bloom: Liesbeth Verachtert
"IT is a hugely social profession" - Liesbeth Verachtert, SAP Consultant at Flexso tells how she ignored school advice and grew to become a team lead". From not knowing what to study, to IT, to marketing and back again: Liesbeth's story is proof of continuous growth, despite doubt. And of the fact that you don't have to be a crack at math to be a successful developer. Her secret ingredient? "Authentic kindness: that's the most important thing in life." 🌞 👩🏼💻 😀
Following your own heart
Whether coincidence exists? Who can say. What is certain is that a "coincidental" gift sparked Liesbeth's interest in IT. "In 1998, after my Modern Language Studies, I had to choose what I wanted to study next, but I didn't really know. I wasn't mega good at anything, but not mega bad either," she looks back.
"Until I got a discarded computer from my uncle. It's hard to imagine now, but in those days having a computer was not at all obvious. And my parents didn't really see the point. But me? I loved it and taught myself to work with it.
"Saying I'm not going to be able to do something doesn't work for me."
Fiddling with those computers, that intrigued me. IT seemed like a nice choice of study." Although not everyone thought so. "The CLB brushed my idea off the table immediately, they said my math wasn't good enough. They suggested studies like nursing or social work. Why, I don't know. Maybe just because those are supposedly typical professions for women? IT just wasn't among the options." Liesbeth thought otherwise. "I was convinced that you don't need math to be able to program. So I didn't listen to their advice and just followed the intrinsic motivation I felt."
"That's how we were raised at home," she continues. "My parents both worked in a BLO school with children with disabilities. They always instilled in us that everyone can achieve a lot, even if some may have to put in a little more effort than others. Saying I'm not going to be able to do something doesn't work for me."
From IT to marketing
After her studies, Liesbeth wanted to work as an SAP consultant. "I didn't start on an ordinary day, but on a very sad one. On Sept. 11, 2001. Many people still remember where they were that day. I was signing my contract then," she says. Unfortunately, that ended in a sizzle. "The market collapsed temporarily then, so many projects were postponed, so there was no work for startups. After almost a year, a collective layoff followed for me and about 150 colleagues."
That year created a void in her resume, which made it more difficult to find a job. "Moreover, because of that bad economic situation, the market was flooded with IT professionals, some of whom already had several years of experience. As a junior, it was therefore difficult to get a job," he echoes. To give herself a boost, she took a banaba in marketing. "I found it a very fascinating course and I learned a lot.... But halfway through that degree, I asked myself if I could see myself doing this as a job. Being triggered by a problem and finding a creative solution to it, like in my computer science course, that's what I missed there."
From trainee to team lead
Again, coincidence or not, but Liesbeth stumbled upon a VDAB training course for SAP technical consultants that would last three months. The course was taught by SAP consultants from Flexso, still a start-up at the time.
"It seemed like a good way to get back into the field. And the rest is history. Meanwhile, Flexso is no longer a start-up and I've been working there for 19 years and 2 months."
So what for Liesbeth continues to make Flexso so appealing? "The humanity at Flexso is so distinctive," she says. "From the moment I walked in here, I was not merely the junior, but immediately a full-fledged colleague. I never thought before that I would continue to work for the same company for 20 years, but my projects, clients and different workplaces offer more than enough challenges for me to bite into. Continuing to learn, always seizing new opportunities, analyzing unique problems together with colleagues and clients and coming up with a good solution together, that motivates me. And I can do my job however I want. You get that freedom here from day 1, that stimulates me enormously."
"The humanity at Flexso is so distinctive. From the moment I walked in here, I was not merely the junior, but immediately a full-fledged colleague."
Liesbeth started at Flexso as an ABAP consultant, rose to lead consultant and has been competence lead of the technical S/4 competence center since March 2024. There she leads about 40 people. A team four times the size of the Flexso in which she started. She looks back with gratitude: "I owe that to the VDAB training and the enthusiasm and drive of the colleagues who gave that training. For me, that was the turning point in my career. Flexso is now the official trainer for SAP consultancy courses. I have also been teaching that course myself for years with great pleasure, precisely so that I can give that experience back to others. It is immensely gratifying to be able to help other people take a new path and start an exciting career as a technical SAP consultant."
And it apparently succeeds. "Last year I gave a presentation at a client event and afterwards a woman came up to me whom I vaguely recognized. She thanked me for the VDAB course I had taught a few years before and said she still remembered me as the woman who helped launch her career. That really touched me. That she took the time to come and tell me that, I thought was a wonderful gift."
Lack of stereotypes
Whether IT is boring? "Anything but! IT is just very social!" replies Liesbeth. "That caring that the CLB once saw in me is what you need in this job: caring for your colleagues and caring for your customers. But also listening and understanding people. After all, what we make is used by people. It's a very social profession, but there are stereotypes attached to it that aren't true."
"IT is not a man's profession, just as caregiver or nurse are not women's professions to me," she adds. "I don't look at my colleagues that way either. Whether you are male, female, young or old or whatever beliefs you have, none of that matters, as long as you work together."
That working together and helping colleagues in a sincere way is crucial to Liesbeth. 'That was also why I wanted to do this interview. My story is nothing earth-shattering or extraordinary, I'm just doing my job. But if with this I can convince one person that we can often do more than we tell ourselves, then my intention has succeeded," she shares. "Authentic kindness, helping each other with no hidden agenda is the most important thing in life, in my opinion."
"IT is not a man's profession, just as caregiver or nurse for me are not women's professions."
Perfectionism and self-doubt
The creativity Liesbeth finds in her job feeds her outside of it, too. "If I hadn't done IT, I would have chosen a different craft. Working with my hands and creating things, I have a fascination for that," she says.
"I like to deal with the tinkering jobs that most people don't like to do," adds the Flexso consultant. "Having to gonitty gritty, finishing things to perfection, that kind of typifies me. I don't just give up the moment something fails, I keep going until I find it." It's no surprise, then, that she loves escape rooms. "Coming up with a good solution to a customer challenge, putting our heads together and then collecting all those cubes and putting them together, yes, that makes my heart beat faster," she beams.
"It's okay to doubt from time to time, as long as it doesn't paralyze you."
Yet that attention to detail also harbors a pitfall, she admits. "I am very perfectionist and can doubt myself enormously. I sometimes look at things differently, which sometimes makes me feel like the odd man out and then dare to doubt myself. I hope that whoever reads this interview will take away that it's okay to have doubts from time to time, as long as it doesn't paralyze you," it sounds sincere. "Look at me, someone who never expected it of herself now leads a team of 40 people, in her own authentic, friendly way."
Liesbeth grew very naturally into her role as team lead. Does she still have certain goals in that? " I still see a lot of growth potential for myself anyway, but I've learned that it's better for me to think in small steps. My first priority now is to make sure that the people who start here now get the same feeling as I did then, the feeling that they are immediately part of the team here, belong and can come home to us," she concludes with a smile.
Inspired by Liesbeth's story? And would you like to discover more stories from women@Flexso? Then read here more. Are you interested in a career at Flexso? Take a look look here! 😀