From Psychology to Technical Specialist
"When I chose the bachelor's in psychology, I wasn't strongly focused on my career yet. Eventually, I found it difficult to map out my path as a psychologist further." Marjam was a board member of the study association SPiN. "I really enjoyed working together and organizing, and I experienced the business world on a small scale at SPiN, which made me realize that this suited me." Marjam wanted to develop herself more technically and therefore chose a master's in Industrial Engineering at TU Eindhoven. A step that wasn't immediately obvious. "I immersed myself in programming and entrepreneurship and developed many new skills. It was a challenge to take advanced courses directly without having laid the foundation, but I enjoyed pushing myself to learn new things." Constantly learning something new remained a common thread in Marjam's career. After her first job at Essent, she ended up at Google. First in a sales role, but her heart was on the technical side.
Getting and Seizing Opportunities
"In my current role as a technical specialist, I help organizations understand how they can address specific challenges by applying AI. To be able to make the step to a technical role from sales, I initially didn't have the right knowledge and experience." Marjam's mentor at Google saw her potential and gave her the opportunity to prove herself as a technical specialist through a temporary assignment, which opened up a new world for her. "It helped to seize projects to show my capabilities, which created new opportunities. Another manager later gave me the chance to specialize in AI," says Marjam, "for which I am still very grateful to both colleagues." "In my field, developments are currently happening so quickly that I have no choice but to constantly master new technologies. Being able to deal with change and staying curious has proven to be important to perform my job well."
Role Models
Constantly leaving her comfort zone and accepting new challenges; Marjam’s ‘I’ll figure it out’-mentality has helped her take a different path. She found a job which she is passionate about, and in which she uses AI technology to find creative solutions for companies. Not a lot of people in the IT world have a background in social sciences. “It’s very valuable to have role models that can show you that you can be successful in the world of IT without a traditional tech background. I’m always interested in the backgrounds of people who took unusual routes to get where they are,” Marjam says. Her next challenge? “I want to further develop my people skills.” Her social sciences programme has prepared her well for this.