ACE+ Company is proud of our people and our consultants. While many of those people are senior in their field, with decades of experience, everyone starts somewhere and bringing up our newest generation of talent is equally as important.
That’s why we’d like to introduce our newest recruits, Mees Collet, Joost Crul, and Bas Beerkens, who are here to share their first experiences with ACE and our culture.
Our (Newest) Colleagues
Mees Collet (22) moved to ACE as a trainee during a gap year after graduating with a Bachelor in Business Administration in Amsterdam. He intends to move into a Master of Business Finance and Investments in September.
Bas Beerkens (27) is a recent graduate of Wageningen University, and his role with ACE is his first full-time job. His study took him into management and sustainable management, which he’s looking forward to developing further with ACE.
Joost Crul (25) moved into his role as a business analyst at ACE after graduating from his master’s in finance, with a bachelor’s in business administration. His background introduced him to sustainability from a broader perspective, but in his role at ACE, he gets to learn about it in a hands-on fashion.
How is it Working at Ace?
Bas – “What I really like about the work is that you get the opportunity to invest in creative solutions. Nothing is routine, there’s no one-size-fits all solution. Even when you’ve just started ACE gives you the opportunity to come up with ideas and build interesting solutions. To me that’s important for change management, which ACE is doing a lot of, that’s what it’s about, everything is different all the time and it’s literally about change. I like that about my experience so far.”
Joost – “What surprised me is that, as a result of the scale of the client where I’m working through ACE, there’s a huge gap between the people working in legal and compliance departments and the people managing the funds. That’s been really interesting, because it often means meeting people halfway and filling the gap between knowledge and legal requirements – and that’s really provided challenge and a new way to look at change management”
Mees – “There’s a lot of room to interpret things in your own way and to build your own solutions. I was asked to do market research and I was just given the freedom to do the work, do the research, and build up what I wanted. Of course, there’s oversight, but there’s a lot of freedom and internal ownership, and that’s really nice”.
Casual Culture
All three agree that ACE is casual to work in. They comment on camaraderie during meetings, the option to have casual conversations with anyone, at any level of the organization, and initiatives to create casual and friendly interactions with clients. ACE also takes time to ensure people maintain good work-life balance – even if working long hours happens occasionally on rush projects.
Bas – “I started working during the lockdown and everything still feels really involved. I’m mostly working from home but there are daily teams, stand ups and catch ups, it feels like I’m seeing and getting to learn from a lot of people, and everything feels vibrant. I’m really looking forward to when we get to see each other in person more.
A Steep Learning Curve
Even with good backgrounds, all three are finding a steep learning curve and plenty to challenge themselves with.
“I’m no data expert and I have no background in data management” says Bas, “but the project I’m working on has a lot to do with data management. So, I’m learning from my colleagues and building new skills. And ACE gives you the handholding you need to learn while doing well at your job. That allows me to learn about the subject in a really practical way – even when I’m fresh out of college and have to learn practical applications for a lot of things.
Joost, who moved into his new role in January, feels the same way. “There’s a lot of room for personal development. ACE has a culture of teaching and challenging its people. You also get a firsthand look at how processes link together through large financial institutions. I’m doing sustainable finance with a large investor, and there are a lot of paths I could be taking. That results in a very steep learning curve. But that’s perfect because I’ll be able to explore a lot of different roles. I don’t currently know where I want to be in 2-3 years, so having that room to explore and find a good fit for myself is great. “
Building ACE Academy
Mees – “We have a lot of senior people working at ACE, and it’s really great we can share that. Of course, we [the younger generation] can learn a lot from them.
One of the big advantages of ACE is that the project teams are quite small. So, as a Junior you get a lot of responsibility. You get more freedom than when you work with a big company with big teams. So, you can discuss things with the team, they ask your opinion, and you get input and freedom to contribute even as a junior.
So, Bas and I set up an internal program to help our people learn from the diverse range of people, skills, and roles we interact with every day. We call it ACE Academy. It’s basically about sharing knowledge, bringing in knowledge from outside the company, and helping everyone to develop in different fields. And that’s a great thing about ACE, you always get the room to do things like this, and I like that a lot”.
Do you want to join ACE? Get in touch and tell us who you are here.
Back to Onboarding Our Next Generation: Meet Bas, Joost, and Mees