Our Three-Step Approach
Discover how to align your career with your passions and market opportunities effectively.
Understanding your preferences
With the help of a unique personality assessment tool, the AEM-Cube®, you learn to articulate what your own preferences on the job market are.
Understanding the job market
We show you how to make sense of the bewildering array of jobs available out there, giving you practical tools at hand to break down its complexity.
Knowing both your preferences and the market, we help you match the two and develop a far-sighted career strategy.
Finding your career mission
Who We Are
Sikko Onnes has seen the job-market dilemma of new graduates on their first steps into the world of work from more perspectives than anyone. First, back in the 1970s, as a graduate in business economics from the University of Rotterdam, he embarked on an international career in logistics and retailing. During his second career, as a partner of the executive search firm Egon Zehnder, he came face to face with the job market in all its bewildering breadth. Over the course of 30 years with the firm, he supported hundreds of people, as they wrestled with their own versions of the job-market dilemma. He set up a highly acclaimed University of Amsterdam course, first for master’s students and then for older MBA participants. He turned his extensive experience in a book from which anyone in – or about to enter – the working world can benefit. Sikko is already the co-author of a publication about a special case of the job-market dilemma: that of top sports people preparing for a second career (based on his involvement with organisations such as the Dutch Olympic Committee).
Sikko Onnes
Ron Soonieus
Ron Soonieus may be the living embodiment of The Job-Market Dilemma. He studied international management and business administration at the University of Huddersfield and is now in his fifties… but still hasn’t discovered what he wants to be when he grows up. Instead, he has built himself the ultimate portfolio career, covering the entire spectrum of the working world. He started his career with a small, local Dutch firm. Very quickly realising this was not for him, he joined a large telco company, an ICT company and then a bank, before leaving to work for himself. Ron subsequently evolved into a strategy consultant and non-executive board member for a range of organisations. Today, his main professional focus is on integrating sustainability into corporate strategy and governance, topics on which he advises, teaches and writes. As well as working on Sikko’s programme at the University of Amsterdam, he is a Senior Advisor with Boston Consulting Group and a Director in Residence at INSEAD, the most international of the world’s top business schools.
Remon Jasperse
Remon Jasperse graduated just a few years ago – with dual master’s degrees in business and economics from the Universities of Groningen (the Netherlands) and Fudan (China). He initially met Sikko when organising a careers event for fellow students, and the pair hit it off immediately. Sikko became a mentor in Remon’s quest for a first job, and Remon, in turn, became a trusted sounding board for Sikko’s ideas – a relationship that grew into a lasting friendship. Remon is an enthusiast. His own dilemma was that he didn’t know which of his passions to follow – whether to join a supply chain graduate programme, venture into strategy consulting or pursue a finance role. By applying the structured approach set out in this book, he was able to see the advantages, disadvantages and long-term implications of a whole range of options. Remon successfully secured his job in management consulting at KPMG Canada and, a few years in, feels confident he is on the right track. He is now informally supporting his friends and colleagues with their own career dilemmas, passing on the learning and applying the structured approach that served him so well. In fact, it was he who initially pitched the idea of a book to Sikko and Ron. As Remon says, the ideas are so valuable that they deserve a much, much wider audience.
This book helped me cut through the many different ways the job market can be approached and focus on how my own personality truly matters for my career path.
Bora - London
★★★★★
★★★★★
Navigating Your Career is a fresh and practical guide for young professionals trying to find their way in today’s job market. Instead of the usual “just follow your passion” advice, it takes a more down-to-earth approach, looking at how career paths have changed over time and what success really means.
Jeroen - Utrecht
★★★★★
“Navigating Your Career” is an eye-opening read for any young professional. It doesn’t just give career advice—it helps you become more aware of the decisions you’re making and how they shape your future. The book breaks down key career moves in a way that makes you think strategically, rather than just reacting to opportunities as they come. If you want to take control of your career with confidence and clarity, this is a must-read!
Pieter - Utrecht
★★★★★
What an easy to read and inspiring book! Very valuable to professionals earlier in their career.
Bert-Jan - Den Haag
Get in touch
Have questions or feedback? We’d love to hear from you. Reach out anytime.
sikko@onnes.nu