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​Determining your career path at TMC

At TMC, you are in the driver seat of your career. Our Employeneurs like to be challenged continuously. We stimulate this as much as possible; entrepreneurship is in our blood after all. The combination of our culture, and the fact that TMC has a partnership with Atlassian, were reasons for Jaap van Oostaijen to take a job at TMC Application Lifecycle Management.

From being at the client fulltime to a consultant position

Jaap started working at TMC six years ago. He started working at the client full-time to support them in implementing Atlassian software such as Jira, Confluence and Bitbucket. "Within our business cell, we are constantly looking for the best solutions for our customers. In addition, we also actively look for other possible improvements for them within their Atlassian environment," says Jaap. "Apart from the fact that I like working for the client, I also find it interesting to be involved in the development of our ALM cell. Within the cell, Employeneurs are not just hired to participate in the day-to-day operations of our clients. It is also possible to hire consultants for an assignment with a clear deliver target, whereby they contribute to the long-term objectives of the client at a strategic level. In addition, the ALM consultants also develop and provide training.

"I am very happy with the role I now have. I'm learning a lot about other skills outside my field, without losing sight of the technology."

One of the reasons for Jaap to join TMC was the fact that he was able to grow into an ALM and Atlassian consultant role. Concretely, this means that Jaap is now helping clients at a strategic level by applying the knowledge he gained at previous projects. Instead of maintaining and improving an existing Atlassian environment, he is now at the very start of the implementation. Consulting clients, so that their way of working and processes are configured in the tooling that best suits them, ensures that Jaap has a lot of impact. Something he gets a lot of satisfaction from.

"When the client's expectations have, once again, been exceeded, I am really proud to be part of this great group of professionals."

Together with his business manager, Jaap decided that he would also focus more on the strategic matters within the ALM cell. By taking an important role in the sales process and developing the market proposition, his role has become more commercial. But commerce is more than just the sales process, it also includes spotting new trends in the market or determining the ideal skill set of the next ALM Employeneur. "Although I don't see myself as a commercial person, I am very happy with the role I now have. I'm learning a lot about other skills outside my field, without losing sight of the technology," says Jaap.

Gaining knowledge as an advantage for all parties

Since Jaap was focusing more on consultancy, he obviously couldn’t spend as much time at his project as before. In the beginning this caused some resistance, but they soon realized that it also brings some new opportunities. “Of course, clients like you to be available 40 hours a week. But if you end up working a day less, but come back with more knowledge and experience, they quickly see the benefits,” says Jaap. “Another advantage is that other ALM Employeneurs can help this client is they face certain issues. We have 15 consultants with different specializations in our business cell, we can hereby help clients with a large variety of challenges. That is what, for me, makes TMC ALM special. We always look for the best solution for our clients. The creative process that comes with it has become more and more fun for me. When you hear at the end of an assignment that the client's expectations have, once again, been exceeded, I am really proud to be part of this great group of professionals”.

"Many activities are organized within the group. For example, an evening of bowling, a BBQ and every quarter there is a 'beer and burgers' evening."

Sharing knowledge and experiences

TMC ALM is a close group of professionals from all over the world. At least once a month they all gather for a few hours to share knowledge and experiences. If someone in the group is faced with a complex situation, they always know how to reach a colleague who can help. "Because we are consultants of one of the largest Atlassian partners in the Benelux, our clients always expect us to be up to date with the latest trends and developments. By individually acquiring a lot of knowledge and sharing it with each other, we can continue to meet this expectation," Jaap explains. In addition to the monthly meeting and daily contact with each other, many activities are organized within the group. For example, an evening of bowling, a BBQ and every quarter there is a 'beer and burgers' evening.

The partnership with Atlassian

In 2013 TMC established a partnership with Atlassian. Since that time TMC ALM has grown into one of the largest Atlassian partners in the Benelux. Atlassian is originally an Australian company that makes software that teams can work with. Atlassian focuses completely on developing and improving its products. They have outsourced the implementation, support and knowledge transfer of the tooling to partners such as TMC ALM. Originally the company focused mainly on software development teams, but in recent years there has also been a growth towards IT/Service and business teams. Some of the best known Atlassian products are:

  • Jira Software: an issue and bug tracker where Agile teams can monitor their project progress.
  • Jira Service Desk: the service portal solution for (IT) service, after sales or customer success teams.
  • Confluence: the wiki and knowledge management solution form Atlassian.
  • Bitbucket: a Git repository manager for code quality and version control.

In the past few years, a good foundation has been laid for the ALM cell. In the coming period, the focus will be on further expanding this success formula. Sharing experiences, building even more knowledge and surprising customers with the refreshing insights of our specialists. For more information about our services and our vacancies, please visit www.tmcalm.nl.

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