bloom: Keesha Vanhoudt
The daughter of two gaming parents, Keesha grew up in a world of computers and virtual gaming fun. 🎮 That world turned out to be totally her thing. She consciously chose a computer science education and a challenging job in tech at Arxus!
Gamer Family
"My grandmother plays Mario better than me!" Keesha shines with tenderness and pride when she says it. "I come from a real gaming family. My grandma is totally pro and both my parents are gamers. Still are. With my dad I could talk about it for hours as a kid. He actually wanted a son and then I came along. Fortunately for him, I am very interested in technology and electronic gadgets. Ordinary toys I never liked, no dolls or kitchenette for me.... I preferred to play with the remote control. I took those apart dozens of times because I wanted to know how such a thing works."
So you grew up with Game Boy, Wii and PlayStation?
"Yes, I loved that! Still do now, by the way. I've always loved working with electronics. In the family I am called The IT guy. Have a problem with your computer? Just ask Keesha, she'll fix it. It fascinates me enormously to discover how something works. Figuring something out until I understand it, that's my thing. Much more than logical thinking. I always found mental arithmetic or reading comprehension difficult, and I still can't do puzzles very well. Funny, isn't it? I just really can't do that."
"Figuring something out until I understand it, that's totally my thing."
Did that determine your choice of school?
"ASO was not an option, TSO is much more practical. I did multimedia. That's a lot of coding, logo making, graphic design and web design. Very interesting all of that. Afterwards, I consciously chose computer science. I took the System and Network Administration graduate course at Thomas More in Geel. That was the ideal training for me. There I learned to think problem-solving and out of the box."
The right challenge
Keesha quickly found work as a first-line IT support engineer at a multinational company. "I knew the company because I had worked there as a job student and then I saw their job posting on LinkedIn. They had presented it very nicely, with advancement opportunities and so on. But it soon became clear that the job content was fairly limited and would remain so. After two months, I started looking for another job. I wanted to work somewhere where I would have the opportunity to learn and be challenged. IT never stops, lol. I still want to learn a lot."
"I want to work somewhere where I have the opportunity to learn a lot. IT never stops, lol!"
Did you end up at Arxus then?
"I had added the hashtag OpenToWork to my profile on LinkedIn and a recruiter contacted me about a vacancy in Kontich, at Arxus in other words. To be honest, during the application process I didn't really feel that the interviews went well, a bit of imposter syndrome in retrospect. And then I also had to undergo surgery on my thyroid gland and revalidate for four weeks. But I was still allowed to come and do a practical case after that and apparently it was all more than good enough to get hired as a junior cloud engineer. That was in April this year and my life has changed a lot since then. In the beginning it was difficult. I was going to live alone for the first time and I missed my family and friends. They all live near Tessenderlo, which is quite a distance from here. The first months I did nothing but work and the problems with my thyroid came back. The combination of stress and illness caused me to suffer mentally. I was constantly tired and in the morning I woke up thinking, Shit, I have to go to work ..."
Ugh, that's tough when you're just starting somewhere.
"Definitely! But I have been able to count on a lot of understanding and I am incredibly grateful for that. The family doctor prescribed two weeks of rest for me. That turned into two months, and during that whole period my team leaders stayed in touch. They were genuinely concerned. Then I knew: Here at Arxus I am really in the right place. Meanwhile, I feel much better. Many new colleagues have joined and it is nice to go for it together. I am very happy now. In the morning I think: Yes, I'm going to work!"
All will be well
Looking back for a moment, who has had the most impact on your life?
"My dad of course. I'm content to have inherited his technical genes. And my mom has always let me be who I am. By the way, we share the same passion for horror games. Mom is a real horror fanatic and when she discovered that I was also playing horror games with friends, she really liked it. Since then, we often play together. We can totally lose ourselves in that."
What would you say to little Keesha today if you ran into her?
"As my mom always says: Good things come for those who wait."
"Everything will be fine! Just give yourself some time, no need to stress. I used to be very afraid of the future. I still find it hard to look to the future with confidence, but now I am more confident. Or as my mom always says: Good things come for those who wait."
What would you like to achieve in your life?
"Apart from the usual things like buying a house and staying happy at work, I want to get certificates anyway and learn continuously. I am very interested in cyber security and I still know far too little about it. Originally I was more interested in systems engineering, so the physical devices, but those are going to disappear, right? Meanwhile, cloud is the future and I want to grow with that virtual world. Besides my work, I enjoy visiting museums or going to a planetarium. I never get tired of that. My childhood dream was to become an astronaut! But for that you had to be very good at math, unfortunately not my strong suit."
"Physical devices are eventually going to disappear. Cloud is the future and with that virtual world I want to grow with it."
You are still young, 22 years old, but what do you see as your biggest successes so far?
"I think I have already achieved a lot of milestones. The fact that I went on Erasmus to Budapest, for example. I was one of six selected out of 15 candidates. And the fact that I graduated! That is perhaps my greatest achievement. Moving out of home was also an important milestone, and learning to love myself more. My illness made me realize all that I do have. I'm actually extremely proud of myself for being so driven and motivated. I also learned to let go of "false friends. That was hard, but without that negative energy I feel much better."
One last question: what do you think novice gamers should start with?
"Nintendo Switch anyway! Mario you must have played. If you can do that, you can do anything. Mario remains a classic. It's my all-time favorite."
