Jill Brosens
It has been about 2 years now since I graduated from KU Leuven and the time had come to make the big step into work life, aka building my career. The moment I had been thinking about all my life. "What do I want to be later on?" Difficult question, because no idea....
In all my enthusiasm I started at my first employer as a Due Diligence consultant within Finance but it soon became clear that a world full of numbers and analysis was not for me. I started my search again, hoping to find a company where numbers make way for human contact and support. A company in which everyone is themselves, colleagues become friends and hierarchical norms are exchanged for an atmosphere of group spirit in which results stem from the "Together Everyone Achieves More" principle.
In May, I came into contact with Calibrate. There were quite a few vacancies posted, as the Calibrate Group is in a phase of full expansion. Curious as I am, I applied for not one, but two vacancies at once, as both a position in Sales, and Digital Producer/Project Manager appealed to me. During a nice first meeting with my future colleagues (although I didn't know it at the time), I got the chance to expose all my expectations and interests, but also to be transparent about "no go's" and pain points.
This conversation made it immediately clear that Calibrate cares about its employees. Calibrate strives to see each employee as a person and not a number. That way, each position is personalized to make it as interesting as possible for each individual. Do your expectations/interests change along your career path? No problem, because even then Calibrate tries to provide a shift in your function. Sounds like a great employer, doesn't it? This is also demonstrated by the extremely low staff turnover.
In the end, it turned out that the Sales position matched my wishes the most, so I was super happy when I got a call from Lisa (member of the Sales team) if I wanted to join their team. Duh! 😉
Let me take a moment to make a flashforward in time. We are now in late July and by now I have been working at Calibrate for two weeks. My team has welcomed me warmly and at no point did I feel like "the new one". I get the chance to get to know the Calibrate group cluster and all the services they offer (and there are many!) at my own pace. I can confidently say that I made the right decision to make the switch. Change is sometimes scary, and it was in my case, but it has paid off! Oh yeah, and did I mention that there is fresh bread and fruit every afternoon? And that there is sparkling water from a tap? Sometimes dreams come true 😉 .
Are you also hesitating to make a career switch? Or are you looking for your first work experience? Calibrate is still looking for a lot of talent to join us.
