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Things can move quickly. Started as an intern at Optis, now technical lead in several projects. And that in about five years. Impressive, that’s for sure. Check out Mathias’ full journey!
Even though Mathias is still in the early stages of his professional career, he has already come a long way at Optis. For five years now, he’s operating as a Software Developer / Engineer within the company, shifting between smaller projects and long-term assignments.
Mathias studied Applied Informatics at Karel de Grote Hogeschool in Antwerp. At the end of his education, he went looking for an internship, which led him to Optis. In a nutshell, Mathias got the opportunity to create a conference dashboard. It’s all in the name: an application built for conferences and conventions, that can be used by both speakers and participants. Speakers can add notes and slides themselves, where the possibilities for the guests reach much further. Based on Twitter messages and using Artificial Intelligence (AI), the application defines similarities between guests, which allows participants to match with other attendees. A great starting point for networking.
After his internship, Mathias was offered a full-time contract. And as he really appreciated the internal atmosphere and good guidance during his internship, it was soon a done deal. Yes, absolutely a match made in heaven!
After some first experiences in the non-governmental sector, Mathias soon ended up at Toyota for his first long-term assignment. He was asked to develop a brand new functional application. Without going into too much detail, the app checks broken vehicles, provides in-depth details on the various defects and indicates how things can be solved. For hybrid cars an extra functionality was developed, labeled as the Hybrid Health Check. In short, the vehicle is connected to a laptop and tested. If the hybrid battery passes the test, you get an extra 1 year warranty on it.
Following the Toyota journey, Mathias went working for a year at VDAB, where he got the opportunity to develop a sophisticated system for finding jobs. Subsequently, he resumed his Toyota adventure, where he’s now focusing on the migration of the Toyota platform to a new cloud provider. Mathias currently operates as Technical Lead at Toyota, which means he’s managing and directing smaller entities.
He really appreciated the internal atmosphere and good guidance during his internship, it was soon a done deal.
Since last year, Mathias increasingly takes on an educational role. He gives technical talks - both internally and externally -, guides trainees through their internship and prepares colleagues for external assignments. The latter implies that Mathias is screening internal CVs and conducts interviews with Optis employees, to ensure there’s a fit between the profile and the job to be performed.
However, Mathias intends to continue combining the educational part with his work as a developer. A combination that is of paramount importance for him. Moreover, that’s one of the main reasons why Mathias enjoys working at Optis; the fact he’s able to continuously deepen his development skills and knowledge. Something which is fully facilitated by the organization. As an employee, you are provided with a budget which can be used for a wide range of educational purposes. In addition, there’s lots of internal knowledge sharing and everyone is always available to help each other. Things summed up, working for Optis is all about self-development, knowledge and expertise.
As an employee, you are provided with a budget which can be used for a wide range of educational purposes. In addition, there’s lots of internal knowledge sharing and everyone is always available to help each other.
February 8, 2022
