Alumni coach the next generation
Last week Maastricht University organized yet the 5th edition of the Coachcafé. During the event, alumni of UM advise recent graduates and students who are about to start working. This new way of involvement of alumni with their old university continues to work very well. The next edition is scheduled for April 4th!
The participants in the 5th Coach Café had already taken their seats when the coaches arrived at 19.00. The coaches, alumni of Maastricht University who have received special training for this task, had shared a meal before beginning this coaching session. The meal was a good way of relaxing a little after the working day and of preparing for the coming evening. Arian van Rijssen, the supervisor for the evening, gave the coaches an enthusiastic talk during the meal.
The coaching interviews were held, partly in English, at the various tables set up in the café of Filmhuis Lumière. There were three rounds, with three participants sitting down at a table with a coach each time. In the first round the coach talked to the participants, young alumni and master’s students, about their talents. No easy task for some, but the coaches helped the participants to overcome their hesitation and were able to steer the conversation in a good direction with a few appropriate questions. A café has plenty of drinks on offer, of course, and this helped to loosen tongues during the second round, which was about ‘dreams’. "What are your dreams?" Or "if money was no object, what would you do?" Then in the last round, talent and dreams were linked together and the participants looked for answers to questions like "how are you going to realise all this?". The participants also gave each other useful advice, and highlighted each other’s qualities.
The evening was concluded with a Living LinkedIn. Van Rijssen asked the participants to stand in a large circle and talked about the importance of networking, digitally but certainly also in real life. He asked those present who didn’t yet have a LinkedIn profile, and one hesitant finger was raised. "Why not?", asked Van Rijssen. The female student hesitated, "I don’t have a good photo". This made the others laugh, but Van Rijssen remained serious. "That’s a reason, but what could we do about that, then?" All fell silent for a moment, then the regular photographer responded: ‘I’ll take a photo of you in just a minute that you can use.’ Again everyone laughed. "That’s the power of networking," said Arian. "‘If you don’t ask, you won’t get help." We’re bad at asking for help, but actually what people like doing most is “helping someone out”. After this first request for help, several others followed and in each case a suitable solution was found.
Disclaimer: The Coach Café is an initiative of the Alumni Office in collaboration with Project Employability and takes place four times a year. The next edition is scheduled for 4 April, for more information and registration: https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/tickets-het-coachcafe-maastricht-university-04-04-2018-42677787411