Taking on more responsibility and trust

We now celebrated Yannick Luitjens’ five-year anniversary at Prospact! During the staff outing on 10 May, he was presented with a personalised cartoon as a surprise! It was a great opportunity to reflect on his development, our growth, and his ambitions for the future.

Five years at Prospact: an interview with Yannick Luitjens, senior software engineer.

Senior software engineer

Yannick started, with one year of work experience, as a software engineer. He has since developed into a senior software engineer. ‘In terms of content, this mainly means more independence and responsibility,’ he says. ‘I now carry out projects completely independently and I am more closely involved with customers at the front end of a project. I have learned to assess where the needs are and how we can translate that into a suitable solution.’

His development largely came about in practice: by gaining experience and participating in projects. From preparing a: ‘functional design specification’ (FDS) to commissioning an industrial plant. ‘So far, training courses have mainly focused on technical subject knowledge, but towards the future I would like to work further on certain soft skills such as managing a project or giving advice.’

Over the past five years, Yannick has seen Prospact grow as an organisation. ‘We have grown to a professional team of around 20 colleagues. Whereas we initially focused mainly on clients in the food industry, our expertise has broadened and we work in multiple industrial sectors.’

Yannick continues: ‘What I am proud of is that our culture has remained the same. Open, approachable and very customer-oriented!’ In his view, this is our greatest strength: ‘The door is always open. We are willing to think along and help each other: internally and towards customers. That personal contact really makes the difference.’

For the next five years, Yannick has clear goals. ‘I want to develop towards software lead engineer or a more advisory role. My personal strength is being the link between customer and technology. Translating an issue into a suitable solution and thinking along about the design. Finally, I get a lot of energy from bringing the project to a good end result together with the team.’

Despite working full-time, he finds enough time for his many hobbies, which include swimming, sailing, Formula 1, darts and cooking. “That list is actually only getting longer”, he laughs. “I follow Formula 1 fanatically. I often cook with family or friends. I prefer Italian dishes.” Italy is therefore a favourite holiday destination: “The atmosphere, the food, the coffee: I love it!”