1. How do you start your working day?
I always start the day with a cup of coffee. Before I start, I try to read a meditation from “The Daily Stoic” and a chapter from the book I am currently working on.
After this, I look at my diary and to-do list to make an overall plan for the day. I start up my laptop and start reading and answering emails. I also check which appointments I have and whether I need to prepare anything for them.
2. What are your activities on a day?
I work on multiple projects and tasks throughout the day. I often try to bundle tasks for the same project or client, but this is not always possible. I regularly switch activities because someone has a quick question or there are several things that are urgent.
The tasks I deal with, for example, are working out specifications for new customers or making proposals to further improve our products. In addition, I make estimates for the work. I also answer many e-mails and phone calls in a day and often attend meetings. To know the status of our systems well, I monitor the state of affairs so that I can intervene where necessary.
So I have many different tasks. If I want to concentrate on something, I turn everything off. I always want to know everything that happens and I often have an opinion on it. I do see the fact that there are only 24 hours in a day as a problem. After all, there is always something to do!
3. Which project or final product to which you contributed makes you proud?
I am proud of the Optimise platform and everything around it. With this platform, we support various Touch projects and work for many clients. It is satisfying to see something that I helped conceive work in practice.
4. What makes your job so enjoyable?
The variety and contact with customers is what makes my job so much fun. I like to be busy in the breadth across the product and I can do that now. From specifications to implementation to testing. From small customers to large customers and in various sectors.
I enjoy understanding what the customer really wants. Sometimes a customer comes with a question, but that question is not always the real problem they want to solve. Finding out what the real problem is and solving it gives satisfaction and a satisfied customer.
What I also get satisfaction from is figuring out the cause of any problem. It is often a matter of adjusting a few lines of code after a long search. This is like detective work and that is why solving the problem gives me a good feeling.
