Thinking about my future career, I usually find myself struggling to visualize what it actually should be. How to choose the best option? Is there something that I can do to make a future work pleasant?
What if I still can’t decide my occupation after graduation?
I know, from time to time, each of us thinks in the same way. Unfortunately, there are no exact answers to these questions… But no worries! I found a person who shows, by his own experiences, that an exciting career is a reality that each of us is able to achieve!
Meet Arno van der Hoeven – an assistant professor in the Department of Media & Communication and a lecturer of the ‘Media industries and Audiences’ course in BA-1 of IBCoM, and other Master’s courses. In his interview, he shed light on his way to a job for life.
For Arno, it was only at the end of the bachelor that he understood that he wanted to do a PhD and proceed in the academic field. “I hold a master’s degree in communication studies but then got interested in sociology, which at the end became my second master program. I was studying for almost 6 years but do not regret it and now I am really happy about this decision.”
What really drives Arno in his job is the combination of teaching and research. Research is a possibility to study particular topics of interest, while at the lectures he discusses the findings with students and receives different views on the topic. This interaction gives Arno a lot of energy. Especially the international orientation of our program, which makes the interchange of knowledge fascinating both for students and for the teacher.
During the lectures, Arno usually gives a lot of examples on the topic he is definitely passionate about – music. “Music is a significant part of my own life. I listen to it a lot and often go to concerts.” Arno’s recent research is indeed also focused on it. He is currently involved in ‘POPLIVE’, a research project about trends in the live music industries. His own investigation is dedicated to the role of live music in urban development.
Many people in our course get a deep understanding of the subject in question when music-related cases were provided. “Music is a form of communication for me. I find it interesting how people connect to music and how music can be an expression of collective identities.” No surprise, it was relatively easy and always interesting to follow lectures and learn new theories within the course as they were explained by something each of us relates to in everyday life.
When I finally asked Arno about the genres of music he likes the most, he mentioned that his musical taste was quite broad. Starting from indie rock, Arno currently listens a lot to hip-hop as for him “…it’s really an urban genre which connects you to the culture of the city. And I like the storytelling and how it developed certain musical new conventions”. I was very interested in finding out about what song drives such a passionate person. Arno shared one of his personal playlists – titled ‘a city walk’ with his favorite songs.
Enjoy this inspiring music and make it happen!
Author: Varya
Editor: Ayesha