Young professional Tjardo wasn't sure about his career path right after graduating. Understandable, with an overflowing inbox full of recruiters and insufficient experience to choose a clear direction. After thorough exploration, he found his way to Solid Professionals. With the guidance from his talent manager and his full-time traineeship at MN, he discovered his passion for actuarial work. "It's definitely not boring!"
Tjardo has been working as a young professional at pension administrator MN for almost a year now. As a recent graduate, he found it quite difficult to choose a job. "After studying Mathematics and Physics, I first started to orient myself online. The offer was quite overwhelming, there were many companies and therefore also many vacancies. That's why I thought it was important to take my time to research properly," says Tjardo.
He eventually ended up at Solid Professionals through his girlfriend. "She had been following a traineeship through us for some time and always talked very enthusiastically about her work. We did the same study, and the way of working at Solid Professionals - with a lot of attention for personal development - sounded like a good match for me as well," says Tjardo.
Getting to work directly hands-on at a client, but with personal guidance, that seemed like a good fit for Tjardo. "It is unique that, as a starter, you have a talent manager outside your employer watching your development. I also feel that with this traineeship I have more room to explore what I really like to do, because you start working directly for the client. With other traineeships I had the feeling that you did more internally at the placement company and therefore learned less in practice.
You can read a job description, but you never know exactly what it is like until you actually work somewhere. Then it is nice that Solid Professionals supports you in that. You are well prepared for your position, together you investigate what really suits you and where your ambitions lie."
After a successful introduction, Tjardo and recruiter Esther began the search for a job that truly suits him. “When the vacancy for the Advice and Actuarial department at MN came up, we prepared the application together. I received tips on what questions to expect, things I could ask them during the interview, as well as more substantive information about the company itself. This way, I knew exactly who I would be facing in the interview. That gave me the confidence that I was ready for the conversation.”
The preparation paid off, resulting in a new job! “Now I am a trainee policy advisor/actuary at MN. An actuary deals with calculating and evaluating risks with financial consequences. During my onboarding, I quickly discovered that my passion lies in the Actuarial department. This led me to enroll in the actuary training, a kind of pre-master for the European Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), at the Actuarial Institute. I checked with my talent manager Tim and my manager at MN if it was possible to combine this education with my traineeship, and it was!
With his personal training budget from Solid Professionals, Tjardo was able to cover a significant part of the training costs. “A year ago, I had no idea that I wanted to become an actuary, but it turns out to be a perfect fit for me. It’s funny how things unfold when you really start working after your studies.
"My days are very variable," says Tjardo. "Some days I work on projects such as converting data from Excel to programming languages, and sometimes I just spend a lot of time in meetings." What does Tjardo like about his work? He doesn't have to think long about that. "I like the challenge when things get complicated; it's like solving a puzzle for me," he says.
"One of my projects was the recovery plan for pension funds, which has to be submitted every year. That was quite tough, because I had to read all the way into an already existing and quite complex model to make the necessary calculations. But when I now see that the result of our work is on the website of the pension fund we work for at MN, I am quite proud of that."
The pension transition is in full swing, which also affects Tjardo's work. "It's fun to be part of that, but also exciting at times. The discussions about how we will continue our work are interesting, but can also get spicy. I have discussed with my talent manager how I can properly substantiate my opinion at times like that so that I contribute to the conversation."
"At first, a pension fund may not sound like the flashiest company to work for, but it has pleasantly surprised me," he continues. "I have substantively challenging assignments, and because my colleagues have been in the business longer, I can learn a lot from them. So it's definitely not boring!"
Tjardo sees choosing the traineeship as a good choice. "I like it very much, just as I expected. I've also really noticed benefits from the trainings I took at Solid Professionals for my personal development. The training course Secure Base (about being challenged in a safe environment) stood out for me. With a group of young professionals you get to know each other well that day, which is nice because you have all just started your first job and are therefore in the same boat.
In the monthly meetings with his talent manager Tim, Tjardo has the space to spar about his career and personal growth. "Because it's an extra pair of eyes watching your growth, you can be challenged to think about questions you hadn't thought about at all, such as: what do you actually want to achieve for yourself, besides just doing your job? For example, the conversations also made me aware of the importance of asking for feedback. Applying this has given me more connection with my colleagues, and created more openness."