This week's Sharing Stories feature comes from Cloé Assman, on e-commerce online range specialist at IKEA.

I joined AICS in 2012 and attended for two years, short but sweet! I graduated from the school in the class of 2014.

"Choose a study because it's something you're genuinely interested in, and don't hesitate to change paths if it turns out it's not."

After finishing school, I wasn't yet sure what I wanted to study so I took a gap year. I met with Ravelle (a friend I had met at AICS) in Vietnam for 2 weeks and from there continued to travel by myself for 3/4 months. After that I studied Economics at Erasmus for a couple of months but quickly realized that it was nothing for me so I stopped and got a job in a restaurant. The next school year I started at Hotelschool the Hague and graduated from there in 2021. After that, I wasn't too excited about doing a Masters degree but wanted to learn more about the digital world so I went on to do a traineeship in "growth hacking" (digital marketing) at the Talent Institute, which I finished in 2022.

I am currently still living in Amsterdam and still frequently see some of the friends I made at the AICS. In May, I started as an "Online Range Specialist" in the Ecommerce team at IKEA NL. My role, in a nutshell, is to deliver the best possible customer journeys on the IKEA NL website so that our customers are happy and to make sure we reach our sales targets. I previously worked for over a year as a consultant, so I am really loving diving deeper into the ins and outs of a brand and company as well known as IKEA. 

One of my fondest memories was the InSite trip to Enkanini, South Africa. More specifically, I remember the first couple nights when we slept outside on the beach under the stars as well as dancing/singing with the kids in Ekanini. At school itself, I always loved the break times we had in the "DP room", whether we were laughing, dancing, listening to music, studying, late for class, being told off or extremely stressed before our IB exams, there was always someone around to share the moment with.

Although some may have it very clear, it's normal to not know exactly what your career will look like and that's okay, choose a study because it's something you're genuinely interested in, and don't hesitate to change paths if it turns out it's not. And most importantly: HAVE FUN! Looking back,  I was really focused on how many points I would get for my IB, if I would make the right decision for my university etc, and yes that's also important, but don't let it get in the way of making good memories with the people around you, some will become your best friends for life so cherish the moments that you're able to see them every day!