Bruno Boy recently graduated from ZSEM with a BA in Economics and Management. This young man of exceptional versatility and interest, reaching into diverse and unrelated fields, during his studies at ZSEM he was an excellent student, winner of the Dean’s List, engaged in numerous projects related to the School and beyond, and was on the international exchange in Barcelona. In addition to his professional business knowledge, he is a great lover and expert in aviation, especially supersonic commercial air transport. He also regularly informally attends psychology workshops, plays the piano perfectly, and occasionally holds concerts even though he has not officially completed his music academy but has only a basic music education. She is fluent in several foreign languages, and for eight years has been volunteering at the largest humanitarian organization in the world – Lions Clubs International, of which she is District Vice President for Croatia. He has been a leader of Youth Camps & Exchange youth camps around the world for several years in a row, but also a participant in them abroad. His great passion is traveling and meeting people from different cultures, and he has traveled to nearly half the world. He says that he is “hungry” for learning and trying out the new and the unknown, and says that only “do what makes you happy” is guided in life.
We spoke with Bruno Boe today about his undergraduate studies, his future career and past experiences at ZSEM and beyond.
What did ZSEM offer you that you would not get at other educational institutions?
A stimulating work environment, excellent professors from the profession who, in addition to theory, have a lot of practical knowledge and experience, the availability of information except through professors, excellent networking, in student-friendly offices. So the Career Development Center helps to find jobs and practices, the International Bureau that handles exchanges … ZSEM really cares about students and offers a lot. Practically everything is “served”, you just have to make use of what is offered. A personalized approach that instills self-confidence is also a key factor that I often like to point out, and combined with academic excellence, definitely makes ZSEM a comparative advantage over other colleges in Croatia.
Were you in practice during your studies? If so, please tell us where and what were your experiences?
I recently completed my internship at the Croatian national airline – Croatia Airlines. As a big fan of the aviation and aviation industry, I was looking to practice at a company in that direction. The experience was great considering I worked in a sector that is one of the key sectors of all airlines – Network and Revenue Management. I learned a lot of aviation terms and processes there, and the jobs I did were more focused on the aviation profession itself, than economic, which was personally interesting to me.
Have you been involved in any business projects during your studies? Whether you were involved in a colleague project or started a project yourself?
Yes, in parallel with my studies, I was involved in ZSEM Marketing, where I initiated and implemented some of my own projects and content. Together with my colleagues we ran a marketing informative facebook show, I created the project “Become a ZSEM student for a day”, I was a co-author of a branding project at ZSEM … In addition, I worked at Student Future Day, the largest trade show organization jobs, was a mentor to younger colleagues and international students, etc. Basically, I believe I got a lot of work at ZSEM during my studies.
If you have participated in any of the competitions, please describe how the preparations, discussions with the mentor, cooperation with other students were going…
In my third year, I participated in L’Oreal’s Brandstorm competition with a few colleagues. It’s a great opportunity to introduce yourself to employers, and something that all employers are asking about job interviews tomorrow. The preparations themselves were quite intense, in the short term we had to do a thorough research on the market and the company in order to be able to prepare for the further course of the competition. All communication was actually online, so it went pretty smoothly and L’Oreal communicated well to the competitors what was expected of them. In the end, another team from ZSEM won, and ours was just near the winner. All in all, a very positive and beautiful experience.
What are you planning to study in the Netherlands? Why did you choose this master program and how did it help you?
I will be studying Cultural Diversity Management. ZSEM has helped me to develop and awaken in myself interests that go beyond economics itself, primarily to other sciences such as psychology and sociology. Also because of my passion for meeting people who carry different cultural backgrounds, norms and identities. The future is interdisciplinary, the world is increasingly globalized and companies will have an increasing influx of workforce from around the world. This is why a manager is needed who knows how to exploit the differences that cultures bring to a company for its profit, but also to minimize the risk arising from those cultural differences. There is no such study in Croatia, and Tilburg University is unique in Europe with this study, so it was not difficult to make a decision once I realized that this is what I want to do next.
Then, in the future, would you like to work in more areas?
That’s right, I’d love to try things out and be engaged in more fields like I actually am now. However, I would definitely like to stay in aviation one way or another. I would love to work on developing faster planes and thereby improve the air transportation we know today. It is a very unexplored area, there are not many companies involved in it and I hope to be part of that story one day.
