Name: Sam Götschenberg
Track: Finance/ Risk
Studied: International Business Specialization Controlling & Accounting
Trainee year: 2020
A diary of my first week
Office work, what’s that?
Monday morning, 08.45. First meeting of my first week. A weekly catch-up with everyone involved in the IFRS17/9 program. Coffee? Check! Fresh and excited to start? Definitely! Location? Right at home behind my laptop.
Starting a new job in times of COVID-19 sure is a little different than what I imagined my first job to look like. After a very informative and interesting kick-off week with the 2020 Trainee cohort, the adventure was about to start. The team I am joining fulfils a central role in NN’s transformation towards compliance for IFRS 17 & 9, a huge transformation for an organization like NN Group. It sounds like a very dynamic and interesting environment to be part of. But where to start? To be quite frank, it felt a little daunting to start working from home. As a new joiner, I didn’t really know anyone yet, I had to onboard into my new position and, most importantly, where are all my colleagues? Was it what I expected it to be?
Getting acquainted
It was not exactly what I expected but it was a very smooth and amazing start. The kick-off week was a lot of fun and we had a variety of exciting activities, including teambuilding exercises on the beach in Scheveningen! On my first “real” day, my fellow team members took plenty of time to explain the IFRS 17/9 program and provided me with a first understanding of what is going on. For the remainder of the week, I had a crash course in Basic IFRS 17 & 9 and how these guidelines work in practice. Ranging from the Actuarial and Accounting impact on reporting to the transformation of NN’s reporting process, it was a lot different than what I learned in University. This helped me a lot in getting a grasp of the environment I am going to be in for the first rotation. All in all, lots of information to digest and an extensive onboarding package to work through. Daily check-in meetings with the team helped in my understanding of the responsibilities that everyone has. During the first week, I was already given my first tasks and colleagues were asking for my opinion on various topics. I was very happy to have experienced a great onboarding and I learned a lot already, simply by being involved and included in the team from day one.
Now let the exploring begin!
People, abbreviations, systems, and jargon. There is quite some stuff to get used to. Fun fact: the NN intranet is called SAM, which resulted in a lot of (bad) jokes during the first weeks. As for every new joiner, it can take some time to get acquainted with how things work, especially in a situation where everyone works from home. During a few days that we were able to go to the office, I was able to meet some of my colleagues in person as well. Fast forward a few weeks, I got in touch with a wide variety of interesting colleagues and I found my way within my current team. Everyone takes their time to get to know you! I am expanding my Actuarial & Accounting (Accountuary) knowledge rapidly. For example, one of my tasks includes analyzing the modelling of insurance data within the reporting process for several Business Units worldwide. The learning curve has been very steep already!
It has been six weeks since I started now, but there’s a whole lot more to learn and people to meet and I am very excited to be in the driver’s seat of how I am going to shape my journey at NN Group!
Do you also want to shape the first step of your career but do you have still have some questions? Feel free to reach out to me via Samuel.gotschenberg@nn-group.com or LinkedIn.
