc is there for
- starting entrepreneurs and alumni, doctoral candidates, and researchers (preferably from Utrecht University, Hogeschool Utrecht, UMC Utrecht)
- who are still in the ideas phase OR further along (less than five years) and have
- and have a (IT) start-up focusing on health, environmental sustainability, or education.
Would you like to know more? Visit the UtrechtInc site, register your idea, and drop by for a cup of coffee.
Enactus
Would you like to know whether entrepreneurship is right for you? Are you driven, socially conscious, and ambitious? Are you willing to spend a year working on a business for at least 8 hours a week? Enactus Utrecht (Dutch language website) offers you the opportunity to run a business and provides workshops and professional coaching.
Useful links
- Register at the Chambers of Commerce.
- You can read about all the other things you need to take care of on the Revenue Service (Belastingdienst) website.
- Join relevant groups on LinkedIn to share knowledge online and expand your network.
- Will you run an especially sustainable, innovative, and/or internationally oriented business? The Netherlands Enterprise Agency can support you with subsidies, knowledge, regulation, and more.
Upon completion of your current Master's degree programme, you can follow a one-year (Dutch language) teacher training programme. This will grant you a first degree teaching qualification for secondary education. That means you will be able to work in the upper and lower years of vmbo, havo, and vwo in the Netherlands.
Take a look at UU's Master's degree programme selection site.
When you complete your Master's degree programme, if you enjoy doing research in your area of expertise, perhaps you should pursue a PhD. You will start out as a research assistant or trainee research worker. Check the two-years Master's Programmes of Utrecht University.
The best way to find a research traineeship is to contact the professor in the field you want to specialise in. Another option would be www.academictransfer.nl.
If you'd like to pursue a PhD at Utrecht University, your PhD programme will fall under the auspices of one of the Graduate Schools. For more information, consult the Prout | PhD Network Utrecht website.
Facts and Figures
Utrecht University School of Economics (U.S.E.) has plotted the careers of all U.S.E. alumni in a chart to give an insight into possible careers after your graduation.