Together with the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies we are exploring the diversity of career paths out of academia and into the city within the webinar series 'Urban Work': This time with Dorthe Nielsen (EUROCITIES) & Jens Aerts (BUUR and independent urban consultant)! We discuss critical but concrete reflections on urban work opportunities and labour markets in different cities: from personal and professional decision-making processes over project scales to the marathon of urban work. 

Dorthe Nielsen is executive director of EUROCITIES, the network of 190 larger European  cities working together for a better quality of life locally. Dorthe  supports and advises city authorities to reinforce their role and  influence at EU level, including through the urban agenda for the EU,  cohesion policy and the EU budget. She focusses on green and digital  transformation and oversees the delivery of the wider strategic  framework of the network and its longer term goals for urban  collaboration. This also includes to overall coordination of activities  between the network’s 40 specialised working groups and six thematic  fora. She joined EUROCITIES in 2011 from the Greater London Authority’s  EU office and previously worked at the Secretariat General of the  European Commission.

Jens Aerts is associate partner at BUUR - Bureau for  Urbanism, specialized in sustainable urban development programs and  policies. Most recently he has been supporting international development  agencies, such as UN-Habitat, UNESCAP, UNICEF and the World Bank.  Jens  has been teaching at the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research of the  Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) from 2011 until 2016. He holds a MSc in  Civil Engineering and Architecture from the University of Leuven  (Belgium) and obtained his MA Urban Planning at Universitat Politecnica  de Catalunya in Barcelona (Spain). He is member of the Board of the  Flemish Spatial Planning Organisation (VRP) and the International  Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP).