Bram de Jonge

I have a solid thinking ability and am only too happy to use it. In large amounts of information I quickly discover the relevant patterns and through the noise I find the essential details. Even on vacation my brain needs to be stimulated. Those Sudoku puzzles? I have them in my pocket. 

One-on-one but especially in groups I like to use my communicative skills. In my communication I use the necessary humor because if you make sure you entertain everyone, people are all the more willing to listen! 

Focusing on problems? That doesn’t help anyone, does it? People so often see bears on the road, but where does that get you? My optimism motivates not only myself, but also the people around me. 

I am humorous and optimistic, but no less firm. When a decision has to be made, I do this with self-confidence, I do not overstep my bounds and I am honest yet tactful in telling the other person the truth. 

At War Child Holland, I supported the Human Resource team. There were various projects and ideas that I worked on. War Child Holland works with many offices worldwide, where employees are recruited locally. What platforms can we best use to reach people? And how can we offer them a competitive salary? In addition to recruitment abroad, I also co-wrote the diversity and inclusion policy for recruitment in The Netherlands and also created the framework which the International Management Team can use to best formulate their strategy for the future. These are just a few examples of the projects I contributed to. Because of the large range of tasks, I really learned to come up with my own ideas and work very independently within a team and to quickly find the right people to help me with certain assignments. Everyone in the organization works with the same goal, which is to provide aid for children in war zones. I am really impressed by the drive and passion that everyone has. During the weekly updates with everyone you really noticed how contagious this shared motivation works, it’s extremely inspirational. I am very proud of how I have been able to contribute in so many ways in just a few months!  

As Product Manager in the sales department, I was responsible for the smooth execution of projects concerning the approximately 45 items AkzoNobel sells to an international discounter. I coordinated multiple projects with colleagues across Europe. Think of introducing new products, taking care of new labels, analyzing sales figures and forecasting with the Demand Planner. In short, I was responsible for the proper existence of the items for this customer. Besides the operational tasks, I was also continuously working on making the processes more and more efficient using data analysis. AkzoNobel operates in many countries in Europe, so I was in regular contact with factories and offices in other countries. In addition, there are many departments within the company that needed to be involved in the projects I coordinated. In the beginning it was very challenging to find my way through this, but fortunately I got better and better at this and started to enjoy this dynamic environment more and more. I am proud of how I was able to grow in this large company and how I mastered tasks that were completely new to me.

As the Product Owner of the Azure Platform Team at Nationale-Nederlanden (NN), I was responsible for maintaining a robust cloud infrastructure. The Azure platform is primarily used by international divisions of NN Group, which meant I frequently collaborated with international stakeholders. Although the role required five years of experience and expertise in Azure or cloud infrastructure, I had neither. Nevertheless, I was given the opportunity to take on this role.

In a short period, I was entrusted with significant responsibilities, and I am proud that this steep learning curve did not hinder my performance. The initial pressure gave way to confidence and enjoyment. My time at NN has deepened my interest in IT, and I envision further growth in this field in the future.