Kees ’t Hooft

Born to a Canadian mother and a Dutch father, Kees ‘t Hooft grew up in London. Because of the quality of education, he studied aerospace engineering in Delft. Yet he opted for a traineeship at NN. Kees explains, "I have a lot of experience in aviation, but there are not many options to continue within my specific specialisation. I wanted to develop myself personally and explore. The emphasis NN puts on personal development and the content of the traineeship convinced me."

Teamwork

"What made NN stand out is how much they value people and teamwork. I just came from my master’s thesis, which is a very solitary experience. It made me realise that I work much better in teams." Kees’ preference for teamwork is reflected in his hobbies, one of which is rugby. "The core tenet of my other hobbies, like hiking and climbing, is exploring new places and making friends," says Kees. The Tech traineeship too offers him lots of opportunities to explore and connect with new people.

Tight-knit community

"I am struck by how nice my colleagues are. You can go up to anybody and have a conversation with them. I also have a real connection with the other trainees. We’ve all just started and face the same challenges. It is a real benefit to have a peer group. We discuss things, have lunch, and take part in plenty of social activities."

Structured learning experience

One of the main attractions of his traineeship is the setup of the learning environment. "At university, we had to learn a lot ourselves. My thesis required a lot of coding, which I had to teach myself. I wanted to develop my technical skills further, but in a thought-through, structured manner. The engineering bootcamp at NN covered everything we need to know as a trainee, from IT architecture to cybersecurity and AI."

Kees continues, "What I value even more is the soft skills training that I have received. After just a few weeks into the traineeship, we had our first major training. We learned to self-reflect and give effective feedback, which was useful."

Parallel skills

Kees has worked in Group IT for two months. "I assist a program manager with a huge initiative which will span multiple years, will impact all NN’s business units and has a budget of hundreds of millions of euros."

"In my second project, I investigate how information is shared within projects. All these different stakeholders, from senior management to developers, communicate differently. We aim for a centralised solution to avoid miscommunication."

Not having studied IT does not hamper Kees, as engineers have parallel skills. "Engineers are good at breaking down and resolving complex problems. I quite like these complex organisational structures that must be simplified."

Do what you enjoy

Kees concludes, "I am really surprised at how much freedom we have. I am going back to London to see my family and will be working from home. NN really cares about our welfare and wellbeing. And one of the things I have taken away from the instruction days is: do not try to plan your career far in advance. Instead, do what you enjoy, think short term, and have a fulfilling career."