Meet Lotus Verbiest. One of our Joppers at green energy supplier Vandebron. Lotus, 23 years old and in her second year at university, works part-time as a customer service employee. “My colleagues and I are responsible for answering people’s questions about Vandebron. We’re the first person they interact with.”
She was introduced to Vandebron through her friend working as a talent manager at Jopp. “She thought I might like working there.” Good call? “Yes! I like my colleagues and the work itself. I can see myself doing this for a while.”
Let’s get to know each other first
How did she prepare herself for her interview at Vandebron? “Before going there, I was invited to the Jopp headquarters. To talk about me, basically. I met my talent manager. We talked about why I would like to work at Vandebron. What skills I want to learn. What my ambitions are. They also told me a lot about Vandebron and its company culture. I felt ready to do the actual interview.” And she nailed it!
Support system
“I work 16 hours a week next to being a full-time Psychology student at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. And it’s doable. Vandebron is flexible in scheduling, that does help.” Working in customer service can’t always be easy? “True. Sometimes you just can’t help someone. Some understand, some get frustrated. It can be hard to deal with, but Vandebron pays a lot of attention to coaching their employees.”
“Same goes for Jopp, by the way. Vladimir is my community manager. He checks in with me regularly. To see if I’m still happy at work. But he also asks about how my weekend was. It’s not just about work, which is nice. Jopp is still really involved, even though I am now fully settled down at work.”
Find out what suits you
Studying Psychology was not always her ambition. To the contrary. “When I was young, I didn’t know what I wanted to be. But I very explicitly did not want to become a therapist.” So what happened? “I guess I grew up. And my dislike for Psychology partly had to do with all my peers wanting to be a therapist. That made me want to do something different.”
At first, she did. She moved from Bergen op Zoom to Tilburg to attend University College. Not a good match. She did find out something about herself: “Turned out, I really liked everything psychology-related!” So, a therapist in the making after all? “No, I see myself more as a link between researchers and non-academics. Transferring academic knowledge in a way everyone can understand.” Good luck getting there Lotus! At Jopp, we’ll be by your side every step of the way!
Want to become a Jopper too? Check our vacancies here or apply for our talent pool!