Thank you for being here with us today, Gert!
would you mind giving us a brief introduction about yourself?
Hello everyone! My name is Gert van Manen, I`m 52 years old and I`m currently living with my wife and 3 children in Veenendaal. Like many people in the Netherlands, I have a real passion for cycling, but my real passion is barbequing.
I started programming as a hobby in the early 80`s when I was 13 years old by creating simple games like higher lower or sea battle. These simple programs made my choice to become a software developer very easy. Although, I can assure you that the technology was very different back then!
When I finished high school, I decided to start working as soon as possible. After my military service, I began a combination of working and studying (MBO) at a company that specialized in planning software for healthcare. I worked there for about 2 years while learning how to code in Basic and Pascal. Later, I was hired by Zwitserleven, an Insurance Company. Here I worked in various ICT departments for quite some time, almost 20 years.
After a company reorganization, I joined MM Guide via a .Net Training program from Computrain. And here I am, 4.5 years later!
Wow, you are in this field for quite some time! Can you tell us a bit about your roles and responsibilities?
I`m currently working as a software developer, mainly focused on high demand software like
.Net, Angular, and SQL Server.
Thanks to my latest assignments, I also worked with Analysis Server and Power BI.
Since I love to learn new skills and face new challenges, the wide variety of clients cooperating
with MM Guide offers me a great chance for my personal growth. For me is very important to
enjoy my work, and even after 30 years, I don’t see myself doing anything else!
What does an ordinary day at mm guide look like?
Let’s say it`s quite a standard office routine: I usually start to work at 8 a.m. and I wait for my daily stand-ups that are often scheduled around 10 a.m.
During the lunch break, I enjoy a small to reset my mind and get some exercise. Then I go back to work until about 5:30 p.m.
What I appreciate of MM Guide is the trust they give to their employees to self-organize their working hours when they are not working for an external client. Also, the “work-from-home” mindset we had to use during the pandemic was well received by the company and it’s still widely used in the company. Being able to divide the working hours and arrange them to better fit my daily routine is for sure a great improvement in my quality of life.
What I do miss is the contact with colleagues. A Team meeting is quite different from drinking coffee or having lunch together!
Are you close with your colleagues? How is it to work with the other members of MM GUide?
I enjoy the relationship with my colleagues!
Everyone is always ready to help, you can call everyone in the company and be sure that they will assist you in finding the best solution for your problem.
Right now, I`m working very close with Luciano Rossi: we are working together on a .Net project. This is also a great way for me to learn more about this language and catch up with the latest updates. My training was a few years ago and things can change very quickly.
I think this is one example of MM Guide’s culture of “growing its people” something I appreciate about the company. The best aspect is that I was able to choose in which direction I would like to progress; I wasn’t forced to learn what the company wanted, but I choose what I was interested in. If this is not a special work environment, then I don’t know what special means anymore!
This sounds indeed great!
Is there something else you think makes mm guide shine?
Another great trait is the way people interact with each other. No distinction is made, the organization is very horizontal. Every idea is taken into consideration, and it is properly discussed: it doesn’t matter who is talking, everyone is ready and willing to listen and give honest feedback. MM Guide is made by specialists and professionals, and our directors are wise enough to listen to the people they hired to do the job. I think the people working at MM Guide are the real deal: everybody takes the time for you, and they are genuinely interested in how you are doing, both workwise but also on a more human level. Football is always a great topic in the office, and as you can imagine, the rivalry is real.
Thank you very much gert! One final question: why mm guide would be a desirable choice for people looking for a new work place?
Well to summarize a few reasons:
- You have a real opportunity to grow in your work.
- You have the time to learn and become better at what you desire.
- MM Guide is trusted by several multinational companies.
- The people working at MM Guide are a gem and from my first interview, I knew I would feel at home here.
Regarding this last point, I still remember the feeling I had I felt like everything clicked for the both of us like I was meant to work here. I went home, and 30 minutes later I received a call telling me I was hired. It felt so simple that I still can`t believe it!
