How does a primary school teacher end up in the office at Schiphol? Ask Twan Blokhuis (1992). He was a schoolteacher for several years, but soon realised that this was not his passion. He completed a bachelor's in Business Administration and decided to switch to Schiphol during his master's in Business Administration. "I wanted to work more strategically, optimise processes, think about why we do things and whether that is still the right way. In my role as Portfolio Manager Investments at Schiphol Group, I deal with such questions all day long."

"Schiphol is a big player in the Netherlands and in the world. An opportunity like this should be seized with both hands."

"My work involves guiding project managers in their investment initiatives. If they have a question, I help them on their way. I also deal with reports for the board of directors and management board. I convert data from the organisation into understandable overviews and reports. These give a picture of the status of current investments. What are the risks and where are the opportunities? The reports and my advice are important for decision-making by the airport management board."

Data governance

"There is a lot of data within Schiphol. I am currently busy with the governance around it. There is a lot of input, but it is not yet optimally structured. As a result, we are not all looking at the same output. There are just too many variables. So, the question is what do we really want to report? Who has the right data for this and what do we want to have in a dashboard so that proper control is possible? That is a big project, and one which makes me very happy."

"My manager really took the time to put me at ease and let me start up slowly. It's nice that so much thought goes into the onboarding process for new colleagues."

Onboarding

"On my first day, I arrived at an office where everything I needed was ready. My manager really took the time to put me at ease and let me start up slowly. It's nice that so much thought goes into the onboarding process for new colleagues. There was a whole list of names of colleagues for me to talk to. I was able to familiarise myself with the systems and grew more and more in my role. That's what I like about Schiphol. You really get the chance to let everything sink in here."

Four-day working week

"In addition, there is a lot of focus on what you need as an individual. Almost all of us work four 9-hour days here. That means I have a whole day off to focus on my master's degree. And if I want to exercise for an hour in the afternoon? Fine, it's possible. I meet my colleagues on a fixed day during the week, the rest of the week I can plan myself. The funny thing is that sometimes we have a meeting outside our regular office day, and then we all turn out to be in the same building. In that case, we all go together to a meeting room of course."

"In my opinion, Schiphol's strength is its energy and dynamism. Aircraft are literally flying all around you and you're always on the go here."

Dynamism

"In my opinion, Schiphol's strength is its energy and dynamism. Aircraft are literally flying all around you and you're always on the go here. I really like the focus on the individual and not so much on your CV. This was clear even during the job interview. And it still is now. Every six months, you have a progress interview and an important part of this is how you are doing and what your future plans are. You are not supposed to get stuck in the same position forever. I would like to progress into management or the management board. Of course, that will take some time. My long-term plan is clear, although the exact path to it is by no means fixed. Fortunately, the journey towards my goal has so far been great."