Three ingredients to influence your own career path

At TriFinance, everything starts with the matching of my needs as a consultant with the needs of a client. First of all, together with the Basecamp team (i.e. the internal support team), we yearly catch up on my interests, my ambitions towards opportunities I want to seize or even the type of business I want to understand better. With the tools available at TriFinance, I am able to map my career path from a retrospective and prospective point of view. I have an overview of the skills and knowledge I should start developing or improve to reach my goal. Then, the Basecamp looks for opportunities that may fit my needs and profile. In addition, thanks to their previous experience in the field, the Basecamp Team is able to give me insights about a position so that I can optimally prepare for the role.

Before starting my last project at ARAG SE, my goals were to take a bookkeeping position to develop my knowledge and skills in Finance and also have the opportunity to increase my responsibilities within a team. ARAG SE – Branch Belgium is an insurance company specialized in legal protection. They needed quick support to take over the activities of the Head of Finance & Administration. The responsibilities linked to the position consisted, among other things, in the following:

• taking ownership of the closing process and reporting activities to the group
• supervising and preparing all tax and fiscal activities
• managing the bookkeeping software and improving its processes
• being in charge of bookkeeping projects

The position was therefore truly in line with my expectations.

While motivation, both from yourself and the client, is not a basic requirement, it is undoubtedly the best accelerator to grow and get the best results for both parties. Therefore, the interview before a project helps to make sure there is a good connection between the consultant and the client, and that their respective motivations will lead to objectives being reached. Since the job description checked all the boxes I wanted, I was definitely motivated to start the mission and benefit from the learning opportunities it offered.

During the interview with ARAG SE, they exposed their short and medium term needs: they needed someone who was able to support the department as well as a key player to introduce improvements and bring added value. Besides that, the ARAG team was ready to invest in a team member who might not have all the required experience but has the willingness to learn and go the ‘extra mile’ together with the team.

The cherry on the cake was that ARAG SE has a comparable culture to TriFinance as they consider the human capital to be their main asset. Hence, the values, mindset as well as the work environment offered an environment prone to personal growth.

Me inc.® stands for ‘Me incorporated’ and Me inc.®’ers are the entrepreneurs of their own talent and ambition. In other words, they take their career in their own hands. As a Me inc.®’er, you can do this by defining your needs or project preferences for example, but also by challenging yourself during the project and sometimes even seizing the opportunity to extend the scope of your project.

ARAG SE expected me to take over activities quickly since there were many deadlines coming up. Besides all the experience and knowledge gained, it was also a nice challenge to grow fast and deliver more than they expected: high quality deliveries, quick wins, process improvement, etc. ARAG SE decided to extend the duration of my mission as well as its scope as they involved me in new internal projects. My responsibilities within the company kept on growing throughout the entire mission.

I am convinced that the path to reach a win-win situation rests on these three steps of matching, motivation and Me inc.®, including a close collaboration between the Consultant, the Client and the Basecamp. In practice, I perceive this process to be an evolving cycle. You go through all the steps and they evolve at each new mission with the choices you make. Finally, as you define your own career path, finding motivation and meaning in your work becomes the logical next step.