STAR Management Week
1,200+ participating students
100+ companies
Over 60 prominent speakers
The STAR Management Week (SMW) is the largest off-campus business event in the Benelux. This professional and prestigious event is the annual highlight of Rotterdam School of Management (RSM) and of STAR and takes place in November.
As a member of the STAR Management Week committee, you will be responsible for the organization of the entire event: from the various orientational and recruitment activities to the Honorary Discussions with numerous CEOs. This variety of events makes the committee a truly diverse and unique experience. You will also be working on the long term strategy of the event and you can use
your creativity to come up with new activities. This is the chance to develop yourself at every possible level. Are you ready to organize an event with over a thousand participants every year?
When you are a member of the SMW committee, you will be responsible for a €150,000 budget, marketing the event to almost 10,000 RSM students, bringing the interests of
multinational companies and students together, and attract prominent global speakers to the event. This will give you the opportunity to apply your knowledge gained during your studies into practice!
This is the chance to maximize your personal and professional development
Get the thrill of working towards this week together with your team, consisting of eight committee members, and develop yourself through experiencing the excitement and challenges that come with such a large project.
Compensation & Selection
Financial compensation
The STAR Management Week committee starts at the beginning of March with 2 days a week. From April until the beginning of November, the committee will be a full-time job. During the summer, the committee will be present at university full-time as well. You will still have some time to go on a holiday, but this should be coordinated together with your committee and the Project Manager Career of the STAR Board. Because organizing the STAR Management Week is a full-time job, you will not be able to spend much time on side jobs. Therefore, STAR will provide you with a financial compensation for any delay in studying.
Selection process
After filling out the application form online, you will be invited for your first interview. The first interview is meant to get to know each other better, talk about the project in general, and to provide more information about the specific functions and to manage expectations. After this interview, you may be selected for a second interview. For the second interview, we will ask you to prepare cases for specific functions after which you will explain your choices and answers in your second interview. After the second interview, you will be informed whether you are selected to be on the committee or not.
Official minor More information
When doing the STAR Management Week, it is possible to receive 15 EC granted by RSM. The SMW is regarded as an official minor at RSM. Are you not able to go on exchange or are you not sure yet? Or are you looking for a challenging project? Then, the SMW is the perfect opportunity for you!
For more information, please contact Lotus de Vries at pm.career@rsmstar. nl or give us a call at +31(0)104082035 or +31 (0)6-41633515
Open to all RSM MSc and BSc students.
A word from our Project Manager Career
Hi! My name is Lotus de Vries, and I am the Project Manager Career and Vice Chairman of the XLVth STAR Board. I am 23 years old and I finished my bachelor’s in Business Administration this July. As a freshman, I joined the Activity Team BA committee, which led to a fantastic year full of activities and social events. Then, I became the chair of the Events committee. Even though everything needed to be organized online due to COVID-19, we still managed to generate significant output, and it taught me to handle setbacks creatively. In my third year I joined the Commercial Team, which included cold calling, managing relations with partners and advising other active members on their commercial plans. This year I wanted to take the next step and therefore applied for the STAR board.
As a Project Manager Career, I am responsible for STAR’s most impactful recruitment activities: STAR Management Week and Erasmus Recruitment. I look forward to working closely with the SMW committee and the ER board. Feel free to reach out with any questions, me and my fellow board members cannot wait to meet you!
Lotus de Vries
The social side of STAR
Once you are an Active Member, your social network will start to expand immediately. You will have dinner with your committee on Wednesdays and go to our favourite bar for the weekly drinks afterwards.
We also host the sensational theme nights, the Christmas Gala, the Active Members Days, the Active Members Weekends, and so much more. As a member of the STAR Management Week Committee, you will even get your own spot at the STAR office in Mandeville and you will be in close contact with the STAR Board to share your creative ideas with them.
STAR Academy
What’s in it for you?
The STAR Academy is the learning center within STAR that offers members the opportunity to develop their personal and professional skills. As a full-time member of STAR, you will have the maximum opportunity to develop yourself!
Every member of the STAR Management Week committee follows a personalized track which starts with filling in your own Personal Development Plan. This plan forces you to be concious about your ambitions regarding personal learning goals. Based on these goals, STAR will make sure you receive suitable trainings. These trainings can be categorized in hard skill trainings (acquisition training and InDesign training) and the soft side of development (leadership training and team building).
Besides that, you, as a full-time committee member, will receive three sessions of management training at a renowned management training company. During the year there will also be plenty of feedback and learning goals meetings to ensure you develop yourself personally and professionally to a maximum extent.
Lastly, you will get your own buddy, a full-time alumni having plenty experience, to give you feedback and support with your personal development on a regular basis.
The STAR Management Week
Curious to find out what the STAR Management Week actually entails?
With 100+ events, the STAR Management Week is the bigges off-campus business event in the Benelux! Events can range from in-house days, to training sessions to social events & parties. Take a look at some of the events that were organized in the 2022 edition of the STAR Management Week below!
Opening Ceremony
The moment everything begins! The official kick off of the STAR Management Week is a moment to celebrate the start of the event with your friends, family and notable guest speakers.
Wine Tasting
During the STAR Management Week every friday has a social event. One of the social events of the 2022 edition was the wine tasting!
In-house days
During the STAR Management Week there are several in-house days. During these days you will accompany a group of students to the headquarters of a big firm to get a look behind the scenes.
Interactive Case Solvings
Several companies organize Interactive Case Solvings during the STAR Management Week. Organizing these gives you the opportunity to directly connect students with their potential employers.
Honorary Discussions
One of the highlights of the STAR Management Week is the Honorary Discussions. An event where 40 CEO’s mingle with 40 students to discuss challenges that are currently facing the world of business & management.
Closing Party
The end of the event. Together with your committee and crew you celebrate the success of your event with dinner & a party. After all your hard work over the past weeks, it is time to have fun and finish the STAR Management Week the right way!
Chair
As the Chair of the STAR Management Week, you will be the leader, motivator, supporter, and coordinator of the STAR Management Week Committee. A great challenge lies ahead in leading and encouraging your team, supporting individual team members, and being responsible for one of STAR’s largest flagship projects! The function of Chair is incredibly diverse and requires a broad interest, strong communication skills, a sense of responsibility, and decisiveness among others.
What will be your responsibilities?
• Monitor the overall process and set deadlines and targets for each function and the project as a whole
• Support, motivate, and encourage your team on a functional and personal level
• Lead effective meetings to get to the best possible ideas and solutions
• Be the representative of the STAR Management Week committee to both internal and external stakeholders
“It is your time to lead a team of seven different personalities with different responsibilities, quite a challenging job, but it is an amazing experience! You will learn how to keep the overview, monitor the progress, and work in a structured manner. Take a proactive approach to manage expectations and find the trade-off between different ideas and opinions, and make the best out of this incredible learning experience.”
- Willemijn Otter, Chairwoman STAR Management Week Committee 2022Treasurer
As the Treasurer of the STAR Management Week, you will be responsible for the overall financial health and continuity of the STAR Management Week. This includes having the responsibility of working with a budget of €150.000 while keeping the bigger picture in mind. You need to be organized and disciplined, and you need to keep an objective view on expenses, revenues, and their impact. This function requires great people skills and the ability to stand firm and say “no” to your enthusiastic team members, while keeping an open mind and considering their creative ideas.
What will be your responsibilities?
• Creating budgets for multiple scenarios and safeguarding them
• Guiding your team in decision making in the field of treasury
• Doing the bookkeeping and getting experienced with Exact
• Finding a balance between being critical (saying “no”) and keeping an open mind to your team’s creative ideas
“Step out of your comfort zone and get challenged! The STAR Management Week is a period during which you have the opportunity to develop yourself immensely on a professional and personal level. I was responsible
for the financial side of the event, which means I had to be prepared for different scenarios, especially due to COVID-19. I made sure our financial resources were optimally allocated. I learned to deal with unforeseen circumstances, working together with a large number of third parties and making the right decisions together with my team, while keeping an eye on both the details and the larger picture at all times.”
- Puck van Delft, Treasurer STAR Management Week 2022
Commercial Relations (2x)
As Commissioner of Commercial Relations of the STAR Management Week, you will be the salesperson of the project and be responsible for closing deals with over 100 companies. You will have to establish and implement a strategy to build an inspiring group of companies and match these companies to the different activities. The position of Commissioner of Commercial Relation is for those who are ready to get challenged in selling a major project. A challenge that will result in gaining great experience in sales, communication, and a highly extended network! By doing so, one requires strong communication skills, a proactive mindset, out-of-the-box thinking, and competence in dealing with a high workload.
What will be your responsibilities?
• Value and sell the project from a commercial perspective and close Dutch and international comapnies using a tailor-made approach
• Creating and executing an acquisition strategy
• Meet the recruiters of multinational companies at the negotiation table
• Safeguard the long-term relationship with companies
‘’As a commercial, your day is never boring. Every day you interact with up to 20 different companies. Each conversation is different and brings inspiring stories. It is a challenging position where you will develop yourself very quickly. Above all, you will be responsible for closing deals with big names such as Unilever, ABN Amro and Samsung. For a commercial energy and persistence conquer all things! ’’
- Manyu Conneh & Esmee Visser, Commissioners of Commercial Relations STAR Management Week Committee 2022
Academic Relations (2x)
As Commissioner of Academic Relations, you are responsible for creating and organising all academic events during the STAR Management Week. This includes the speaker events, such as the Opening Ceremony, training sessions, and the theme day! Given this responsibility, you will have the opportunity to create totally new events and improve existing events. As the Commissioner of Academic Relations, it is very important to use your creativity to think of new concepts and themes for events, to attract and stay in touch with notable people in business, and have the organisational skills to realise all events!
What will be your responsibilities?
• Create academic events for students to inspire them
• Organise orientational events in collaboration with RSM
• Organise various training sessions for students to improve their skills
• Attract noteable keynote speakers to speech at your events
• Meet wit top business leaders and visit them at their offices
• Manage these contacts throughout and after the events
“Being a Commissioner of Academic Relations is a challenging and exciting job. You are in charge of a broad
variety of tasks that allow for lots of creativity. You can shape the different events from scratch. What is unique about this function is that you will be in close contact with the top of business. Furthermore, you will get the opportunity to visit them at their offices and discuss with each of them about your events, which is a unique experience! In the end it was very rewarding to see all our events come to life and to get so many positive reactions from Honorary Guests, friends, family, and students.”
- Kelsey de Lange & Xander den Dulk - Commissioners of Academic Relations of the STAR Management Week Committee 2022
Marketing
As Commissioner of Marketing of the STAR Management Week, you will be the communicator of the project to external parties. You will build towards a professional marketing campaign together with an external specialized marketing agency. Through this campaign, you can communicate the project and its activities to the participating students and companies in the most attractive way. The function of marketing requires an analytical and creative mind to define the market, set the project apart from competitors, to involve all participants, and to be persuasive.
• Create a successful marketing strategy
• Communicate with all stakeholders about the marketing
• Select a marketing agency and set up a new campaign with them
• Manage the marketing budget and being in charge of all marketing materials
• Execute a marketing plan in a persuasive way
What will be your responsibilities? ‘’What I loved most about being the Commissioner of Marketing is that you get a lot of creative freedom in creating a marketing campaign, designing the marketing materials, and coming up with stunts on campus. Even though you build on what your predecessors have done, there are still a lot of strategic opportunities that you can explore. Also, it is just really fun to see all the materials come to life on campus; from the stand, to the banners, and the coffee cups. This is THE position within the SMW to leave your mark!”
• Manage the event’s social media channels
-Isa Franssen, Commissioner of Marketing, STAR Management Week Committee 2022
Events
As Commissioner of Events of the STAR Management Week you will be responsible for the operational side of the event. You will be responsible for the planning, logistics, locations, operations and the event itself. At early stages you will make arrangements for locations and also support your team on functional areas. Later on your main task will be to make preparations for the event, like a minute-to-minute planning. During the event itself you are the organizational center on whom everyone relies. The function of Commissioner of Events is all about turning all the separate parts of work into one great event.
What will be your responsibilities?
• Make a minute-to-minute planning for the entire event
• Keep an overview of the plan of action during the event
• Make arrangements for all facilities, catering and communication systems
• Manage the crew, board and committee during the event
• Ensure that the execution of the event runs smoothly
“As Commissioner of Events you have the responsibility to organize the whole STAR Management Week itself. Are you structured, are you good at organizing, and do you enjoy leading
a team during an event? Then this is the position for you. From the start of the STAR Management Week, you are the one with the best overview of the entire event. In addition to planning all events, the entire logistics side is also your responsibility. You work closely with your other committee members and are in contact with a lot of external parties. As a result, you learn to work within a team and you also pick up some negotiation skills. During the STAR Management Week, you get to lead the event and your committee and enjoy what you have worked very hard on together over the past few months.
- Sophie Westerink. Commissioner of Events, STAR Management Week Committee 2022
More information?
Visit our recruitment drink on the 11th of January from 16:00h - 18:00h at Café in de Smitse!
• Check rsmstar.nl/recruitment and smw.rsmstar.nl
• Schedule a coffee with the project manager career Lotus (+31 (0)6-4163 35 15)
• Schedule a coffee with one of the current committee members
• Send an email to pm.career@rsmstar.nl
• Give us a call at +31 (0)10-4082035