Norbert from Twente comes back home

He is now forty and a father. “It’s so nice that the children are in the driveway when you come home from work and that I can immediately start doing fun things with them.” For a long time, he thought he would never be able to work as a Software Tester in the place he loves most. For years, he travelled to the west of the country for various work assignments. “My father was a driver, so it was not an issue for me to drive an hour there and an hour back. Driving long distances, being on the road for a long time and never being home in time for dinner is what I grew up with. I installed software and gave training at the time, in all parts of the country. I realised that the software I was using wasn’t working very well, so I went to see the people who were testing the software. That appealed to me, and I eventually got into the testing profession.”

Norbert started working at a consultancy company in 2010. This was in Amersfoort, again about an hour’s drive from Hengelo. “Friends of mine started working in the region and I was gaining knowledge and work experience from other parts of the country; that’s how it felt at the time.” He worked on improving the software on the OV chip card in Amersfoort, among other things, a product that had a lot of publicity at the time. He also had an assignment to set up a national intranet for the police force, which was undergoing a reorganisation at the time. “Those were some wonderful assignments”.

Norbert was extremely focused on his career and even moved from Hengelo to Veenendaal; something that he and the people around him never expected. “I still came to Twente regularly, by the way. I came there in the weekends and on Tuesdays to play football and to watch FC Twente with friends.” Everything in Veenendaal, therefore, revolved around his job, and he always spent his free time in Twente. This made me feel torn since I wanted to continue combining ‘both worlds’. That went horribly wrong: my relationship at the time ended and I found myself alone at the other side of the country.”

His manager, Hans Ruesink, knew him well, and Norbert decided to move back to Hengelo after a talk with him. “He told me that people in Twente are friendly and care about each other, it is not ‘every man for himself’. And that is true. I was still working in the west when I moved back and thus driving back and forth every day, but at least I was living here again.”

He met his current girlfriend Marit, but living with her made him dislike the number of kilometres. Norbert eventually started working at CloseSure Oost in Hengelo and everything fell into place. He now works for Thales, from CloseSure. “This is perfect: being a father and working close to home.” He was able to take up an interesting position with his current employer thanks to all the knowledge he had gained across the country. “Working here is great: I can express my vision on testing. The atmosphere is warm and personal, and there is a lot of room for developing yourself.”

He wants to show other Software Testers from Twente what career opportunities Twente has to offer, so he launched a Meetup called ‘Testing Twente’ as part of CloseSure; a platform where testers can come together.

Norbert is far from finished with his employer and still has a mission: sharing his knowledge and making others enthusiastic about the testing profession. “I studied Business Informatics at Saxion. I would love to give a guest lecture about my profession to make students enthusiastic; testing is a part of software development, but it is often insufficiently highlighted during education and in many companies.

Twente lives

Twente is the ideal place to live and work, according to the talents we meet. Want to know why? Read personal stories about living and making a career in Twente on twente.com/twente-leeft. Want to look for a job immediately? Then take a look at our extensive job site.