Placement report
Ministry of Justice and Security, team
Omgevingskennis
Emi van de Ven
S3213781
Placement IRIO
Placement Coordinator: Sonia Mascarell Ordovas, MSc
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Table of contents
Introduction ……… 3
Before the placement ………..………..… 3
Placement search and choice ………. 3
Preparation ……….. 4
Expectations ……… 4
During the placement ….……… 5
The Ministry of Justice and Security ………..… 5
Housing situation ………….……… 6
Undertaken tasks ………. 6
Monitoring the news ……….. 7
Media Update ……….. 8
Media analyses ………. 8
Activities ……….. 9
International focus ………. 9
Online gatherings ……… 10
Difficulties, learning process and fulfilled expectations ………. 10
Other ………. 12
Connection between placement and degree programme/track ………. 12
Future career orientations and prospects ……… 12
Possible tips for future placement students ……….. 13
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Introduction
From the 31th of August 2020 until the 26th of February 2021, I was an intern at the Ministry of Justice
and Security in The Hague. For half a year, I worked on the communication department, at team ‘Omgevingskennis’ and was responsible for writing a daily newsletter, monitoring the news, and making media analyses. My team existed of three colleagues and myself. At the end of my placement, a fifth member of the team was hired.
The team worked closely with other employees at the communication department. We often received requests from spokespersons and speech writers of the ministers and State Secretary. Important news on matters of justice and security was passed through via WhatsApp groups, and four times a week there was a (digital) meeting with various members of the communication department to discuss the agenda of the ministers and State Secretary, bills, parliament letters, and events that could cause media attention.
The Ministry of Justice and Security is located in The Hague. However, due to coronavirus measures, most of the work was done from home. Therefore, I didn’t look for residence in The Hague and I did my work from a different location. This was unfortunate, because I would have liked to experience how everything was done under normal circumstances and how everyone operated from the office in The Hague. I was told each team had fixed seats that were close to each other and the whole department worked on the same floor. Also, there was a wall with screens on it. Normally, every screen was used and parliamentary debates, news broadcasts and other important things would show in the background. Moreover, the digital meeting that was now taken place four times a week, would have been physical if the coronavirus did not affect the work activities. It is difficult for me to imagine how different everything would be if all colleagues were working from the office in The Hague and how all of this would function. However, I am very grateful that I got to do the placement. It was very interesting and suited my interests perfectly. I learned a lot during my placement and it helped me determine the direction I want to find a job in. For this, I am very thankful.
Before the placement
Placement search and choice
While looking for a placement, I found myself interested in the workings of the government. Though I was also searching for vacancies at companies or NGO’s, I was mostly interested in a placement at the government or at government organisations. Therefore I visited the website
https://www.werkenbijdeoverheid.nl/ often, and responded to multiple vacancies. Because I thought it suited best with my Master, I particularly looked at vacancies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs decided to cancel all their vacancies, including one I had responded to. I found it unfortunate and hoped that other Ministries or companies would leave their vacancies open, so I still had a chance of finding a placement that I was interested in.
In the final week before my thesis deadline, I was really busy writing my thesis and I spent little time looking for placements. However, when I visited the beforementioned website one time, I stumbled upon a really interesting vacancy from the Ministry of Justice and Security. The focus of this
4 at the intake meeting between me and my placement coordinator when I was asked what I was interested in. Moreover, because the placement was at the Ministry of Justice and Security, I knew the topics would appeal to me, since I followed the ‘International Security’ track within my Master. This was the first vacancy I came across that really excited me, so I responded immediately.
Preparation
Some time later, I received a call from my future supervisor. He asked if I was still interested in the placement and invited me for an interview. At this point, I contacted my placement coordinator and she sent me a few really helpful documents and tips in order to prepare for this interview. After studying these tips, I felt much more prepared and I entered the conversation more relaxed. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the interview took place digitally. Here, I met my future supervisor and a direct colleague. The conversation was mostly about why I chose the placement and why I was suited for it. There were a few more candidates and they would contact me at the end of the week with more information. However, the next day I was called with the message that I was chosen and that preparations would start. I was really happy about this and very excited and curious about the placement.
After that, a few mails were exchanged with the necessary information for both parties. I needed to fill in multiple documents that were necessary for me to be registered in the personnel system, and to be able to receive a compensation. Because I would be working for the government, I needed to request a Certificate of Conduct (VOG). The costs for this document could be declared at the Ministry. I was called to make an appointment at the Ministry the week before my placement
started. This was to make a scan so that I could have access to the required accounts and networks at the start of the placement.
At the first day of the placement I received a visitor’s card until my own card (Rijkspas) was ready. I also received my devices; a Chromebook, computer mouse, iPhone and chargers. These were mine to use until the end of the placement (on top of the available computers at the Ministry) and I got to take them home.
Expectations
Prior to the placement, I expected the work to be very intense and the working environment to be hectic. I learned that there was a newsroom where all the colleagues would work. This included spokespersons for the ministers and the ‘socials’; people engaged in social media. When I started the placement, almost all colleagues were working from home. I thought this would change soon, due to a decrease in corona infections. Though I assumed and was told that the work would mostly be done from home, I hoped I could at least come to the office a few days per week.
I also thought the work I’d do would be stressful, because I had to meet many short-term deadlines and make media analyses from large amounts of data. Moreover, a full time work week was something I wasn’t used to, but wanted to experience. I expected it to be busy and intensive. The vacancy provided information about the tasks of the placement, and I also gathered information from the interview. Based on this, I set some learning goals that I hoped to accomplish.
First, I wanted to improve my writing skills. I was used to using an academic writing style. However, I believed a formal, but non-academic writing style would be of help in a future job. Because writing newsletters was an important task of this placement, I hoped this was a way to achieve my goal and
5 improve my writing skills.
Second, I had written media-analyses before, but only for academic purposes. I wanted to learn to use non-academic sources, and gather and summarize non-academic literature. I expected I could learn this by writing media-analyses at the placement.
Third, the vacancy emphasized that there were many short-term deadlines that needed to be met. This was something I wanted to train myself in, since I was mostly used to working with long-term deadlines.
Fourth, I hoped that I was able to learn more about the functioning of the government. During my Bachelor and Master, I learned a lot about European and international politics and relations. I was curious about the decision-making processes and the functioning of the government of a state, which is one of the reasons I was interested in a placement at the government. I hoped that I could learn a lot about this at the Ministry of Justice and Security.
Fifth, I knew prior to the placement that the current situation regarding COVID-19 would mean that much would be digitally. I hoped this would allow me to improve my digital skills. Also, I wanted to improve my overall cooperation skills and hoped to achieve this by communicating with my co-workers while working on the same task together.
Sixth, and most importantly, I am passionate about news, which played a major role in the placement. I hoped this would help me determine what I am looking for in a future job. With these expectations, I started my placement on the 31th of August.
During the placement
The Ministry of Justice and Security
At a ministry, government policies are prepared and implemented. In the Netherlands, all ministries are located in The Hague. The Ministry of Justice and Security is responsible for the rule of law in the Netherlands. On the website of the Dutch government
(https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/ministeries/ministerie-van-justitie-en-veiligheid), the following is written about the Ministry of Justice and Security:
The Ministry of Justice and Security (JenV) is responsible for our legal order. A legal order in which people must be able to live together, regardless of their views or lifestyles. The Ministry of Justice and Security is also working on a safer and fairer society. It does this together with partners such as municipalities, educational institutions, companies, inspectorates and the tax authorities.
The Ministry is responsible for various divergent matters. This includes migration and asylum, international migration policy, sex offenses, jurisdiction, subversive crime, drug policy, (national) security, counterterrorism, the public prosecution service, victim support, the fire department, the police, the prison system and forensic care, high-impact crime, human trafficking and prostitution, adoption, cybercrime, privacy, family law and youth care, discrimination, traffic safety, enforcement of coronavirus measures, etc.
The diversity and importance of these topics really appealed to me. I also think the matters are very interesting. I wrote my Master thesis about the securitization of migration and I have written various
6 papers about the migration policy of different countries. Moreover, I studied the track ‘International Security’ within my Master. Therefore, this Ministry suited me and my education very much.
There are many organisation that are within responsibility of the Ministry of Justice and Security. The most important ones, or the ones that were mentioned the most during my placement period, are the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV), the National Police, the fire department, the Public Prosecution Service (OM), the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND), Repatriation and Departure Service (DT&V), Central Fine Collection Agency (CJIB), Custodial
Institutions Agency (DJI) and the Child Protection Board (RvdK).
The political leadership of the Ministry of Justice and Security lies with two ministers and a secretary of state. Currently, minister Ferd Grapperhaus is the Minister of Justice and Security. The Minister of Justice and Security is head of the Ministry of Justice and Security. Additionally, minister Sander Dekker is the minister of legal protection and Ankie Broekers-Knol is the State Secretary for Justice and Security.
The spokespersons of the ministers and the State Secretary also work on the communication department. Occasionally, our team received requests for media analyses from the ministers or the State Secretary through their spokespersons.
Housing situation
During the initial interview, I was told the placement would mostly take place from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic. For this reason, I didn’t look for a residence near The Hague. I assumed, if the corona measures were loosened and I could come to the Ministry more often, I could still look for a residence then. This was not the case, however, and I worked almost the entire period from home. I could only come to the Ministry a few days a week during the first couple of weeks. Working from home was a challenge because it was more difficult to find motivation, in part because of the lack of colleagues and the lack of supervision. I would have liked to work more at the Ministry and experience the atmosphere. Usually, the ministers and the State Secretary work at the Ministry. Also, I later discovered the COVID-19 press conferences were held from the same building I would have worked at. Because I had to work from home, I didn’t get a chance to discover what or who else was housed in the Ministry of Justice and Security, and to find out how the work environment was when all colleagues would sit together. I thought this was really a shame, but the situation would be the same at other placements, and I wasn’t able to postpone finding a placement until the corona measures were loosened.
Undertaken tasks
Every Monday until Thursday, the day would begin with the ‘dagstart’ (literally translated: start of the day). This was a digital meeting together with spokespersons, speech writers, social media experts and other employees at the communication department. At the dagstart, each team
presented their points of attention. For example, what policy documents they were working on, what activities their member of government (respectively Grapperhaus, Dekker or Broekers-Knol) had planned, or what particular event could lead to media attention. There was a team for each member of government, and one team for corporate business. At the beginning of the dagstart, a member of our team (team Omgevingskennis) would mention the most important news items.
The information gathered from the dagstart was important for our team, because we could
7 was important to a team at that time, we would pay special attention to it and make sure the team was getting accurate and up-to-date information.
Monitoring the news
Monitoring the news was a task our team was concerned with. We would not only monitor news around subjects that were of importance for a certain team at a particular moment, but we monitored everything that was important for the Ministry of Justice and Security. This meant that monitoring was an ongoing task that needed to be fulfilled simultaneously with other activities. Online, we paid attention to whether certain events or developments were of interest for the
Ministry, the Minister(s) or the Secretary of State. If so, we kept track of which newspapers report on the topic, what the sentiment of the general public online was and if influential people were paying attention to the topic. Essential news articles or tweets were sent to colleagues who needed to be informed on the events/developments via WhatsApp groups. We also monitored the news, bills or policy documents that were released by the Ministry and we paid attention to how the public responded to it. We reported this back to our aforementioned colleagues.
As mentioned before, the Ministry of Justice and Security is responsible for many different matters. At the beginning, it was difficult for me to keep track of everything that was going on and filter the right information we could send to the teams.
For monitoring, we mostly used Coosto, which is a real-time tool for social media monitoring. With keywords, the incoming data could be narrowed. However, there would still be a lot of ‘noise’, between important data. All messages sent on Twitter (it was mostly Twitter we watched on Coosto, but also Facebook, Instagram and news media) with the chosen keyword in it were displayed. Tweets from influential people on essential topics could be important for a team. For example, opinions from lawyers could be important for team Dekker, who was responsible for legal protection. Not every influential person was marked as influential on Coosto, so the number of followers was also something to pay attention to in order to determine if the message needed to be passed on to a team via a WhatsApp group.
At the beginning, I was sometimes asked to monitor a particular topic. This meant that the
responsibility to notice important messages lied with me. Sometimes I found it stressful, because I was afraid to miss data when I narrowed it too much. However, when I didn’t narrow it enough, there was too much data which meant that I could miss data as easily.
After a few weeks, I wasn’t asked to monitor a specific topic anymore, but my colleagues counted on me to monitor every topic important to the Ministry. This was something my team members were doing also, but they were usually a little more occupied than me with other tasks. Having to monitor wider made me become more comfortable in narrowing the sets of keywords and I became more practiced in it. I would focus on topics that were most important and topical, and I had another set of keywords for messages in which the members of government were mentioned. I also made a set of keywords with which I could find messages regarding migration and asylum, and I kept an eye on matters of the police, law enforcement and jurisdiction.
To make the Media Update, we used the Newsdesk in LexisNexis. Here, a set of keywords was made for many different subjects, such as sex offenses, forensic care and security. News articles we found, we placed in certain feeds we used for the Media Update. Though LexisNexis was only used to find articles from news media, I went through the feeds a few times a day and used it to monitor
8 it in a WhatsApp group. When really big events happened, I made a new set of keywords in Coosto in order to monitor it properly. This way, I managed to narrow the data to an extent that it was possible for me to keep track of important messages and news articles. Because the other members of my team were also monitoring widely, there was little chance that important topics were missed. What I also found challenging about monitoring, was that it wasn’t supervised. When monitoring was my only task at the moment and it was a quiet time with regard to important news, I could feel a little useless sometimes. I felt like nobody would notice if I wasn’t working, which brought down my motivation. Later, when I had a meeting with other interns at the Ministry, they indicated to feel the same way. This was of course a consequence of working from home and missing the presence of co-workers. I resolved the lack of motivation by going through the news articles at LexisNexis, so I could alternate between monitoring via Coosto and monitoring via LexisNexis, which provided a little variety.
Media Update
The Media Update appears twice a day and once on Saturday. It is a selection of news articles about topics that are under the responsibility of the Ministry. At the top of the Media Update, the most important topics that are in the news that day are summarized. When television or radio broadcasts discuss topics that are of interest to the Ministry, this is also announced in the Media Update, but only in the afternoon edition.
The Media Update is a product from team Omgevingskennis and it is sent to the entire department and other organisations or people within the Ministry that can subscribe to it. At the end of my time at the Ministry, an employee at the NCTV (counterterrorism) recommended the Media Update for his colleagues. This shows that the product is gaining awareness, with which my direct colleagues were very happy.
Ever since a few weeks after the beginning of my placement time, I was responsible for making the Media Update each afternoon. At first, I would send the Media Update to a colleague when finished, and he or she would correct it and upload it. Later, the Media Update wasn’t corrected anymore and the version I sent became the version that was eventually uploaded.
For the Media Update, I selected articles from the search feeds in LexisNexis into ‘clipping feeds’. These were feeds in which we categorized the news that was important for the Ministry, and they also appeared like this in the Media Update. As mentioned, I also summarized important news items and wrote about topics in television or radio broadcasts that were worth mentioning.
In the beginning, I found the Media Update very time-consuming. It left me with too little time to simultaneously monitor the news. It took a while to manage my time better and to leave sufficient time to write the summary stressless when a topic turned out to be larger than I anticipated. Also, important news sometimes appeared just before the deadline of the Media Update and I had to write a last-minute summary on the topic. Though not always stressless, I never missed the deadline. Media analyses
Team Omgevingskennis writes media analyses on request of colleagues or organisations that are linked to the Ministry. Sometimes, when a certain topic is very visible in the news, our team writes it on our own initiative. Media analyses are an important product of our team. The analyses are
9 in newspapers and on social media over a certain timespan. The first few months of my placement I was asked to cover either the attention in newspapers or online, and one of my colleagues would cover the other part. Later, I was asked to write the entire media analysis. A colleague would check it, but not change it, unless it lacked important information. This way, my name was written on the bottom of the analysis.
Because media analyses are written on request, they usually need to be finished as soon as possible. This was something I liked, because it made me motivated. However, it also meant that there wasn’t always sufficient time. When a news item was very big and important, the media analysis was usually made by two colleagues. For example, I would observe and write about the media attention in the morning and early afternoon, and when I had to start making the media update, a colleague would take over and report on the media attention from where I left off.
Some analyses are sent to the Minister(s) or the State Secretary, others go to organisations linked to the Ministry. Once, I made a media analysis requested by the Minister of legal protection, Sander Dekker. It was an analysis of the media attention of a debate in which the minister participated. I concluded the media attention for the debate mostly existed of articles in legal trade journals and opinions from lawyers, and I summarized the articles and listed important tweets. A few hours after I sent the analysis to a colleague, a spokesman of the minister, he told me he had received a
WhatsApp message from minister Dekker in which he uttered his gratitude and thanked for the analysis. I was really flattered that a minister was grateful for something I made and this made me recognize and appreciate the importance of the work of our team.
Activities
International focus
During the placement period, many international topics were important. For example, the MH17 lawsuit, the fire in the refugee camp Moria on the Greek island Lesbos, wrongs regarding foreign adoptions, and worries about a conscious islamization strategy of the Turkish president Erdogan were important topics that dominated the news for weeks. I wrote media analyses on all of these topics, summarized them in the media update, and I monitored news media and social media on updates on and attention for these topics.
Other international topics of importance were the beheading of the French teacher Samuel Paty and other acts of terrorism across Europe, espionage by countries such as Iran and Russia, the protest of Poland and Hungary against the rule of law test that is connected to the European budget, the European refugee/migration policy, and investigations into wrongs at border agency Frontex. Sometimes, we wrote about coverage from international media. For example, the German news medium ARD paid attention to the criminal trial Marengo, which is one of the largest liquidation cases ever in the Netherlands. Moreover, many foreign media reported about the clash of Dutch protesters and the police over the curfew.
To make sure there was enough international focus to my tasks during the placement, also on days when the news was mostly dominated by national topics, I proposed to investigate how international media report on topics that are under the responsibilities of the Ministry of Justice and Security. Together with my team, I agreed to make an overview of the international coverage of the Dutch response to the situation in camp Moria. This included for example how aid was offered and how
10 many refugees the Netherlands would take in. Initially, I was supposed to focus on a new topic after I finished researching the coverage of Moria. However, I ended up expanding the time span and I investigated international coverage of Moria from September until January. The shape and design of the analysis were entirely up to me, and I focused on coverage in every European language. This meant that I gathered coverage in for example Danish, Croatian and Czech newspapers. Eventually, the huge amount of data was not reflected in the short summary and conclusion, but it was a fun and educational challenge for me.
Online gatherings
Usually, I am a bit reserved when it comes to participating in social gatherings with a lot of people I don’t know. However, during the placement I pushed myself to participate in as many activities as possible. I think the fact that the meetings were digitally helped me overcome this ‘anxiety’, because it lowered the threshold. I participated in a pub quiz, a digital Christmas dinner, and two meetings with other interns at the Ministry. The latter was interesting, because I discovered many
departments of the Ministry I didn’t know existed. I also really enjoyed the pub quiz and Christmas dinner, and they helped me getting to know colleagues personally, which resulted in a more pleasant working environment.
Professionally, there were also online meetings. For example, there was the aforementioned dagstart every Monday until Thursday. Moreover, our own team met every Thursday. In these meetings, we would discuss what went well the previous week and where we could make approvements. We also determined how we would divide media analyses and other tasks.
Beside these daily and weekly meetings, there was also a New Year gathering with both ministers and the State Secretary. I thought this was really interesting and it showed the importance of all the work that was done at the Ministry.
This was also the case with the budget debate of the Ministry of Justice and Security in the House of Representatives. Here, the ministers and the State Secretary presented their plans and views for the year 2021. I watched the debate online and this made me see the point of the work we were doing. These ministers and State Secretary talked about the topics we were monitoring and writing about daily. The importance of these topics were discussed by the House of Representatives. Here, the workings of the government were visible and I could see the part our team played in this. This was one of the reasons I chose this placement and I really enjoyed seeing the results and importance of the work I was doing.
Difficulties, learning process and fulfilled expectations
Next to the aforementioned motivation- and time management problems I came across while carrying out the tasks, I also experienced other difficulties from which I have learned. When I was asked to write an overview of something, and there was no set deadline attached to it (for example with my investigation of foreign coverage of the Dutch response to the situation in camp Moria), I found myself gathering a lot of data and continuing to add more data while I was summarizing it. This way, the amount of data kept expanding which meant that the summary needed to be adjusted constantly and the work never finished. I needed to learn to set boundaries, stop gathering data and draw conclusions from the information I gathered at that point. This was something I found difficult, but I got better at it over time.
11 Moreover, during the placement I realized I need to ask for help more often. This is a difficulty I also encounter in everyday life. I think I can, and I also want to try to, accomplish a task by myself. Usually I succeed in this, albeit with a little more effort than necessary, but when I am working in a team and a task needs to be finished quickly, the team does not benefit from me trying to do everything by myself. Therefore, I need to share the difficulties I’m experiencing with my colleagues so that we can resolve it together. My colleagues often indicated that I should not hesitate to ask questions, but I rarely approached them before my task was finished. Though I tried to ask for help more often, I realize this is an ongoing learning process for me.
Another difficulty I experienced was that I did not take enough brakes. This was also something I did during my studies. When I had a paper to write, I continued working on it until it was finished, only stopping for sleep. In the meantime I could do other things, but I stayed behind my laptop, which prevented my mind from relaxing. Because there was always news to monitor, or I was busy writing a media analysis, I found it difficult to find a time to take a break or eat lunch. When I did take a break, I felt like I was missing a lot and had to catch up on what I missed afterwards. Also, I wanted to make sure I was available for colleagues, so I kept checking my phone during break time. I need to learn to distance myself from work and take time to relax and unwind. I now realize the importance of this and I will try to take this into account for a future job. I think it will be easier to take breaks when working from an office, because other colleagues are taking breaks as well. This was less visible when working from home.
Furthermore, there was a difficulty I experienced during my placement, but I think this will be less of an issue in a future job. Because I was only an intern, I was reserved in providing input that wasn’t strictly necessary. I felt like it wasn’t my place to offer an opinion or idea, or correct others when they drew a wrong conclusion. Often, I felt like I was only an intern, and I was there to learn and observe instead of engaging in other colleagues’ affairs. It is necessary to mention that this came from me; no one made me feel like I couldn’t provide input. It was just a feeling that, as an intern, I couldn’t participate as much as an employee could. However, this was only the case with regard to colleagues from other teams. I felt different with regard to my own team, because I knew my direct colleagues better and I knew how they felt about me and my position as an intern. They always treated me as an equal colleague, which is something I really appreciate. Still, I was reserved in suggesting ideas. I don’t think this limited the experience for me, but maybe others viewed me as less engaged or outgoing.
Beside the difficulties I experienced, I learned a lot from this placement. I also think many of my expectations were fulfilled. The work was busy, intensive and sometimes stressful, but this contributed to the learning process. I feel like my writing skills have improved and I am more experienced in handling non-academic data. Moreover, I’m more practiced in meeting short-term deadlines and I think my cooperation skills have improved, though my real-time cooperation skills, when I’m working on something at the same time as a colleague, can improve even more. I also got to learn much about the functioning of a government, which I really enjoyed. However, I expected and hoped that I could spend more time at the Ministry itself. I find it very unfortunate that this was not the case, but the situation would have been the same for every other placement and I am grateful that I was allowed and able to do this placement.
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Other
Connection between placement and degree programme/track
During my Master, there was a lot of variety in the topics covered. I chose the ‘International Security’ track, and wrote papers on many different subjects, such as migration and cybersecurity. Writing multiple papers at the same time made me shift my focus between topics. I believe this had a positive influence on the fulfillment of my tasks during the placement, because when writing the Media Update (and also when monitoring), I had to shift my focus between several topics as well. Moreover, during my Master (and Bachelor) I became used to writing a lot. I also learned to write media analyses, which I used for example in my thesis. Knowing how to draw concise conclusions from large amounts of data was very convenient during my placement, because I had to write media analyses in a short amount of time.
Also, very importantly, the subject matter of my Master track (International Security) corresponded to the topics that are important for the Ministry of Justice and Security. This meant that, during my Master, I gained theoretical knowledge of some of the topics I monitored or wrote about during the placement period. For example, I wrote my Master thesis about the securitization of migration and I investigated how migration was framed as a security problem. It was very interesting to observe this securitization process in practice. I noticed how, by means of fake news, migration was framed as a security problem and I saw how these messages were spread via Twitter and how migration was and how migrants were feared by some people.
Already having theoretical knowledge about security issues made it especially interesting for me to learn about the government’s decision-making processes on these topics. During my Master I learned about countries’ migration policies and the consequences that came with these different policies. During my placement I could follow the decisions and debates about the Dutch migration policy closely, because the State Secretary of Justice and Security was responsible for migration. Thus, the skills I learned during my Master, such as writing media analyses and shifting focus between topics, helped me fulfill the tasks during the placement, and my academic knowledge of international security complemented the practical experiences during the placement. I believe these connections between the placement and my degree programme and track really benefitted my learning process.
Future career orientations and prospects
The placement helped me realize that it is important to me to notice the significance of my work. The most valuable experiences of my placement period were when I was told the minister appreciated a media analysis I made, and when I watched the budget debate of the Ministry of Justice and Security. I believe when the results of your work are more visible, this makes you appreciate it more and will also make you more motivated.
Our team was mostly concerned with providing information to other teams and colleagues. I think I would like to be more engaged with the implementation of policy. Therefore, a job at an organisation that falls under the responsibility of the government seems appealing to me. During my placement, I discovered many organisations under the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice and Security, such as the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) and the National Coordinator for Security and
13 Counterterrorism (NCTV). Especially the latter appealed to me and I can imagine myself working there at some point.
I found it very pleasant that there was a lot of variety in the work I did during the placement. The work itself was not extremely diverse, but the news topics were, which made it continuously interesting. This variety is something I’m looking for in a future job. I would also like to remain engaged with news, because I liked being updated on important events and I also enjoyed diving into topics and learning many details. However, this is not a condition for me, because after the
placement I also appreciated being able to consume the news without having to pay attention to what would be interesting for the Ministry.
I believe working for the government suits me, partly because of the decision-making processes and the importance of the work for society as opposed to serving a company. However, I don’t have any experience working for a company, and I would also be interested in finding out if this is something I want to do. Right now, I think working for a government organisation such as the NCTV suits me best. Finally, I made a few useful connections at the placement. A colleague gave me her private number and told me not to hesitate to contact her if I need a reference or if I need her for something else, which is very nice of her!
Before this placement, I had no idea what I was looking for in a job. The placement helped me discover what I value. Although I still don’t have a specific job in mind, the placement provided me more clarity on a career orientation.
Possible tips for future placement students
I would advise future placement students to try and get the most out of the placement.
Unfortunately, this will only be possible after the corona pandemic. I would recommend making contact with many colleagues, because there are a lot of interesting teams within the communication department, such as social media experts and spokespersons for the ministers and State Secretary. It would also be interesting to get to know the building and the different departments at the Ministry of Justice and Security. By means of contact with other interns at the Ministry, I learned a bit about some departments – many of which I didn’t know existed – and their activities. To understand the decision-making processes of a Ministry, it is important and useful to know which different
departments the ministry has and what activities they perform. Moreover, I would advise getting to know the city The Hague. Unfortunately, because of the corona pandemic it was not beneficial for me to find residence in The Hague. The city holds more Ministries and other institutions such as the International Criminal Court. Also, many demonstrations are held in The Hague. It is an interesting city when doing a placement at the government, and I think knowing the city adds to the whole experience of the placement.
Conclusion
I definitely learned a lot from my placement. In the first place, I experienced the state of affairs of the work life. I got to experience the interaction between colleagues, the routine of an eight-hour
working day and the way of communication between close co-workers or colleagues from other teams. Being part of a relatively new team, I was able to observe the optimization process of the
14 team and its tasks and I noticed how the team was constantly evolving. I also learned what it’s really like to work for the government and I enjoyed the presence of many kind and fun colleagues. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic I was not able to witness the normal state of affairs, which I thought was a shame. I would especially have enjoyed being in the building of the Ministry every day, getting to know other departments and learning more about the functioning of the government. Moreover, I was curious of how it would look like when all colleagues from the department were working and communicating next to each other. However, because of the pandemic, I got to observe how digital communication was optimized and how a team could still work together closely and discuss important matters while working from home. Also, I noticed the ingenuity in creating entertaining digital out-of-hours gatherings, such as a Christmas dinner from home, a New Year’s gathering and a pub quiz. I learned how important communication was in collaborating, especially when physical meetings were not possible.
During the placement, I became aware of the difficulties I encounter in working with other colleagues and in carrying out specific tasks. It has triggered me to find ways to resolve these difficulties. Being aware of the problems I faced during the placement can help me detect and overcome difficulties in a future job and I am grateful for these lessons I have learned. I am now looking forward to further developing myself in a future job. I now know better which direction I want to find work in and I am very grateful for the opportunities and lessons the placement has provided me.
