A day in the life of Young IMPROVEN consultant Jacky at IMPROVEN

Young IMPROVEN offers young talents the opportunity to seize professional opportunities and kickstart their careers. Especially for starting consultants, IMPROVEN has put together an intensive development programme that combines professional and skills training with working on assignments. Within the programme, there are three pathways: Business, Finance and Data consulting and give young professionals the chance to develop and specialise in the field that suits them best.

In this article, we take you inside a working day of Jacky. She follows the Business consulting track of the Young IMPROVEN Programme. 

Jacky's studies and work experience 

Following her bachelor's degree in International Business, Jacky completed the master's Strategy and Innovation completed at Maastricht University. Alongside her studies, Jacky developed into the position of Assistant Operations Manager in her side job. In this role, she discovered her preference for working on a project basis, for example when she had implemented an app. This experience encouraged her to look for a job where she could work intensively in projects, which eventually brought her to IMPROVEN. The development programme immediately appealed to her because of the many interfaces with her studies, such as the fields of Finance, Change Management and Process Improvement.

A warm welcome to IMPROVEN

After her decision to join IMPROVEN, Jacky moved to the Randstad region from Limburg with her partner. Jacky finds it important that her work environment is a close and familiar place. At IMPROVEN, she recognised this and immediately felt at home. This allowed her to start the development programme with a nice feeling. 

Jacky's work as a consultant

Jacky has now been with IMPROVEN for almost two years and has contributed to several projects. She currently holds a PMO position at a large Dutch municipality, where she is supporting the implementation of a new procurement and financial system. She has been able to influence the design of this assignment herself and has already had the opportunity to support various processes. Currently, Jacky ensures that all stakeholders have the right information and data, and organises meetings with all parties involved to this end. The analyses and reports she prepares focus, among other things, on the bottlenecks occurring during the implementation of the system. 

"I had the freedom to design the structure for the approach to the project myself. It's cool to see how that works out in practice ánd to see that it works."

Parallel to this assignment, Jacky is carrying out a consultancy assignment at a foundation that provides help and advice to children and parents in an approachable way. She is doing this assignment together with a senior colleague which allows her to learn a lot from the content but also gives her a lot of space to act on her own. "I had the freedom to design my own structure to approach the project. It's cool to see how that works out in practice and to see that it works." The positive social impact of the assignment at this foundation makes it extra valuable for Jacky. 

A working week full of variety

Every day and every week is different, but often Jacky starts her day by updating an action list so that her colleagues can pick these up and discuss them in an orderly fashion during the daily stand-up. Jacky then tackles other prioritised tasks on a daily basis. She may have to prepare a meeting or a work session. In addition, Jacky keeps thousands of employees of the municipality informed every week. For this, she has to have the data ready and this requires a lot of research.On Mondays, she usually works at home or at the municipality and has a check-in with the client there. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she is often physically present on site and has many team activities in her diary. On Wednesdays, she goes regular towards the foundation, and on Friday comes she loves coming to the IMPROVEN office, where she prefers to end the week at Friday afternoon drinks. 

"Some periods are a bit busier, but it is a very nice experience because you all experience the same thing together."

Gaining knowledge with trainings

Within the development programme, Jacky attends training courses, both professional and personal development. The trainings have given Jacky a better idea of what is possible within the six professional groups of IMPROVEN. The training also gave Jacky a better idea of where her interests lie and allowed her to consider them more consciously. The training that has stuck with her the most is the one on Lean Black Belt. Jacky found this training instructive because in this training you get to work practically via case histories. You attend the training courses with your batch, a group of colleagues who share the same development programme go through. "Some periods are a bit busier, but it is a very nice experience because you all experience the same thing together." 

Jacky's motivation

When Jacky is asked why she likes working at IMPROVEN, she says: "I like the fact that IMPROVEN combines professionalism with fun, so work hard, play hard". This is reflected in the fact that many meetings and sports activities are organised. In addition, Jacky is very involved in IMPROVEN; for example, she is part of the works council and the internal IT strategy working group, for IMPROVEN itself. This gives her insight and influence on business operations as well as the best IT strategy for IMPROVEN.

"I like that IMPROVEN combines the professional with fun, so work hard, play hard."