TEXT: ELLIS ELLENBROEK

‘In September, I started working as a teacher at a school in Amsterdam. I am in charge of nursery groups 1 and 2 for two and a half days a week. In addition, I have a self-study day every week, and one day a week I follow lectures at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences to get my Primary School Teacher (pabo) diploma as a lateral student. This switch feels like a relief. But there is a lot to consider when making the switch to teaching. I first had to pass an aptitude test. Before that, I did a four-month placement at another school last year. And I also had to take the WISCAT, a pretty tough maths test for which I had to study hard.
Studying law didn’t exactly make my heart beat faster. The Master’s degree I did in Scotland was more fun; I learned that if the financial world works well, it is good for society as a whole. I wanted to do my bit! After that, I worked at the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) for five years, which was interesting and complex work. Still, it didn’t really spark my enthusiasm. Sitting behind the laptop all day, I kept thinking: When will I ever get used to this? Or putting your heart and soul in a strategy with your team only for it to end up in a drawer somewhere gathering dust. Consultancy work seemed more practical to me, so I took a job at PwC. I ended up in a great team, got lots of opportunities, felt appreciated. But still the doubts remained.
When I became a mum, I started looking increasingly critically at what I wanted to devote my time and energy to. That made the issue more urgent: If ever I would want to make a switch, now was the time.
I knew in what direction I didn’t want to move, but where to then?  It was my boyfriend[A1] who said: If I were you, I would give teaching another thought. I had always associated teaching with secondary education, that is, teaching a specific subject and working with teenagers. That didn’t appeal to me at all. But the idea of trying to make a positive contribution to the development of younger children as a primary school teacher actually sounded wonderful to me. And it is obviously a job that matters. Unbelievable that I didn’t think of that before.’

‘During the first six months in Groningen, I didn’t obtain any credit points. I thought it had to do with the degree programme, that studying Law just wasn’t for me. My parents talked me out of thinking that.
It wasn’t until I started my Master’s degree, that I began to take an interest in employment law. I was admitted to a business course at Baker McKenzie, where students spend a few days job shadowing and working on a fictitious case. Eventually, I successfully applied for a job as an employment solicitor at Baker McKenzie, after also having written my thesis there.
We are an international law firm that particularly serves multinationals. We advise them on mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, and works council matters. In my role as employment law solicitor, I also increasingly receive cases from clients that deal with unacceptable behaviour in the workplace. I haven’t seen the inside of the court very often yet, as we basically always try to settle a claim. That is a preferable outcome for all parties.
The fact that I have been working at Baker McKenzie for almost nine years shows how much I enjoy working here.
My father also worked as a solicitor. When I’m at my parents’ house and I need to finish some work, my mother sometimes has flashbacks of when my father was in the legal profession and was constantly working. That’s part of being a solicitor, you don’t let your own agenda take precedence. Our clients are our number one priority. They pay a lot for our services, so they are entitled to expect something in return. 
The Amsterdam Zuidas, sometimes known as the Financial Mile, is not representative of the rest of the Netherlands. It is a corporate bubble.  Being in the midst of those high office towers, you would almost forget that there are people who are less fortunate. I did miss that sense of connection with society, so when someone from the Big Friends organization came to the office for a donation, I signed up as a volunteer. Big Friends links mentors to a child that is in need of a little extra attention. For one year now, I have been mentoring nine-year-old Fatima. I do something fun with her every week. I take her to the Royal Concertgebouw, for instance, or we go and have a freakshake. She occasionally comes to our house as well. My four-year-old daughter thinks Fatima is super cool because Fatima knows the dances of the Dutch children’s choir Kinderen voor Kinderen by heart.’

ALUMNI IN HINDSIGHT

JACOBIEN SCHUT (34)

ACADEMIC CAREER > Law from 2009 to 2013 (Bachelor’s degree), Master’s degree in International Economic Law in Edingburgh (2014) IS > primary school teacher in training LIVING SITUATION > with Maurits Schönfeld (41), Director of Uber Northern Europe; Loek (3) and Okke (almost 2) HOUSE > detached, overlooking a nature reserve, in Landsmeer INCOME > 0.6 FTE based on
full-time salary of €4573 gross (salary based on last earned salary at PwC)

EMMA GLAZENER (34)

ACADEMIC CAREER > Law from 2009 to 2015 (Bachelor’s and Master’s degree), Philosophy of a Specific Discipline from 2011 to 2013 (Bachelor's degree) IS > employment law solicitor at Baker McKenzie in Amsterdam LIVING SITUATION > with Diederik von Devivere (34), UG alumnus in Economics, financial manager at Uber; daughter Philippa (4) HOUSE > newly built terraced house in North Amsterdam INCOME > undisclosed

Employment law solicitor Emma has been finding herself professionally
challenged at a large international firm in the Amsterdam Zuidas for nine years.
Fellow student Jacobien discovered that the legal profession did not make
her happy and is now a teacher in a nursery school.

‘During the first six months in Groningen, I didn’t obtain any credit points. I thought it had to do with the degree programme, that studying Law just wasn’t for me. My parents talked me out of thinking that.
It wasn’t until I started my Master’s degree, that I began to take an interest in employment law. I was admitted to a business course at Baker McKenzie, where students spend a few days job shadowing and working on a fictitious case. Eventually, I successfully applied for a job as an employment solicitor at Baker McKenzie, after also having written my thesis there.
We are an international law firm that particularly serves multinationals. We advise them on mergers and acquisitions, reorganizations, and works council matters. In my role as employment law solicitor, I also increasingly receive cases from clients that deal with unacceptable behaviour in the workplace. I haven’t seen the inside of the court very often yet, as we basically always try to settle a claim. That is a preferable outcome for all parties.
The fact that I have been working at Baker McKenzie for almost nine years shows how much I enjoy working here.
My father also worked as a solicitor. When I’m at my parents’ house and I need to finish some work, my mother sometimes has flashbacks of when my father was in the legal profession and was constantly working. That’s part of being a solicitor, you don’t let your own agenda take precedence. Our clients are our number one priority. They pay a lot for our services, so they are entitled to expect something in return. 
The Amsterdam Zuidas, sometimes known as the Financial Mile, is not representative of the rest of the Netherlands. It is a corporate bubble.  Being in the midst of those high office towers, you would almost forget that there are people who are less fortunate. I did miss that sense of connection with society, so when someone from the Big Friends organization came to the office for a donation, I signed up as a volunteer. Big Friends links mentors to a child that is in need of a little extra attention. For one year now, I have been mentoring nine-year-old Fatima. I do something fun with her every week. I take her to the Royal Concertgebouw, for instance, or we go and have a freakshake. She occasionally comes to our house as well. My four-year-old daughter thinks Fatima is super cool because Fatima knows the dances of the Dutch children’s choir Kinderen voor Kinderen by heart.’

‘In September, I started working as a teacher at a school in Amsterdam. I am in charge of nursery groups 1 and 2 for two and a half days a week. In addition, I have a self-study day every week, and one day a week I follow lectures at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences to get my Primary School Teacher (pabo) diploma as a lateral student. This switch feels like a relief. But there is a lot to consider when making the switch to teaching. I first had to pass an aptitude test. Before that, I did a four-month placement at another school last year. And I also had to take the WISCAT, a pretty tough maths test for which I had to study hard.
Studying law didn’t exactly make my heart beat faster. The Master’s degree I did in Scotland was more fun; I learned that if the financial world works well, it is good for society as a whole. I wanted to do my bit! After that, I worked at the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) for five years, which was interesting and complex work. Still, it didn’t really spark my enthusiasm. Sitting behind the laptop all day, I kept thinking: When will I ever get used to this? Or putting your heart and soul in a strategy with your team only for it to end up in a drawer somewhere gathering dust. Consultancy work seemed more practical to me, so I took a job at PwC. I ended up in a great team, got lots of opportunities, felt appreciated. But still the doubts remained.
When I became a mum, I started looking increasingly critically at what I wanted to devote my time and energy to. That made the issue more urgent: If ever I would want to make a switch, now was the time.
I knew in what direction I didn’t want to move, but where to then?  It was my boyfriend[A1] who said: If I were you, I would give teaching another thought. I had always associated teaching with secondary education, that is, teaching a specific subject and working with teenagers. That didn’t appeal to me at all. But the idea of trying to make a positive contribution to the development of younger children as a primary school teacher actually sounded wonderful to me. And it is obviously a job that matters. Unbelievable that I didn’t think of that before.’

EMMA GLAZENER (34)

ACADEMIC CAREER > Law from 2009 to 2015 (Bachelor’s and Master’s degree), Philosophy of a Specific Discipline from 2011 to 2013 (Bachelor's degree)
IS > employment law solicitor at
Baker McKenzie in Amsterdam
LIVING SITUATION > with Diederik von Devivere (34), UG alumnus in Economics, financial manager at Uber; daughter Philippa (4) HOUSE > newly built terraced house in North Amsterdam INCOME > undisclosed

JACOBIEN SCHUT (34)

ACADEMIC CAREER > Law from 2009 to 2013 (Bachelor’s degree), Master’s degree in International Economic Law in Edingburgh (2014) IS > primary school teacher in training LIVING SITUATION > with Maurits Schönfeld (41), Director of Uber Northern Europe; Loek (3) and Okke (almost 2) HOUSE > detached, overlooking a nature reserve, in Landsmeer INCOME > 0.6 FTE based on
full-time salary of €4573 gross (salary based on last earned salary at PwC)

ALUMNI IN HINDSIGHT

Employment law solicitor Emma has been finding herself professionally
challenged at a large international firm in the Amsterdam Zuidas for nine years.
Fellow student Jacobien discovered that the legal profession did not make
her happy and is now a teacher in a nursery school.

TEXT: ELLIS ELLENBROEK