bloom: Gerline Gheysens
Life moves fast for Gerline Gheysens. After completing her master's degree in Commercial Engineering in Policy Informatics, she immediately joined Flexso where she quickly developed into a project manager and functional consultant. Yes indeed: Gerline wears two hats in her job. "I want to be the link between two worlds." 🚣🏻♀️🏠✈️
The human bridge
After completing her economics-mathematics degree, Gerline quickly knew what she wanted to do. "I wanted to do something business-related anyway, but pure sales didn't appeal to me," she says. "I wanted to form the link between business and IT. From our business and IT subjects, I felt that those two fields often had different views and sometimes even spoke a different language." The direction she chose? "Policy informatics," sounds the answer. "There I would get both economics and computer science, precisely meant to form the link between the two."
"From our business subjects and IT subjects, I felt that those two fields had different views and sometimes even spoke a different language."
Although her high school saw it differently at the time. "I was told that I wouldn't be able to do it because the math and sciences were very tough anyway," she looks back. But that was beyond Gerline's willpower as well as her parents' support. "Who doesn't dare, doesn't win, my parents said. I just tried and succeeded!" she laughs.
Because clearly Gerline proves herself when she has to. "I was later in India at consulting boot camp, as the only woman. The director there kept skipping me in the conversation and only looked at the men. Until I said something myself or asked a question, which made him realize that I knew what I was talking about after all."
Two hats - two passions
Gerline grew at Flexso to become a functional SAP consultant and not much later she also took on her role as project manager. A combination of different roles, each with its own appeal. "In project management, my structured and organized side comes in very handy," she explains. "It also gives me enormous satisfaction to help the team move forward in this way."
As a functional consultant, she can use other strengths. "There I am more on the technical side, without having to dive too much into the details and code. I can completely immerse myself in it and completely forget about the world around: I go all out to find the solution to the problem," she laughs.
"As a functional consultant you focus on the 'now,' as a project manager you think about the future."
Whether she would ever combine both roles in one project? "No, it's too difficult to combine," sounds decided. "As a functional consultant, you focus enormously on the 'now': this is the problem, this is what I have to work out now. As a project manager, on the other hand, you think more about the future. In that role, if you focus too much on the 'now,' you're mainly putting out fires and putting off future-oriented tasks."
Gerline is quite proud that she was able to start as project manager so quickly, she tells us. How did she go about it? "I indicated that I was up for that, but it was mainly Flexso itself that offered me that opportunity. So I was allowed to work with a project manager who involved me in everything as much as possible. She believed in me and so I was already allowed a taste of what the job entailed."
In the same boat
Gerline also sees a parallel between her job and her hobby, rowing, which she has practiced for as many as eight years. "As in my job, rowing is a team sport. You're all in one boat and you have to be in tune with each other and row at the same pace to get ahead."
And in rowing, too, she often wears two different hats, we learn. "I'm often at the very front of the boat. In that role, you take charge and set the rhythm. You can compare that to what a project manager does," she explains. Sometimes she also sits at the back of the boat, she continues. "At the back of the boat, you help support the team and have the most overview. That way you can also coach people. If there are less experienced rowers, for example, it's nice for them to learn something that way."
"In the meantime, I was also allowed to do internship mentoring and conduct various training sessions."
She can also use her talent as a coach at Flexso. "I had been working at Flexso for less than a year when I was already allowed to give training courses," she relates. "Meanwhile, I was already allowed to do internship coaching and give various trainings. I enjoy helping other people and learning something."
Whether she will ever choose between the two roles, we ask her. "I think I will eventually. When I do something, I want to be able to immerse myself in it 100% and do it really well. That won't happen if I keep doing both. In the long run, I want to choose the role in which I can teach people something and which gives me the most satisfaction," she echoes.
The future beckons
Of course, we also sound out Gerline's ambitions and further dreams. "In the short term, I would like to finish the house we are building this spring," she lists first. "I'm pretty proud to be able to do that as a 26-year-old."
Another big dream is traveling. "My partner and I were going to travel when we graduated. But corona put a stop to that. Now we would like to trek to Costa Rica.
"My very distant dream, within 25 or 30 years or so, is to open a B&B with my partner," her eyes twinkle. "Maybe in France or something, so we're not too far from our families after all. That entrepreneurship is in the cards, but there are no concrete further plans yet."
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