My first year on the job by Jordi Sel

After 5 years of college,  it was finally time to start looking for a job. A couple of weeks after graduation I started receiving multiple offers from different data-driven companies. One of those offers came from Wim (cofounder of Cubis), he invited me to have chat about my options. After my meeting with Jeroen and Wim, I decided to have a follow-up meeting with Chris. He explained to me all the big data projects they were working on. I was sold, without any hesitation, I signed my contract then and there.

The first two months:

On September first the day had finally arrived. Together with 4 other colleagues, we started our SAP training program. But first, we received all our necessary equipment, a car and a laptop. After a short introduction to the company and each other, it was already time to go home.

The second day we got started with the SAP landscape. We had a lot of information to go through in only two months! Luckily the other consultants within Cubis were there to guide and help us. These two months were filled with all sorts of different trainings. We had some BW, Hana, Analysis for excel, powerbi, webi, BO,…. It allowed us to get familiar with all of these different subjects and simultaneously gave us some hands-on experience.

Each subject was touched upon by a different consultant who had a lot of experience with the subject at hand. This ensured us that we had the best possible teachers for the job whilst also giving us the opportunity to meet all of our colleagues. Not everybody had to give a training to the newcomers. Not to worry, every once in a while we also have evening sessions. At these sessions we share different views on certain topics. We have the opportunity to meet our colleagues there as well.

My first customer!

After a short interview at the client, I had the job! To my luck, Borealis is located within walking distance of my house. At Borealis they were using a combination of SAP Hana and SAP BW. This gave me the opportunity to learn about the day to day usage of these reports. Most of the standardized reports were setup in Analysis for Excel. I had the chance to really dive deep into Analysis for Excel. After a couple of months, they asked me to give training in this program. This allowed me to go to Sweden and Finland to train its business users.

My next customer wasn’t so close by. Now I have to go to Daikin in Brussels every day. But I am glad that I am able to work with multiple companies. This allows me to get familiar with the different cultures within companies. The two companies I’ve been to so far had completely different cultures, very fascinating to see.

Apart from the different cultures, there are of course differences in software. For example, at Daikin I learned a lot about Webi. Their infrastructure and backups are also set up completely different. The day to day operations and tasks also differ a lot because of the nature of the business environment. At Daikin we work very closely with the business users. This gives us an extra layer of understanding the business.

Side activities at Cubis

Although working confiscates most of my time, we also organize a lot of different side activities. Last year we went to Ibiza with the whole company. We went to the beaches and a club, overall a nice way to unwind during the weekend. We also had a small trip to Lisbon with some colleagues. In March 2020 there will also be a skiing trip.

In Conclusion, I think it’s safe to say that I had a lot of fun during my first year at Cubis. I have learned a lot about company cultures, all sorts of software and expanded my network whilst doing all this. I think I made the right choice when I signed my contract with Wim and Jeroen last year. Cubis has a lot to offer, from a bunch of knowledge to just some nice colleagues to have a drink with. It’s been quiet an interesting year and I’m curious to see what the future will bring me.

Blog by Jordi Sel