Achievements

The Amsterdam Business Research Institute (ABRI) of VU Amsterdam granted a 4-year doctoral project focused on studying the career sustainability of entrepreneurs. Maria Tamontseva will be the PhD researcher on this project under my supervision between September of 2023 and 2027. Among other things, we will study how career transitions - between entrepreneurship and paid work - may impact entrepreneurs' career sustainability.

We received a €100.000,- grant funded by the Kenniscentrum Ongelijkheid for a 2-year postdoctoral research project on potential inequalities during the transition to work among graduates from vocational and university education in the Amsterdam area. Project team: Jos Akkermans, Bianca Beersma, Romy van der Lee (all VU Amsterdam), Mieke van Diepen, Daphne van Wiersum (both Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences), and a consortium from MBO Amsterdam.

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We received a €85.000,- grant funded by House of HR for a research project on graduates’ career paths. Project team: Sofie Jacobs (Antwerp Management School) and Jos Akkermans (VU Amsterdam).

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I obtained a grant from the China Scholarship Council (CSC) for a 4-year PhD project that will be conducted by Di Dong. This project will focus on the employability development of Chinese students who move to Europe for their graduate studies and then transition into the labor market. The project runs between 2020-2024.

Together with Svetlana Khapova, I received a PhD grant from the Amsterdam Business Research Institute (ABRI) for a 3-year PhD project that focuses on the role of (career) resource exchanges in the career sustainability of young professionals. The project is scheduled to take place between 2020 - 2023.

Our article "The Covid-19 crisis as a career shock: Implications for careers and vocational behavior" was the most downloaded paper of the Journal of Vocational Behavior throughout the first half of 2021. The article was downloaded over 20.000 times in its first 10 months after publication.

The article can be downloaded HERE.

Our article "The winner takes it all, the loser has to fall: Provoking the agency perspective in employability research" was among the top cited article in Human Resource Management Journal in 2018-2019.

The article can be downloaded HERE.

Our article "Crafting your Career: How Career Competencies Relate to Career Success via Job Crafting" was among the most downloaded articles in Applied Psychology in the year 2017.

The article can be downloaded HERE.

We won the Career Development International Best Paper Award 2017 with our paper "#Trending Topics in Careers: A Review and Future Research Agenda".

The paper can be downloaded HERE.

We were granted €240.000,- by Instituut Gak to research sustainable careers and psychological contracts among flexible workers. This project will be a 4-year full-time PhD project.

We obtained a €100.000,- grant in cooperation with a professional service firm for a 4-year PhD project about contemporary job design.

I was awarded an Outstanding Reviewer Award at the 2017 Academy of Management conference for my reviewing work in the Careers Division.

Together with Jennifer Symonds from the University College Dublin, I will work on the Level Up project, which is a proposed school-based training programme for 15 – 18-year-olds, designed to enhance the psychosocial skills that promote career, college and work readiness and prevent early school leaving. Level Up will train young people in those skills using active and creative pedagogies such as role play, simulation games and problem solving, designed to stimulate engagement, reflection, and transformation. The delivery of Level Up may help reduce social inequalities in young people’s psychosocial skills and subsequent life chances.

I was voted in the top 3 of talented teachers at VU Amsterdam in August 2016. This achievement was the result of an election process among all ten faculties of the university, with each faculty nominating their “best” teacher.

I won the Best Symposium Award of the Careers Division of the Academy of Management in August 2016. The symposium, entitled “Not my Breach! Innovative Ways to Study Psychological Contract Breach and Effects on Meaningfulness”, was co-organized by Stefan Mol and Matthijs Bal.

I won the Outstanding Reviewer award of the Careers Division of the Academy of Management in August 2016. Each year, during the AOM conference, several reviewers who have received high evaluations from submitting authors for their reviewing work, are celebrated with this award.

I won the Best Lecturer Award for teachers younger than 36 years in the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration in June 2016. This award was the result of a voting process among students, followed by a nomination into the top 5, and subsequently the decision from a jury to appoint the winner.

I obtained my senior university teaching qualification (“Senior Kwalificatie Onderwijs”, or, SKO) in May of 2016. Only about 5% of VU staff is allowed to do this program, which someone is only allowed to do after a formal nomination by the faculty board. Between summer of 2015 and May 2016, I participated in this program and created the HRM Learning Pathway, which is a comprehensive and integrative overview of HRM courses in our International Business Administration Bachelor program.

I obtained €200.000,-, partially from the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and partially from the Postgraduate Accountancy program, for the VU to Work PhD project (also see “Projects” for more details). This project has started in February 2016.

In a cooperation between the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration and the Faculty of Behavioral and Movement Sciences of VU Amsterdam, we organized the annual WAOP conference in 2015. This conference is the annual meeting of Work and Organizational Psychologists and HRM scholars in the Netherlands and Belgium. The conference features over 60 presentations and over 150 participants.

I won the Best Reviewer award of the Careers Division of the Academy of Management in August 2015. Each year, during the AOM conference, several reviewers who have received high evaluations from submitting authors for their reviewing work, are celebrated with this award.

I was nominated in the top 3 Best Lecturers of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration of VU Amsterdam in 2015.

I obtained my University Teaching Qualification (“Basiskwalificatie Onderwijs”, or, BKO) in May 2014 at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The UTQ is a requirement for all university staff in the Netherlands. I participated in a shorter version of the program, which took place between November 2013 and May 2014.

I was nominated for the Best Lecturer Award of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Utrecht University in 2009.

I was nominated for the Best Lecturer Award of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Utrecht University in 2008.