Julia's first trainee year

16-02-2023

At Quintop HR Consultants, a good foundation is crucial for delivering good work. That is why Junior HR Consultants follow the High Potential Programme, a two-year traineeship in which they receive intensive coaching and training in addition to working at the client, in order to be fully ready to become professional HR consultants. Julia Aartsen started at Quintop as a Junior HR Consultant in February 2022. She talks about her first year, her first assignment and her experiences in consultancy.

On 7 February 2022, Julia stepped into the Quintop office. With her Master’s in Human Resource Studies, a Bachelor in Business Administration and work experience as a Junior Project Manager, Quintop was her next step. At the time, everything was still new, but by now Quintop feels like the right place, she says: ”The first year within the High Potential Programme has been full of challenges: it was educational, productive, and offered a lot of fulfilment. Quintop has a warm and welcoming environment with a professional working atmosphere. In addition, it is very nice to have a mentor within the traineeship with whom I can discuss content and practical matters on a weekly basis.”

Steep learning curve

Julia was able to start working on her first assignment quickly. She ended up at an organisation where part would be split off. In this project, she was responsible for taking over and transferring various systems. This was exciting, and at the same time she experienced it as a steep learning curve: gaining a lot of experience in a short time.

Sometime after that, she moved on to her next assignment for a multinational company, where she had to map HR processes. This project involved the implementation of a new system that allows employees to register leave more easily. Part of this involved evaluating and redesigning the current HR processes, formulating the right conditions for the system, and making sure the deliverables were made on time: ”I learned a lot in my first year at Quintop. Many things were new, challenging and instructive. From childhood I am taught many life lessons, one of which was: be kind, work hard and honour your promises. In my opinion, living up to this life lesson in practice is even more important. This benefits all project and is the basis of success.”

Work-based learning

In addition to working at the client, in your first two years as a Junior HR Consultant you will also receive training courses that impart knowledge and skills that you can immediately apply in practice. The training courses are divided into several main clusters: personal development, communication skills, project management, HR, and acquisition. Communication skills in particular impressed Julia: ”In this training we learned more about the different communication styles in relation to personalities. During this training we were able to practice challenging conversations with an actor. You are thrown off guard and learn about your pitfalls, but that is extremely valuable. An amazing experience, I can recommend it to everyone!”

Halfway through

Julia is now halfway through the High Potential programme. She is not afraid of challenges, because in addition to her work, Julia has always practiced sport at a high level and is keen to show the values of top-level sport in her work: ”At the moment, I have a matchrace sailing team together with four women. A dynamic and tactical discipline in which we sail races at a high national and international level. I try to bring the values that I apply in sailing into my daily work as well: get the best out of yourself, always keep learning and be sporty when the going gets tough.”

A new project is planned for her in the upcoming period. The aim is to optimise the current time registration system (including processes): ”As a Project Manager, the tasks vary from my previous role, and that only makes it more fun. In addition, setting up new projects where both the added value for the customer and my learning process are central is a welcoming next challenge,” she says.

Julia Aartsen

Steep learning curve

Work-based learning

Halfway through

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