I am Lotte Sander, graduate of the master Business Administration (HRM) at the University of Twente. In September I graduated after finalizing my master thesis ‘The Influence of Covid-19 on Physician Well-Being through Sudden Changes in Organizational Routines’. After my graduation, I started working as an International Affairs and Mobility Officer at the UT, but besides the outcome of master thesis is still an ongoing topic in my life.
In February 2021 I started my master thesis in order to graduate from my master Business Administration – HRM at the University of Twente. Prior to starting this study, I knew from earlier experience that writing a thesis is a very meaningful, but sometimes challenging period. Lonely is definitely not the right word, but you know that it is you fully depending on you along the way. With Covid-19 coming in, I was skeptical about how I was going to deal with this process now that we were forced to follow this journey from our home desks. Now looking back on it, there was no need to be skeptical, with all credits going to the HRM department of the UT!
When I started my master thesis, working from home was still the way to go. Despite this, I felt so closely connected to my thesis supervisors all the time. Via a real-life introduction in the early stages of my masters, where students and HRM staff all introduced themselves and their thesis interests, most students already found their ‘match’ with a supervisor. From then on, we only met via digital means. However, with the weekly scheduled meetings and with a quick call being only one (Teams)button away, I felt like this master thesis was one of the most inspiring team efforts in my life. Even now, with my graduation laying a few months behind me already, my master thesis is still an ongoing topic, as is the bond with my supervisors. After graduating, I received the opportunity to extend on my thesis by collaborating on an e-book and by doing an interview with UToday for which help is always around the corner if needed. Even though I already learned this during my studies, now I know from first-hand experience that HRM is really about making other people thrive, something which the HRM department of the UT excels at. I am very happy that I chose to follow this study at the UT as it provided me with a lot of useful experiences, opportunities, connections and knowledge that I will take along with me for the rest of my life.
The link to the UToday publication:
https://www.utoday.nl/science/70744/impact-of-covid-19-on-doctors-was-both-positive-and-negative
