Alumni story Thijs Fijen

Being a researcher, Thijs has several projects at a time. Topics he works on include the benefits from strip-crop farming for insect biodiversity and arable breeding birds. But also the scientific ecological bases to develop a label for nature-friendly solar parks. Next to this, he teaches courses for both bachelors and masters and Wageningen University that focus on ecology. “The creation of circumstances in which species can thrive and return is important, since we as humans are responsible for the biodiversity decline.”

Previously, he did a PhD at Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) followed by a PhD and Postdoc at Wageningen University and Research. In his current position, he also assists PhD students and tries to make the projects more realistic within their time schedule. Of course, the master program has a great impact on the work he performs nowadays. Not only because he works as a teacher himself now, but also because it gave him the tools to be able to set up and perform experimental research. 

To get to the position he is in now, Thijs was doing extra research topics at other institutes and improved his statistical skills during his masters. He always knew he wanted to end up in research. “Every step in my master’s program was designed to improve my prospects of being successful in my field. Networking is a crucial aspect of it.” When it comes to vacancies, he always contacted the person advertising with a specific question on the project.

“A good way to prepare for a job interview is to look up recent research topics of the of the job committee. Do also not hesitate to ask friends what kinds of questions to expect.” He stresses that you should explore options by talking to people. “Accept to make mistakes and explore options which in the end might not suit you. It is also important to know what you don’t want to do.”