As a departing Member of Parliament, how do you find a position elsewhere?

No fewer than eighty politicians said goodbye to the House of Representatives after the most recent elections. More than half were not eligible for re-election. For 32 people who did hope for re-election, the result was a downer. They have to look for a new job from one day to the next.

How do you approach that if you have been active in politics for decades? Or if you have given up a career at a law firm or healthcare institution for parliamentary membership? Who is actually waiting for you?

These are questions that Rutger Koopmans (65) has received from dozens of office holders in recent years. As a career advisor, he assists departing MPs – but also ministers and business leaders – in their search for a new position. He can draw on his own career progression. As a banker at ING, he surrendered his contract in 2008 to take a plunge into the deep. Now he wants to pass on his lessons from that period. He wrote the book about his experiences as a career coach On to a position elsewherea quip to the infamous note about the position that MP Pieter Omtzigt (then CDA, now NSC) should be assigned in the cabinet negotiations in 2021 according to VVD and D66.

Politicians are often asked what they can actually do

Why do MPs need a career advisor? They’ll find a job soon, right?

“That is a persistent misunderstanding. There are of course cases in which the outside world thinks: how is it possible that you get that job again so quickly. But 95 percent of politicians don’t know where to start. The outside world often does not know what a politician can actually do. People watch very short fragments in the news, or on social media some bickering at the microphone. When applying for jobs, politicians are often asked the somewhat impertinent-sounding question whether they can explain what they can actually do – but that question is actually very logical.”

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When office holders are asked such a question in a job interview, what should they answer?

“You have to know what your narrative is. Many politicians tell an incoherent story during such a conversation, because they do not yet have a clear idea of ​​what they want. I ask them to make concrete what they can actually do. For example, by thinking about five dossiers that they have completed, and what role they played in them. I can name eighty parliamentarians that almost no one knows, but who have done important work for eight years to contribute to digitalization or pension legislation, for example.”

Koopmans himself initially lacked a clear story in 2008. As a political scientist, he had accidentally entered the banking industry and climbed the career ladder. Because he wanted something different, he decided to quit as a top banker. That new dream job would come along naturally, he thought, with his broad network and goodwill in the business world. But a year later he still had nothing. The outside world saw an ex-banker, and they were not very popular in the middle of the banking crisis.

Now Koopmans says he realizes that it was his fault, that he should have prepared a different story for the ‘coffee conversations’ he had.

Johan Cruijff became Koopmans’ savior. As a banker at ING, he had often had contact with the football great, but now Cruijff wanted him as a personal advisor. In the four years that followed, Koopmans assisted him in all business activities and in the power struggle that unfolded at Ajax. Writer Menno de Galan mentioned Koopmans in his book Cruyff’s coup the brain behind the offensive that Cruijff launched at the Amsterdam football club.

In 2011, Koopmans and Cruijff ended their collaboration due to a difference in business acumen. Koopmans then took on consultancy jobs and supervisory positions independently.

In 2019, career advice for office holders and people in top positions was added. He often meets with them in his office in a flex office in Amsterdam South.

What is the first thing you ask a departing MP when he or she walks in?

“How are you? That is a really important question. I speak to MPs who are as fresh as a daisy and want to move on straight away, but also leavers who are at the end of their rope. They worked until the last breath to get a bill through, or campaigned very hard. They just need some rest first.”

Is there a difference between MPs who did not stand for re-election and MPs who do not return due to an election defeat?

“Definitely. The first group has been working on a future after the Chamber work for a number of months. The other may be sitting under the Christmas tree with a bad feeling and not yet sure what 2024 will bring. MPs often have to reconsider who they are and how they are doing, mentally and physically. In the Chamber you sit in a bubble, with its own dynamic. When you step out of there, metaphorically speaking, you no longer have that jacket on.”

Can’t departing MPs rely on the network within their party?

“That is also a misunderstanding, and certainly not my experience. Political parties pay remarkably little attention to departing MPs. After an election result, the focus turns to the newly appointed politicians. It’s beer, bitterballen and looking ahead. Which coalition are we building? Where will we sit in the House of Representatives? Parties are less concerned with the people who were their colleagues until yesterday, or with the question of how they are doing now.”

Is that also something you hear from politicians sitting in this chair in front of you?

“Yes, although they don’t always say it out loud. Parties do a lot of scouting for political talent, but they should also do more about offboarding. As a citizen, it makes me happy when I see people abandoning a promising career for an intermediate step in politics. If we want to keep democracy healthy, we can only appreciate that. But it must be facilitated. If you know in advance that you will not be left to your own devices after four or eight years, more people will want to take that step.”

As a Member of Parliament you specialize in a portfolio, such as migration or agriculture. Is this often also the starting point for the next step in your career?

“I actually hardly come across that. Many people I speak to are curious about what else is out there. Yes, there are politicians who have devoted their hearts to education or healthcare and are returning to it. But there are also people who want something completely new, who want to think outside the box and not focus on the vacancies available. Also because it is difficult to continue doing something in line with your previous portfolio, especially for ministers. They must comply with stricter rules and are not allowed to enter the lobby immediately.”

Does this make it more difficult to mediate as an advisor to ministers?

“Absolutely, there are blockages. Certain professions for which they could put their knowledge and experience to good use will be a no-go area for a while. In the Netherlands we quickly suspect a conflict of interest. These rules have been drawn up to completely eliminate that.”

Do you think these lobbying rules are justified?

“I think they are there for a reason, there will always be some good people suffering because of it. Ministers also know very well where the boundaries are. I’ve never had to argue about it. I have never spoken to the few who violated lobbying rules in the past.”

Politicians receive redundancy pay between their parliamentary work and their new job. Do they need that?

“Waiting pay is absolutely not a pink cloud. Such an interim period is really necessary to find a new job for an office holder. And that is certainly not due to laziness on the part of the politicians. They often want to get back to work very quickly. Time is a very interesting aspect of the guidance process. The new job will come as quickly as possible and as slowly as necessary. That could also take a year.”

What career lesson would you rather have had earlier in your career?

“That at every point in your career, successful or not, you have to think about what else is out there. How nice is the idea that, at the end of your working life, you have given all your talents the opportunity to develop? I wish that for everyone.”

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