Customer and team pleased? Then so is General Manager Sanne

This article is part of a series called “Twente Leeft!” (Twente Lives!). You can read personal stories here about living and working in Twente. Twente is a nice place to be, according to the talents we meet. The beautiful nature, space, the down-to-earth mentality; they all characterise Twente. There are also plenty of career opportunities! Twente has many innovative, international and future-proof companies that are desperate for staff. Want to know what Twente has to offer? You can find Sanne Zijlstra's story below.

"Increasingly, we carry out projects from start to finish. We start with strategic sessions to clarify where the company stands and where it wants to go. We then work with the team to create an appropriate online platform that helps our clients improve their online presence and performance," she says. "When we can guide the client from A to Z in the process for a new online platform, we get the best results."

Sanne maps out the lines and steers for those results. Both in Enschede and Amsterdam. From Deventer, where she lives, both places are easy to reach. "Plus: I like driving, so a few times a week back and forth is fine by me," she says. The journey from Deventer often includes Schiphol Airport, as she loves travelling, especially to Asia. Sanne saw Thailand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Malaysia. "Fantastic to experience how different the culture is there. How differently people live there. Time, money and status play a much lesser role there. The crazy thing is: I am a very structured person. At home and in the office, everything is always in the same place, everything is 'organised', but when travelling, the chaos can't be big enough for me. I always plan everything, but on holiday we only book a hotel for the first night and then we see how it goes. Then you experience the best things and see the coolest places."

Still, if she has to choose, the Netherlands is her country. "Everything is well organised, appointments are kept, public transport runs on time, things like that." Back home, Sanne likes to go to festivals to blow off steam. "I can really enjoy that too," she points out.

She was born in Rijssen, studied Facility Management in Deventer and also lived there. She moved to Enschede, where family and friends also live, but after more than a year, she still moved back to Deventer. "A super city," she thinks. "The catering industry is nice, the shops, everything really. In Enschede I also like to come (and often by the way), because of family and friends and work of course and the cosy city centre, but Deventer it is for me. Because of its location too, everything is just a bit closer from there."

So although Sanne enjoys travelling at home and abroad and loves variety, she is far from finished at Stimmt after four years. Through a Facebook message, she got in touch with Stimmt's founder Nick Velten. "We went for a coffee and his company really appealed to me. After the conversation, I immediately quit my job at Rabobank. I learned a lot there, but soon found out that I don't quite belong at a corporate company. If you come up with something, it has to go through so many stages before action can be taken; that is very different here at Stimmt." Sanne started as Project Manager and is now General Manager. "I found out that I love the general management, managing for results and being responsible for that suits me. We are now in the process of acquiring a company in Amsterdam. This will allow us to expand our team in Amsterdam and bring in more knowledge so that we have more clout and can serve customers even better on that side of the country as well. With more and more companies realising the importance and potential of doing business online to be future-proof, this is a necessity."

Sanne turns out to be ambitious, which is another reason why Stimmt fits like a glove. "A lot of attention is paid to personal development here. We organise a knowledge session once a quarter and give colleagues time to work on personal development themselves. Some choose to watch tutorials, others organise a hackathon or visit an event. I myself get restless if I feel like I am standing still. Fortunately, this is not the case at Stimmt. And besides, at Stimmt you can be one hundred per cent yourself, we have a really good and nice team and together we just want to deliver really cool projects!"

According to the talents we speak to, Twente is the ideal place to live and work. Want to know why? Read all the personal stories about living and making a career in Twente at twente.com/twente-leeft. Looking for a job straight away? Then take a look at our extensive vacancy database.