Working for an international organization is a great privilege. When I joined Transcom in 2010, I was quickly made aware of the scale and worldwide nature of my new employer. Soon I understood why it’s so important to be comfortable communicating in English, if you want to work here at Transcom. Not only do we have support departments localized all over the globe; sharing knowledge goes beyond national levels. I myself learned a lot when I visited my colleagues in Fredrikstad, Norway, about a year ago. They worked for the same client, with the same contract, had the same focus on customer experience, but our approaches to similar challenges varied. We got back to the Netherlands loaded with ideas.
My Norwegian colleague and I have contacted one another on a regular basis ever since and last May she and her colleagues visited us in Groningen, gaining an insight into our methods. It is a huge benefit to know that, whenever you encounter a situation in which you’re not sure what to do, there are colleagues in other countries ready to help and share best practices. In the last one and a half years I have said ‘Thank you’ to colleagues from many countries and regions, and was thanked myself as well on several occasions. In an organization like Transcom, there is expertise on every subject and it's more or less in our DNA to go out and get it. Right now, I am personally benefiting from Transcom's international nature, as I am in the middle of a transfer from the Netherlands to Sweden. At the beginning of the summer, my wife got a great job offer, so we decided to move to the south of that beautiful country. I was happy to find out that there was actually a job opening at Transcom for my very position near our new home town. I applied and in a few weeks’ time I was hired.
Last week, I met my new colleagues and I am looking forward to joining the team officially. They’re a great bunch, enthusiastic and qualified, they’re fluent in English (I still have some work to do on my Swedish) and they have a great sense of humor. Meanwhile, I am welcoming my successor and making sure he will have no trouble at all taking over my responsibilities. And of course, I will still be at Transcom, so if he needs my advice, I am just one phone call or email away. This also makes saying goodbye to my Dutch colleagues a bit easier. We’ll talk and, with a bit of luck, meet again.