Ditiosi speaking: Jelte Smits

Jelte, could you introduce yourself briefly?

I am Jelte, 27 years old. I finished my havo after 6 years of vwo, after which I started studying Aviation Operations & Logistics. In short, business administration in aviation. I also work weekends at food truck festivals as a bartender with friends. I am also a ski instructor, like to work out and used to play a lot of field hockey and water polo.

How did you end up at Ditio?

In my final year of college, I had to look for a graduate internship and wanted something different from fellow students who were with an aviation company. One day I was at a party at a good friend of mine, his father was Henk Brouwer, the operations director of Ditio. We struck up a conversation and talked about my graduate internship, among other things. The next morning I found Henk's business card in my jacket pocket and called him to see what was possible. Eventually I was able to start my internship at Ditio and I have been working there for 4 years now.

What role do you fulfill at Ditio?

I work in the consulting industry. We come up with solutions for companies that get stuck in a process. We now see that this is mainly the case with data management, so we are looking at how we can improve those processes. Also in the area of project management, we have some customers that we are going to support and exactly what tool they need for that. So we're making sure everyone is going to work according to a set method so it flows much better through the organization. We at Solutions, in a nutshell, try to help companies work more efficiently and automate where possible.

How did you end up working at Solutions?

I started at PCM, Project Controls Management. I started this because there was a demand for this from a customer and I was interested in a new challenge, I had never done anything like this before and I like learning new things. I ended up doing a lot more than just planning there, I was walking around I the production hall and I was turning nuts and bolts for construction projects. After two years the challenge was kind of gone for me, I wanted to do something new. After that I worked as a planner for the Department of Public Works, and also worked two days a week at Solutions within Ditio. After nine months I knew that working for the government was not for me. Eventually I started working full-time at Solutions. IT, automation, that's where it all came together. I could also gain some project management experience, which is why I made the move.

Eventually we got more and more requests from companies within the fields that we are in, Project Control Management and data Management, to come up with knowledge to figure out other programs that would make the process flow better and so under the name Solutions we started consultancy again under the leadership of Bob de Ligt.

What makes your work at Ditio so enjoyable? 

For me mainly the diversity. I can never spend hours working on the same thing, only when I find it really interesting. I really like the development part of my job, I get the opportunity to develop myself, do courses. Colleagues are of course the most important thing. That is also the reason I have been here for four years. I have simply built up a very good relationship with colleagues. I even go on vacation with some of them.

What is the most fun project you've done at Ditio? 

I think this was during my graduate internship. Then I introduced a feature of Exact Online, a software program for financial administration and invoices, to Ditio. I like it so much because I see it is still being used at Ditio today and we are still connecting things to it. I also set it up completely at the beginning and showed people how to use it and trained them. I think that's the most fun project I've done. I also have fun projects going on now but I notice that that project still has an impact on Ditio, which is nice to see.

What is a memorable moment within your career at Ditio? 

That I became employee of the year 2021. Every year at the Christmas party, employee of the year is announced, which is someone who has dedicated themselves in some way that was of high value to the organization. In my case for, among other things, the attendance app I launched. My involvement in the organization, even little things like cleaning the dishwasher, parties and just showing that I was there for the organization.

How do you envision your future at Ditio? 

I do eventually want to go into the project management side, but right now I still find it a little too interesting to get into everything we do myself. For example, I am now learning programming, I want to be able to do that myself and just know what we are actually doing. I also got my project management certificate so I know the processes in that as well. I would also like to do something more with that later and just have my own team under me to manage. That's the future I see for me.

Would you like to work with us just like Jelte? Then feel free to contact us. We would love to have a cup of coffee with you! Curious about our current vacancies? Check ditio.nl/vacancies.