Het ontwikkelprogramma van Young IMPROVEN: de ervaringen van Nynke en Meggy

Starting in the Young IMPROVEN development programme means learning in practice and developing yourself as a consultant. Nynke and Meggy, two colleagues with a data background, each follow a different path within the programme. Their stories reveal how Young IMPROVEN is set up, which assignments they work on and how, as consultants themselves, they take the initiative to broaden their assignments....

Starting in the business track with a data background

Nynke has now been working at IMPROVEN for a year and a half and is almost finished with her development programme. She follows the business track, but has a clear data background from her studies in Marketing Analytics and Information Management. While scrolling the internet, she came across IMPROVEN's vacancy and specifically the development programme immediately appealed to her.

Starting simultaneously with her batch felt good right away, especially as the kick-off soon followed. “In those first weeks I had spoken to everyone briefly, but during the kick-off you really get to know each other better. That immediately made it more personal.” The combination of professional, soft-skills and peer review training helps her develop broadly as a consultant. She immediately translates the insights she gains there to the customer's practice, allowing her to recognise situations faster and act in a more focused way.

In early January, Nynke started on her first assignment at a large organisation within the energy sector. Initially, she was deployed as a data analyst/data engineer with a clear focus: mapping and improving the quality of IT processes, with an emphasis on Power BI and dashboarding.

Over time, her role became increasingly broad. Besides dashboards, she now works with Power Automate and Power Apps to design and automate processes more intelligently. By spotting opportunities herself and taking initiative, her role grew into a full-fledged data function within the team. “What started with building dashboards has grown into a versatile role in which I am given more and more responsibility.”

She now runs full time and even teaches internal Power BI training courses.
Soon, Nynke will complete her development programme and move to the Data & AI department. This will allow her to develop further in the data field, with the experience she has now gained.

The first batch of the Data Project

Meggy is part of the very first data project within IMPROVEN's development programme. With her background in Marketing Analytics and Marketing Management, she was looking for a role at the intersection of data and business. She already knew Nynke from her student days in Tilburg and joined IMPROVEN herself about a year later. Her choice of IMPROVEN was deliberate: “Many development projects felt impersonal, but at IMPROVEN it immediately felt warm and involved.”

Meggy, too, experiences her batch as a pleasant and diverse group to work with. The mix of colleagues and the open atmosphere make the training sessions enjoyable.

Meggy currently works at a large public organisation. What began with the
supporting system issues, grew into an assignment in which she developed increasingly data-driven solutions. She built dashboards for
management information and is now developing an application to enable capacity planning
improve. In doing so, she takes initiative herself: “I saw a need in the customer and acted on it myself. That makes my work extra fun.”

Room for initiative and development

Both Nynke and Meggy experience that IMPROVEN offers space to discover your own direction. From day one, you actively work on your own development and are immediately put to work in the field. Besides training, you mainly learn by doing: at clients, in internal projects and together with colleagues.

This makes the development programme not only a starting point, but above all a good basis for your further development as a consultant.