We cherish our expertise We feel connected to each other We go the extra mile
We are everywhere around you, probably without you even realizing it. Among other things, we help our logistics customers to efficiently plan their routes and therefore reduce their CO₂ footprint; we help academic hospitals to efficiently plan their workforce and their schedule; we help our services customers to plan their visits to their customers; for an insurance company we developed a chatbot. In short, we offer solutions for companies around the world, making a difference in people’s lives, for our planet and for the profits of our customers.
From our offices around the globe, we use our highly valued skills to uncover the true potential of applied mathematics, data science and optimization. This booklet is a bit like us: humorous and informal, yet clever and challenging. Solving the puzzles on these pages will feel a bit like being at one of our offices: we have fun, we do what we love, and we push each other to do better day after day, while solving complex puzzles for our customers.
If you want to know more about our impact, then follow us on LinkedIn or have a look at ortec.com. If you would like to take part in our movement to improve the world, you can check out careers.ortec.com.
Meet three brain crackers solvers of ORTEC
My name is Hanneke, I am 26 years old. I’ve been working for ORTEC since May 2022. I am a trainee at the consultancy department (ODSC) and working in the team of Manufacturing and Retail. I have two clients; Roompot and ECG which are both in leisure industry. I did my masters in Delft.
My name is David, I am 26 years old as well. In October 2022 I started working at ORTEC. I work as an implementation consultant in the Benelux Workforce. I mainly do workforce implementations at Dutch clients. I mainly focus on functional solutions, so tweaking parts of the software to their wishes. I mainly work for the university of Utrecht, at an animal hospital. And I work for Gemeente Amsterdam and PostNL as well. I have a background in econometrics and studied in Rotterdam.
My name is Emre, I am 25 years old, and I am originally from Turkey. I studied Computer Science and Engineering at TU Eind- hoven. I have been working at ORTEC since September 2021. I work as a Cloud Operations Engineer in the Technology department, which is a role that focusses on DevOps for the teams in our technology department that work on our Cloud native products at ORTEC.
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Where did you know ORTEC from and why did you apply?
Hanneke: I found ORTEC vacancies online. I knew some people who did their thesis internship here, so I sent them a message. I was enthusiastic and decided to apply. I really liked the vacancy of the ODSC department. Both data science and consulting are things I like so, it was a good combination. I really liked the conversations I had during the application process.
Emre: I heard about ORTEC first in my second year of my studies, where somebody working at ORTEC was friends with one of the professors at the university. He was a guest lecturer to one of our algorithms courses. He gave a lecture about routing algorithms. And a couple of years later I saw ORTEC at a career fair and approached them. I met with some recruiters and colleagues. I decided to apply and now the person who gave the lecture in my second year actually is my team lead.
David: If you do econometrics in Rotterdam as a study then ORTEC is quite popular. You see ORTEC at many events such as the career days. During my master year, 6 or 7 people went to work at ORTEC so I already knew a lot of people when I started here myself.
What were the steps in your application process?
Emre: I connected with a recruiter of ORTEC on LinkedIn and then I messaged him saying like “hey I am studying data science and engineering but I am not very much into consulting and mathematics, but I am into computer science, so what role could I get at ORTEC?” The recruiter then suggested the cloud engineering position and that is how I applied.
David: I called a study mate of mine and she let me know about the Meet & Match day at ORTEC, so I applied for that. Before the day I had to do the same assessments as Emre, which was quite stressful for me as I wanted to do well. I had to do two interviews, and then at the end of the day I got a job offer, which was nice.
How does your workday look like?
Emre: Every morning I have a meeting with my whole team, which takes about 30 minutes to discuss what you did yesterday and what are you planning on doing today. And then we start working on what we have discussed. I usually have more meetings throughout the day about different projects.
Hanneke: like a stand-up? We have that as well, but maybe a bit different. I have stand-ups with the client projects I am working on. But maybe what is different from technology is that it is not super technical as we also have things like writing designs.
David: For me it varies; for one project I only have a weekly stand-up, for one project I organize the stand-up, and for another project there is no stand-up needed. And some of my day look different. Like one day I work on a project myself and then another day I have many meetings.
How did you experience the first few months at ORTEC?
David: I started as a junior, so I did not have a traineeship program, where you switch from project once every 8 months. I was put immediately on a client project, so I got to learn new stuff very quickly. It was quite hectic, but I enjoyed it. I think I had one team lead per project, and they gave me direction on what I needed to do.
Emre: I was in the technology trainee pool, so I had a trainee pool manager that is outside of my team, mentoring and supporting me. I had regular meetings with trainees and other people in the department as well. At ORTEC you work with experienced people. That was interesting and I got to learn a lot in my first couple of months. I am currently in my third team and will be staying here when my traineeship ends.
Hanneke: The traineeship of ODSC is a bit different, you are just in a team for a specific client, and you do not necessarily rotate every 8 months like in the technology department. What I like about this traineeship is that it is similar to a junior position, but you have the 14 days of self-development trainings, a trainee coach and the connection with the trainee pool. And you can rotate between 1-2 departments within your traineeship.
Emre: Because there is atrainee pool and there are 15+ trainees rotating each 8 months in technology, each team has good onboarding processes in place because they know that new trainees are coming in and out of the team quite frequently.
What do you like the most about working at ORTEC? What makes ORTEC unique for you?
Emre: The first thing that I realized is how flat the company structure is. I never had a moment where I was hesitant or discouraged to contact someone or ask a question to somebody. ORTEC doesn’t give you a feeling of hierarchy in any scenario.
David: Yes, and very open. When I did the bootcamp in May, you get to meet the founders and speak to the CEO; and when you know them a bit you see them in the office and have a chat. I think that makes ORTEC very approachable. The interaction is just very nice.
Hanneke: To add on that, is that there is not a feeling of competition. So, no hassle culture at ORTEC.
Do you work with international employees at ORTEC?
Emre: Yes, we work with someone from Romania and the department is split across countries. So, for me it is Bucharest but you have colleagues from Germany and Belgium or Greece as well. Products support for instance exists in Romania as well but you have teams where half of the team is working at Bucharest and the other half is working in the Netherlands.
David: My team is Benelux, so I don’t work with many internationals. We have Dutch clients and Belgium colleagues. I do communicate with the technology department for us, which is in Romania. But for me it is mostly Dutch.
Hanneke: I have one person who works in Germany. One client is international, so we communicate in English. I have international people in my team. And in the trainee pool there are some trainees who aren’t Dutch and have a different nationality.
What would you like to say to the students who are interested in working at ORTEC?
David: I think what really helped me is to have a chat with someone who works at ORTEC. If you are interested in ORTEC you probably can find someone on LinkedIn and talk with them. It is quite hard to read on a website what a company does and what it is like to work at a company. If you reach out to someone to ask what it is like, is helpful.
Emre: I would say to go see ORTEC at an event like a career fair, just approach the stand and contact people on LinkedIn. And if you can’t find a position that you like on the career site it is still worth a shot to contact the recruiters.
Hanneke: For me it was not completely clear what the difference was between the different traineeships, like an implementation consultant or data science consultant. I applied for the one that I thought was the best but maybe it is good to ask or send an email about what the difference is.
David: And it is good to have a call with the recruiters. If you are interested in the company but don’t know what will suit you, the recruiter will know and have a good judgement on what team will fit you.
Anything else you’d like to share before we end this interview?
Emre: It is important to pick a company and not the position, because when you are in the company, it is always possible to change positions. But if you end up in the wrong company, that can ruin a bit your first experience.
Hanneke: I think ORTEC is nice company for you first job as it quite a big and you can figure out what you like to do. There is so much knowledge at ORTEC as well.
David: At ORTEC there are also a lot of social activities and that is something that drew me to the company. Like every other week there is an activity by the PVO and Young professionals. You might have many wishes in the beginning, but it’s important to rank your wishes and choose the best company.