bloom: Stefanie Monteyne
Stefanie Monteyne, in her own words, ended up at Flexso, but she is completely in her place there. "I can perfectly combine and develop my passion for IT and for people here. Add to that a pleasant work culture and numerous opportunities for advancement, and I can see myself working here for a very long time to come," she says of her job as Lead Consultant SAP SuccessFactors. "I grab every opportunity that comes my way. In this way, I have already grown tremendously in eight years, and I hope I can continue to do so for a long time to come."
"It actually all happened quite by accident," Stefanie Monteyne (31) says of the start of her career at Flexso, the company where she began working straight out of school in 2015. "I studied Commercial Engineering at KU Leuven, the first two years 'safely' on campus Kulak - I'm from Kortrijk - and then I spread my wings to Leuven."
"In senior year, the search began: what was I going to do after my studies? Commercial engineering is a broad education, so the options were very broad: mathematics, sciences, economics, languages, ... At a job fair, I happened to come into contact with a consulting company that specialized in supply chain."
"My major was logistics, so it seemed like an obvious choice," Stefanie Monteyne recalls. However, after a few job interviews, she got the feeling it wasn't for her: the expectations didn't match.
"I told about it to a friend who had also just graduated as a commercial engineer 'My mom works in a company where they are looking for people with our degree, go apply there,' she advised me. That company was Flexso, an IT consulting company in Kontich. My first reaction was, "Oy, Kontich, what am I going to do there as a West Flemish? But I took a chance and that's how the ball got rolling," Monteyne says.
Combining Passions
In 2015, Stefanie became an SAP SuccessFactors Consultant at Flexso, the end-to-end partner in SAP solutions, part of the Cronos Group. "When I started, I had to choose: focus on marketing or HR. My choice for HR was quickly made: during my studies, I always chose electives related to human resources and organization. That fascinated me enormously, and it provided a counterbalance to the many economics subjects with numbers where the emphasis was on during my education."
"Companies are increasingly realizing that people are the beating heart and that streamlined HR policies are a must to win the war for talent."
"I am social, I like to be among people and like to engage in diverse initiatives. But besides that, I also like the technical aspect: how processes are put together and what the underlying structure of certain technologies and systems is. When I chose this job, I did not yet realize that it is a perfect combination of my interests in people and in tech. It's only over the years that I've realized how everything comes together beautifully, and how I can further develop both my passions here."
SAP SuccessFactors is a total package for future-proof HR support. A lot of customers, from large and small companies to organizations in the public sector, rely on the solution to digitize their HR and put the employee experience center stage. "I notice that more and more companies are fully committed to the digitization of their HR in recent years."
"They realize that people really are the beating heart of the organization and that a streamlined HR policy is a must to win the war for talent. When I started in 2015, we were still with a small team of seven people - there were no labor market shortages back then. Today, there are 50 HR consultants at Flexso. These are challenging and exciting times to be involved with human resources," says Stefanie.
Growing with the company
The fact that she can grow with the company is one of the things Stefanie likes most about working at Flexso. "The first four years of my career I lived in Antwerp, commuting smoothly from there to the office in Kontich. At that time, I worked mostly with clients in the Antwerp, Brussels and Leuven regions, so that was easy as a base of operations."
"My social life was still largely taking place in West Flanders, so when our new office opened in Ghent, I was able to work closer to home again," says Stefanie, who today lives in Kortrijk. "I alternate working in the office with client visits. No week looks the same in our department. Our projects have a relatively short lead time compared to other SAP divisions, so they alternate quite quickly. I love that variety immensely."
Helping People
Over the past eight years, Stefanie has grown enormously in terms of responsibilities and skills. "I started here as a school leaver: then you know something about everything, but actually you know nothing, or at least not that much," she says with a laugh. "The company gave me the opportunity to immerse myself in one of the many SAP modules, namely SuccessFactors."
"Through a combination of self-study and collaboration with experienced colleagues, I learned a lot in a short time and made great strides. And since we were initially a small team, I was quickly given a lot of responsibility and grew from Junior Consultant to Lead Consultant," she echoes. That rapid advancement did not deter her, she adds.
"At Flexso you are never alone: you can count on enthusiastic colleagues to help you and to spar with you. That way, of course, you grow quickly. Meanwhile, I myself have become the person who guides other colleagues, both at project level and in our way of working and 'consulting life' in general. I am known for being easy to ask questions of. I think that is one of the best aspects of my job: that I can help people, whether they are clients or colleagues."
"That I can help people, both customers and colleagues, I think is one of the best aspects of my job."
"Besides the job content per se, I find this a very nice company to work for. There is an informal and warm atmosphere, and we form one close-knit team. I think clients feel that too, that behind their one permanent consultant there is a full team ready to go. That gives a lot of confidence. I also hope to stay with Flexso for a long time to come. There is a lot of variety, I get plenty of growth opportunities, and the atmosphere is top-notch: I am really in my place here."
Role model
Stefanie never felt inhibited to choose a job in a technical company as a woman. "I got the good example from my mom, who, as a civil engineer, was a business manager along with my aunt in a typically male sector - especially at that time, it was not very common for women."
Stefanie never felt inhibited to choose a job in a tech company as a woman.
"My one sister is also a civil engineer, my other sister studied language and literature and then went to work in a tech company. So our mom was - consciously or unconsciously - a role model for us. I think my story shows that you don't have to have a 100 percent technical profile to get a job in a tech company."
What she also inherited from home is her entrepreneurial spirit. "My parents were and are both committed to association life. I myself have been active in JCI (Junior Chamber International, ed) for about five years. I was looking for something to get involved in besides work - I don't like to sit still. Our association brings together entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial people. So it's not only entrepreneurs, but also intrapreneurs, to which I include myself because I don't have my own business."
"You need both people to take action and make an impact, which is why I believe so strongly in JCI. We organize activities to learn from and inspire each other, both professionally and non-professionally. For example, there was recently a training on change management and also a course on cutting techniques," explains Stefanie, who this year is president of the JCI department in Harelbeke. "Every year there is a different chairperson, so everyone can get a taste of leadership. I learn a lot through this, and it also helps me in my job."
Taking chances
At the time of our interview, Stefanie has just returned from a trek on Kilimanjaro. Even at Flexso, she still wants to learn a lot and do new things. "Organic growth is really the common thread in the company. Today I take on more and more of a guiding role for colleagues. It's a challenge to find my way of working in that."
"I like that I get the space to do something new and to shape my own way of working. Taking initiative and developing yourself: that's what it's all about here. People often ask where I want to see myself in five or ten years. I find that a difficult question: I just grab the opportunities that come my way."
"I can be very analytical and rational when I need to be, but I also like to follow my gut feeling. In 2015, when I had to choose between Flexso and another company that was more in line with my studies, my feeling was much better with Flexso. I followed that gut feeling, and am very happy with it to this day. I really fell head over heels here."
