Finding this out was not an easy process, but in hindsight I consider myself lucky that I had so many choices. When the global financial crisis fully erupted at the end of August 2008, I had already narrowed my search down to two very interesting job offers.
I finally decided to start my career off as Margin Manager with Akzo Nobel Specialty Plastics. It was mainly the job content and the opportunity to work in an international environment that made me decide in favour of Akzo.
After my first two weeks in Belgium, I was already sent to our various factory sites in China, to kick-off and coordinate an elaborate cost savings plan. After Chinese New Year I will be relocated to Shanghai to work at the implementation of the margin management programme at our different factories. Living and working in China will allow me to make use of my Chinese language skills and my knowledge of the Chinese Culture but it will also be a lot of fun.
The best thing I like about the job is that, although margin management may seem to be something you do from behind a PC screen, I actually spend most of my time in the field talking to people from our different departments all over the world. This provides me with a lot of interesting on-the-job training opportunities as I get to know the company and learn its business.
The MSc in Financial Management at TiasNimbas prepared me to tackle a lot of the issues I deal with now professionally. During our Advanced Financial Management course, I learned that complex financial modelling is in no way a substitute for common sense. Sometimes its better to keep it simple. Margin Management at our division consists of improving the transparency of our costing systems, OWC and pricing strategies.
Akzo Nobel has very flat hierarchical structure and colleagues and superiors are very approachable. I like the fact that the people in the company have a very down-to-earth mentality. We never engage in long excruciating PowerPoint presentations to get some vague abstract point across.
