Innovation Officer

Testimonial • Bob van den Driesschen

Why I applied for a board year at Aureus

I chose to apply for the Aureus board because I felt that I still had a lot to develop before starting my professional career. Before, I had a side job where I had learned a lot but was done learning for the position I was in, so I was ready for a change. At the same time, I felt that I missed some crucial skills in order to qualify for the traineeships I was interested in doing after my studies. Next to this, I thought that a board year would be a great opportunity for me to get to know a lot of companies and their recruiters, in order to find the company that suits me best. At this point, I think I have already found companies where I would like to work later on. Also, I wanted to develop skills that I had not developed yet, just so I could convince myself that I would have got the most out of my student life. Therefore, I decided to apply for the function of Innovation Officer, which would mean that I would focus more on the bigger picture, IT-related issues and using my creativity for the good of the whole association.

As the Innovation Officer of Aureus, you are responsible for every little thing that is posted on the Aureus website, but also for the CRM-system, Salesforce, that every committee member uses in order to do an acquisition. In this, optimization of processes is key since Salesforce is a very elaborate program and my job is to make it as simple and complete as possible for all committee members. Also, I have time to focus on the general Aureus policy, come up with my own ideas and develop these ideas into structures. In our general policy this year, I have already been able to develop my ideas into bigger projects for the longer-term policy of Aureus and this is one of the most valuable rewards you can get; to see your ideas being put into practice for the long term.

What kind of issues do I have to deal with?

Another big project I have been working on this year is the new ACD website which is live since December 10! This was a very complex and interesting project since I was in contact with a website developer, the ACD committee, the board of Sefa and our IT advice group. With so many stakeholders and me being end-responsible for the result, it was very satisfying to be able to deliver a good website which suits everyone’s needs and wishes. Of course, we will have to wait until after the ACD in March to draw any conclusions. All in all, being just halfway through my board year, I feel like I have already learned so many new skills and developed competencies that no other experience could have prepared me better for the start of my professional career.