Protects companies against cyber attacks
Andreas Orset combined economics and technology studies at NHH to adapt to the future job market. This secured him a permanent job a year and a half before graduating.
Secured her dream job early
NHH student Inger Mirjam Madland (26) secured a job at her dream workplace before she started work on her master’s thesis.
‘If someone had told me five years ago that I would be working as a consultant in ‘artificial intelligence and robotic process automation’, I don't think I would have believed them,’ says Inger Mirjam Madland and laughs as we talk about her time at NHH and the job that awaits after she graduates.
After submitting her master’s thesis this spring, she will move to Oslo to work as a consultant for Avo Consulting. She had already secured the job last autumn.
‘Why do think you got a job so early?’
‘My theory is that it's about showing that you are curious and enthusiastic. That you want to contribute not only to the work assignments, but also to creating a good working environment. It’s important to show that you will be committed to the job and not only do the bare minimum,’ explains the 26-year-old, who believes it is important to have a good working environment in the workplace.
BROAD EDUCATION
She believes that as a recent NHH graduate, it's easy to forget yourself a bit while you're busy with the application process.
‘It’s easy to forget that you're also supposed to like the people and company you're applying to work with. It's not only about selling your skills. Personally, I spent a lot of time during the interview process being honest about the kind of workplace I want. Simply put, it was a match. They felt that they could offer what I wanted – and vice versa. So, there's not one clear answer, but I heard from the company that they don’t offer jobs to people they don’t think will like it there, even if they’re qualified on paper,’ she continues.
Inger Mirjam Madland loves languages and musical theatre and wanted initially to be a journalist. After a year at folk high school, she did a turnabout and gave it her all to get in to NHH. She realised that she wanted a broad education.
‘Extremely attractive in the labour market’
Businesses fight to attract candidates from NHH. A record-high 99 per cent of those who left NHH with a master’s degree in spring 2019 have found relevant work, shows NHH’s labour market survey.
‘There were so many cool subjects to choose from. The common thread of all the cool sectors and things you can do is precisely that there is economics in everything they do. So, I guess I realised that economics is the broadest and most general discipline you can study. I felt that I could start on a study programme without necessarily tying myself to one particular sector,’ the 26-year-old explains. She is now writing her master’s thesis on the future market for electric mobility in cooperation with Innovation Norway.
Madland lacked the maths requirement needed to gain admission to NHH, and although she was qualified for most economics programmes in the country, she wanted to be in Ytre Sandviken at NHH.
Got internships in Paris due to student engagement
Victoria Somdalen's engagement in the student association led to two international internships in the OECD and Innovation Norway. ‘NHH opens many doors both in Norway and abroad,’ she says.
‘I took an exam in upper secondary-level maths as an external candidate the year after I finished folk high school to be admitted to NHH. I decided that if I have the opportunity to study at the best possible institution of its kind, then I would.’
GAVE HER ALL IN THE STUDENT ASSOCIATION
‘My mum jokes that I have a bachelor’s degree in economics and one in student associations. I was that active, but it was never the plan. I just started somewhere and then it snowballed.
Madland participated in revues and was the lead singer in the school's big band the Big Business Band. She managed in this way to combine her hobbies from upper secondary school with her studies at NHH.
‘I said yes to absolutely everything, right?’ she says and laughs. She explains how she has done everything from buttering baguettes at the UKEN festival one year to being an actress another.
She believes the student association is as good as you make it, and that it requires involvement on the part of the students.
‘It was important to me to also be able to do music alongside my studies. I definitely thought economics was interesting, but not necessarily what I wanted to spend all my time doing.
FIND YOUR OWN AMBITIONS
At the start of the study programme, Madland was very unsure and struggled to find her own way at the school.
The international possibilities I gained through NHH were decisive in the application process
Victoria Poon Sundvor, 27, was accepted as a foreign service trainee from about 400 applicants. ‘My studies at NHH have given me a sound academic background and an understanding of the “nervous system” of society.’
‘There are many ambitious people at NHH, and as a new and insecure student, it’s easy to be carried away by other people's ambitions. This is the one thing I wish I'd known then: that the people who talk the loudest are not necessarily the ones with the only “right” plan.’
Madland tells us about a time during which she felt that all the other students on the programme seemed to have abilities she did not possess. Nonetheless, she has come to realise that she has other skills to her benefit.
‘My insecurity has probably allowed those who talked the loudest to have a great influence on how I thought about my own performance and ambitions. It's exhausting to chase someone else’s ambitions, because you will struggle to find motivation and willingness to make an effort,’ she concludes.