Be You. Be Like Jasper Balster

Looking for an internship, Jasper found out that it was quite difficult to get into a game studio as an intern, while the business community was eager to use his skills. "I was trained to create 3D visualisations. ICT Group was working on a visualisation of a container terminal. That was an internal project, intended as a showcase for trade shows. That project had been on hold for a while due to lack of time and expertise. I was allowed to pick it up and went to the Terminal Operations Conference with the digital twin we developed. There we showed potential customers: this is what you can do with a digital twin and this is what is involved if we were to develop something like this for you."

Different form of visualisation

The internship was successfully completed and ICT Group offered Jasper a job. At the time, they were looking for a front-end developer for a long-running project at a big supplier of, among others, compressors and vacuum solutions. "In that project, hundreds of thousands of devices worldwide are being connected to the cloud. My job is to analyse all the data and provide insight to both customers and service engineers at the organisation. Of course, these are completely different visualisations than in the digital twin project, but ultimately you are working on the same topic: how do I make sure the customer is presented with the right information in the right way, so they can make better decisions."

Participating in a large and complex project

It was quite an experience, coming from school, to suddenly be involved in such a large and complex project, says Jasper. "Fortunately, I was well taken care of by my team. Because let's be honest: I have a background in Software Engineering, but working on such a big project involves so much more. I had great support from my colleagues, which helped me learn a lot in a short time."

Jasper has now been working on the project for a year and a half, and because some experienced colleagues have recently moved on to another project, he is suddenly one of the more senior staff who know a lot about the environment. "That's a crazy sensation though. I have actually just started working and I am already given so much responsibility. That does show how much I have learned and how fast things can go," he says with a big smile on his face.

Former fellow student introduced via Referral programme

So it was not surprising that he brought a former classmate, who was less happy going to work, to ICT Group through the referral programme. "He now works in my team, albeit on a different project, but we see each other regularly."

That this former classmate is as enthusiastic about ICT Group as Jasper himself does not surprise him at all. "This is an incredibly fun company with many opportunities. We work on so many diverse projects for so many different types of clients. From embedded software to the cloud, and from the port to healthcare. You can go in any direction here. Personally, I would really like to go back to the 3D side, for example making visualisations for the HoloLens. Although I like front-end development much more than I initially thought. Well, I don't have to decide anything yet, because for now I'm only getting more and more responsibility on my current project. I'm far from finished in this place."

ICT Group is looking for you

Would you also like to work in an environment where you continuously develop yourself and determine your own career path in the process? Then take a look at our traineeships. Is there one that does not suit you? No problem, you can always e-mail Jiska Gunthardt for an open application!

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