Career tips from the
Panel Talk of SensUs 2021

There is a big difference between working at a multinational or starting for yourself after your studies. Multinationals are looking forward to expanding their network with young minds, like students. Students come with new perspectives and ideas that are of great use to help a company to become better. Working at a big company is also very beneficial for students themselves, it means working in a steady work environment, with a great network that can be of great convenience. Being an entrepreneur on the other hand can be risky and there is no certainty it will work out for everybody, but there is also more flexibility, more room for self improvement, new ideas, more independence and a whole lot to learn. Our professional panel talk speakers told us all about it.

From the start, a startup needs to be ‘investor-ready’. When approaching any partners or potential investors, as an entrepreneur you should be able to convince them why your idea is the right one to invest in and how the product can make a social and financial impact on the world. A strong vision is also of great importance. A vision needs to be strong and reachable, but also adaptable to the world around us, Julie Nys, medical stakeholder ambassador, explained. Besides a strong vision, a carefully selected team is also fundamental.

A startup does not have to be based on a solution, but rather on a problem. Finding a problem to tackle can lead to a solution that can be marketed. During the marketing process it is important to go out there and ask for feedback from as many people as possible and not to wait too long to come up with the perfect solution. Without feedback there won’t be improvement. Toon Stilma, senior consultant at Roland Berger, mentioned that the more you ask, the more you hear and the more you learn. Learning from your mistakes is the most prominent way to become successful. Nevertheless, not all attempts turn out to be successful. Dr. Dilu Mathew, CEO at ECsens, encourages students not to be disappointed with a false attempt. Most of the startups have gone through the same things, so ‘keep the fight inside of yourself burning’ is his motto.

Being an entrepreneur can therefore be hard. Yvonne Boesten, sustainability & impact manager at HighTechXL, also told us to not be afraid to make mistakes and to fail during your attempts and most importantly not to underestimate yourself. It is important to be enthusiastic and inspiring, otherwise the challenge to bring your product on the market will become a lot more challenging and difficult.

Furthermore, it is crucial to find the things we burn for to become successful. If you don’t like what you are doing as an entrepreneur, it will be a lot harder to succeed. Like, problems occur on a regular basis. See yourself as a troubleshooter who wants to solve a new problem to learn from his or her mistakes. Only if you enjoy what you do, you can have fun doing your job and that is very important according to Dr. Carsten C. Mahrenholz, CEO of Coldplasmatech.

So the most important feedback from our professional panel talk speakers is to never give up, to believe in yourself and to have fun, the rest will follow! 
Lastly, we would like to thank all of our speakers for their participation. Due to the great enthusiasm of panel talk speakers and students, the panel talk will take place again during the SensUs 2022 event week! We hope to see you there!