Building knowledge and long-term friendships

I graduated as an engineer in electronics and IT, with a focus on internet computing. A combination of IT courses and a lot of development gave me both technical skills and a business view on IT systems, solutions, and applications. From there it was immediately into a job with Sogeti when I was contacted about a role as an automation tester. This was an opportunity to combine my knowledge of development and my technical skills with something new — testing.

My journey from that point on has been amazing. After 7.5 years within Sogeti/Capgemini, all in the field of testing, I have continued to broaden my experience. And, while it might only have been 7.5 years, I have worked on so many different projects, for different clients in different sectors, with different technologies and with different people. The volume of experience I’ve gained has been huge. And that’s not all. During this time, some of my colleagues have become my best friends!

Opportunities for training and certification

It’s clear that this has been a journey of both professional and personal growth. Even better, there’s more to come. I’ve not only got an amazing career behind me, but also in front of me as I continue to learn new things both on the job and by taking up the opportunities for training and certification. As well as proving to myself that I have the knowledge I need, certification offers my clients assurance that I can meet their expectations.

Some of these client projects have been pretty high profile. They include an identity and access management system for the European Commission, systems that allow the broadcasting of both text and audio messages for the entire public transport network in Brussels, and a test assessment for a client’s IT organization to provide a view on their current maturity and a roadmap to help them improve.

Choosing your own path

Looking ahead, I am sure many more interesting projects will follow. I don’t know what direction my career will take, but what’s so great is that I can choose what path to follow. At present, I am leaning more towards leadership/managing roles and only time will tell if I’ll keep going in that direction or take up other options. As long as I learn, and along the way help people as much as I can, or even teach them new things, I’ll be happy with my career.

Importantly, it’s up to me to determine the direction in which I want to go. When you’re building a career at Sogeti, you progress at your own pace, making your own decisions about what you want to do. Of course, you’ll be provided with plenty of opportunities and there are always people here to help and assist you on your journey, so you don’t have to do it all on your own.