A day in the life of Young Improven Consultant Esther at Improven

Young Improven offers young talents the opportunity to seize professional opportunities and kickstart their careers. Especially for Young Improven, Improven has developed an intensive training programme combining professional and skills training, courses and working in projects. In the corridors of Improven, these talents are also called yippers, derived from the abbreviation of the 'Young Improven Programme'.  

 In this article, we take you inside the daily life of Esther (25), Young Improven Consultant at Improven. 

Esther's background  

Esther joined Improven as a consultant through Young Improven colleague Sanne Sattler, whom she knew from her Hotel Management studies. After her studies, Esther was a tour guide abroad and also worked as a trainee at an insurance company. Because Esther missed challenges, she started looking for another job. This is how she ended up at Improven: the combination of the steep learning curve, the flexibility of new assignments all the time, the great atmosphere and the pleasant job interview immediately made her enthusiastic about choosing Improven. She started in October and a few months later, during the official kick-off moment in March, Esther started the Young Improven Programme together with her batch after a great kick-off. 

A typical day? There isn't one!  

"I don't really have a typical day," Esther kicks off. What her days and weeks look like is variable. She really likes that variation, because she likes variety. Generally, Esther tries to be in the office early. She gets up at seven and heads out the door at eight. Then, with a 15-minute drive in her lease car from Improven, she is at the office in Utrecht. At that time of day, the office is still quite quiet.However, Esther's working hours are flexible. Once at the office, she works on her assignments, both internally and for clients. When Esther is not going to Improven's office, she works at home or goes to the client on location. At the moment, she is with a client focusing on certifications in healthcare. This project involves demos for the selection of a new IT system. She regularly attends these demos, which usually last half a day. She also facilitates workshops there. These workshops aim to get a good overview of the organisation's processes and requirements. 

When Esther is not with clients, she works relatively often at the Improven office. Like many other 'Improvers', she finds that there is a good atmosphere where you can work pleasantly and concentrate. At noon, there is always lunch with the entire office. Then Esther continues working, either independently or in meetings. She regularly has coffee with colleagues, to get into the office dynamic. Her day always ends at a different time. In fact, one moment she is busier than the next. When things are a bit quieter, Esther goes for a sport right after work. There are also days when she works at home for a change. 

Fun projects with fun clients  

At the time of this interview, Esther is completing the IT assignment for the organisation that focuses on healthcare certifications. For this project, she advises on an IT application landscape, looking at an IT package selection. How did she approach this? "There was a lot of customisation. First, we organised workshops to map the processes. Then we noticed that all kinds of different systems and applications were being used at this company. We analysed this and figured out how to improve this layout. Based on this, we could eventually advise on package selection." The change in applications has a big impact on a company. This is certainly also true for the company of Esther's assignment, as they had been organising their processes in the same way for a long time. 

Esther does not have an IT background, nevertheless she finds it a very nice assignment and does well there. Besides learning a lot about IT during the training courses within the development programme, she can always turn to Improven's many colleagues from the business IT department for IT knowledge. Besides the IT aspect, the assignment also has a change aspect. Thanks in part to the knowledge and expertise of both the business IT and Projects and Change department, this project was a logical match between Improven and the client. 

Esther's passion to contribute  

Internally, Esther is currently working on several projects. For instance, she is working on organising cooperation with Jobon, an organisation that provides job interview training courses for people distanced from the labour market, among other things. Esther arranges the locations, training courses and communication, enabling Improven employees to give these training courses. This project falls under CSR, corporate social responsibility. Esther has always found such social assignments interesting because it contributes to society. Esther likes the fact that she can and may do this through her work. She also helped organise an internal event, the Improeverij. At this event, each department of Improven gives presentations to the rest of the colleagues, so that everyone gets an insight into the assignments and expertise of other departments. To realise this event, Esther helped with the planning and arranging the location and catering. She is also part of the change management community: an internal initiative of colleagues, which keeps up all professional knowledge in the field of change management and contributes to sharing this knowledge within Improven. She likes being able to think along in this: how can we use this for Improven and how do we share this knowledge within the company? For example, she is now working on ambassadorship of the change management community, allowing colleagues to become ambassadors and also contribute to knowledge sharing. Esther's internal projects, she says, bring fun dynamics and diversity to her work. 

The development programme  

Besides her instructive work with clients, Esther attends training courses belonging to the Young Improven programme. In these, she and her batch of Young Improven consultants receive personal skills and professional training. When she started in October, she still had several months to go before the development programme would start. In fact, Young Improven consultants can start and embark on assignments throughout the year, but the kick-off of the development programme itself is always in March or September. She was really looking forward to the training sessions within the programme. It was also nice to have time to get used to working within Improven and with her clients before the development programme really started. There is afternoon training about once a week. These training sessions also include dinner together. "It is nice that dinner is arranged, and it is nice to eat together with the other Young Improven consultants and get to know each other personally." The Young Improven programme lasts two years, during which she is introduced to all five professional groups within Improven through assignments and training. After the development programme, she chooses one of the subject groups, which can be Financial Management, Business IT, Process Improvement, Projects and Change and Business Risk Services. 

Esther likes the most the training sessions on a personal level. In these training sessions, together with the rest of the batch, you discover everyone's personality and learn more about both your strengths and development points. You also learn how best to cooperate with colleagues with different personalities. This way, you will also know how to put this to good use with clients and deal with certain situations better. "It's great fun to examine yourself, look at your personality profile and discuss this with your colleagues," he says. 

Continuous development  

According to Esther, there is an element of learning in every project. Take, for example, her first project, on which she worked with some very experienced colleagues from Improven. This project involved an investigation into the robustness of financial processes for an executive agency of a ministry. Esther found this very interesting, but it could also be very complicated. "Then sometimes you think, what exactly is it about?" This project was therefore very instructive for her. Now she is working on a project she can put her own spin on. She is also learning a lot from an experienced colleague at Improven with whom she is working on her current project. Esther has already been involved in four customer projects since she started in October. As a result, she gets to know a new organisation each time. She is already looking forward to her next assignment and the new environment that comes with it. 

What she likes about the development programme is that she gets the space to develop herself."You are not yet bound to choose a department. At many other organisations, this is different and you specialise more from the start." In addition, Esther indicates that you can see which assignments interest you and which direction you would like to take. "The variety of assignments allows you to learn a lot and develop yourself continuously. You change assignments every time, which gives you the opportunity to learn something new and discover whether it suits you. If you think something else suits you better, you always get another chance to go and discover that." 

Work and fun  

Esther says that at Improven, you get a lot of say in your own work-life balance. Many fun activities and get-togethers are organised by Improven, but you can decide for yourself whether you join in or not. Esther really enjoys being at many of these activities, but she does not attend everything. She notes that more fun things are organised than she had expected beforehand. In addition, Esther also organised an activity herself. The other day, she went sailing with some colleagues. Normally, the sports committee organises many different sports activities, but the sailing was an initiative of herself and some colleagues who also like sailing. So, apart from the many committees, there is always room for own initiative. Besides the amount of experience Esther gains during her assignments and the training programme, she also works there for the fun and enjoyment. 

In short, at Improven, no two days are the same. Each day offers new experiences, but always contains a combination of challenge, personal growth and connection with colleagues and customers. This makes for a dynamic working environment where starters can develop to their full potential. 

At IMPROVEN, improvement starts with connection. Connection with the client, colleagues and society. We guide organisations in transition at the intersection of Finance, Risk and IT with a special focus on project and programme management, process improvement, information provision and digitalisation.