How to prepare for life after graduation of Dutch university

That is a question many international students ask themselves as they prepare for life after TU Delft. Martin Stehouwer, an Intellectual Property manager at Philips Semiconductors in Nijmegen, discusses the expectations and attitudes that predominate in Dutch industry when it comes to employing international student graduates. Ramesh Chidambaram As a top manager at Philips Semiconductors and alumnus of TU Delft, Martin Stehouwer knows exactly what Dutch companies are looking for in the university graduates who are looking for good engineering jobs in the Netherlands. Stehouwer began his professional career as a Philips design engineer in 1995, before moving on to project leadership, project management, and currently intellectual property management. Stehouwer is an accomplished techno-manager and has served Philips in multiple locations, including as far east as Taiwan and Tokyo. What has made many native Dutch students sidestep engineering in recent years? "I think much of it has to do with the image associated with engineering. Many students seem to see it as a profession that demands lots of hard work, and that engineering is much more difficult than other disciplines, like business administration. It's purely a matter of perception, but it's created a very threatening problem for Dutch industry. Because we're now facing an acute shortage of good local engineers, we're forced to scout for engineers in other countries." Read more: Eurogates. Forum