Building experience together
Employeneurs Peter van Gemert and Menno Verborg have known each other since their university days, when they studied Industrial Automation and then graduated together. Today, they even share the same mentor at TMC. We spoke to them about how they support and encourage each other.
Peter began working at TMC in 2017 and when TMC asked him if he knew anyone who would fit well within the organization, he immediately thought of Menno. “Menno and I are cut from the same cloth. We are both highly driven people,” Peter says. “When Peter approached me about coming to work at TMC, I was already in contact with another agency,” Menno says. “My first reaction was that I was not looking for a new challenge.” At that time, Menno wanted to do a training course to expand his knowledge, but thanks to Peter’s enthusiasm, he decided to talk to TMC’s account manager Marco Haasjes after all. “It was immediately clear from the questions Marco asked me that he really values people’s personal ambitions. He asked me how I wanted to develop myself and what I needed in order to achieve that. I immediately got a good feeling about the organization.”
After Menno joined the team, he and Peter took on the same technical mentor, who prepares them for real situations within their field. Peter: “Thanks to the experience of our mentor, we receive practical and valuable feedback on any mistakes we’ve made. This is enormously instructive, and we can apply these learnings immediately in our daily work with our customers.” Menno continues: “Thanks to the sessions with our mentor, I’ve noticed that my self-confidence is increasing. I am not yet a senior engineer, but I have made great leaps forward recently. We’ve also learned that we don’t have to compare ourselves with senior engineers – we’ll build ourselves up to that level of experience in time.”
“Other TMC Employeneurs give us advice about how we can deal with difficult situations."
It’s not just their mentor’s experience that benefits Peter and Menno. Whenever they are facing a challenge in their work, they also appreciate advice from their colleagues. Menno: “Other TMC Employeneurs give us advice about how we can deal with difficult situations. Ultimately, it's all about our future and we want to continue our development. A change of project can also support that.”
Right now, Peter is working on a project at D&M Vacuum systems and Menno is working at DAF Trucks as an electrician in the fault repair service. Alongside these projects with their own customers, Peter and Menno are enjoying the freedom they have to work on other projects. For instance, a new machine will soon be installed in the Entrepreneurial Lab at the head office of TMC, and the pair are eager to get their hands on it and explore new ways to develop themselves. Peter: “Students at my former school are building the machine. TMC has provided a budget for materials. These students are working on a cool project, and we can use the machine for testing and programming, as well as expanding our skills. Other departments that do not regularly deal with software can also broaden their horizons using this machine. Menno and I both have a huge work drive. We get a lot of energy from projects like these!”