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What kind of industry is your company/organisation a part of?

I am employed at the central administration under the Ministry of Social Affairs, Housing , and Senior Citizens.

What do you spend the most time on in your work?

I have the daily responsibility for the secretariat's finances and administration. In addition, I am a business advisor and a sounding board for the head of the secretariat regarding the secretariat's operations. In addition to my work responsibilities, I also spend time on my continued education as I am currently studying for a diploma degree in management, which I expect to complete in 2025.

What is the most important learning in your working life so far?

You are never too old to learn something new.

The world, and the central government in particular, is under constant pressure and change, and this often changes the processes that surround my work. Therefore, adaptability is a necessity, which often leads to new job responsibilities.

In addition, having a student job has also given me an understanding of what it is like to be in a workplace. During my studies, I made a conscious decision not to look for work that was relevant to my studies, which seemed incomprehensible to many. But I know that the business understanding and knowledge I gained from the jobs I held in the private labor market during my studies provided me with a great advantage in understanding the composition of the labor market and how to act in a workplace.

Besides, working life has shown me that almost no one cares about your diploma except you. So my advice, which the students have not asked for, is to breathe and not let grades decide what you can and want to do in life. Determination, hard work and genuine interest will always beat grades, unless you want to be a researcher. Then check the requirements first 😊. And to reiterate, there is nothing wrong with working for the best grades. You should do what you feel most comfortable doing, but just be aware that the vast majority of workplaces hire whole people - not diplomas.

What motivates you?

Being assigned responsibility.
I grow personally and professionally when I am given a prominent level of trust. This suits my personality as I am thorough and perfectionistic in my work.

Although my job involves daily management, I am personally not a major fan of management regimes or strict hierarchical leadership. This motivates me to find the intersection where good colleagues, the boss and I can find the best solution or the best possible result to support the secretariat function and the work of the councils.

I am particularly driven by the fact that I am given space to explore my professionalism and satisfy my curiosity. This approach has given me opportunities in my current job that I would not have had to the same extent elsewhere.

What are your best memories from your time at AAU?

My best memories are the friendships I made with students from other programmes during our joint year. The social communities I became part of during my studies have helped to make me the person I am today. Therefore, friendships are by far the best memory I have.

They are not only friendships, but also professional communities where we can discuss and challenge each other from our professional starting points.

In addition, my position as a coordinator for the 2014 study commencement also stands out as an exceptional memory. It was great that it was the students who were given the responsibility of supporting the new students in their first period of study.

What is the most important thing you have taken with you from Aalborg University?

There are two things that I have taken with me from my time at the AAU:

1) The most obvious for me are the methodological competences that I use every day in my job. During the programme you can question the necessity of it, but it is really important to understand why we do what we do.

2) In addition, the interaction with other students is extremely important, and this was also the reason I chose AAU, as the practical, project-oriented work is dominant in the way the university works. Understanding how people work best together is also something I carry with me in my work today.

What made you choose your specific programme?

I did not take the direct route to university because I originally wanted to become a zookeeper. But when I could not find an apprenticeship, I started working full time at Bilka for three years and at TDC for two years. This meant that I was late in starting my studies, so I took the 'fast' route to university by doing an HF at the age of 23.

I was really in doubt when I had to choose my 1st priority. I was so stressed that I felt I had to make the right choice this time. My choice was between Politics and Administration and Law, and on the closing date I chose P&A. Since then, my good lawyer friend and I have joked that I made the wrong choice, because today I am also involved in legal work and find it extremely interesting. This is what it means to be willing to learn and to be a knowledge geek 😊.

I chose P&A primarily because I had developed an interest in political debate, found social studies extremely interesting and had been interested in politics since childhood. I also had an ideologically driven idea of wanting to explore the theoretical principles of policy development and wanted to learn everything I could about the EU.

Along the way, however, my interest shifted, and I became more interested in subjects related to socioeconomics and economic management, and I took all the electives that had to do with economics or management. This was the first time I felt that I was learning something that was useful in practice, in addition to the methodological subjects.

With the knowledge and insight you have today, what advice would you give yourself if you were to start studying at AAU?

Go and spend a semester abroad - this is something I wish I had done myself.

Your best career advice for students and newly graduates?

1) The most overused phrase in the history of the world: Believe in yourself. And when you are writing a cover letter, remember to explain to your future employer how you are going to use your skills.

2) Write yourself into the job advert with the skills you bring to the table and what you can do for them, highlighting your professional skills rather than your educational skills as these are self-evident.

3) Last but certainly not least, apply for the jobs where you are unsure whether your seniority is relevant. As a recent graduate, I applied for and got my current job, which was advertised as a specialist consultant.

Fun fact?

I play competitive pool and am a five-time Danish women's champion. It takes up a lot of my free time, and I have a good boss who gives me freedom when the sport of pool calls.

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