Starting a new life in The Netherlands
I’m Gijs. I’m from Syria, and I used to live in Saudi Arabia for many years. I have a bachelor’s degree in business administration, while most of my experience was in the IT and technical administration field. In 2017 my wife and I came to the Netherlands as refugees, because we couldn’t go back to our country as a result of the ongoing war there.
Starting a new life in the Netherlands held a lot of challenges like settling down, learning the language, getting acquainted with the culture and the society, and of course, getting a job.
The journey started when my wife and I settled down and started learning Dutch. We also wanted to become part of Dutch society, and therefore tried to make friends and do voluntary work.
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ContactThe internship
I’m a person who can’t stay at home, so in the middle of 2018, I started to look for a chance to start a career. Only a few months later, I was lucky to come across Marviq. They didn’t hesitate to give me an opportunity to go under special assessment to be able to follow their internship program of software testers.
My first real challenge was to commit to Marviq and at the same time prepare myself for the Dutch official exams, that were part of the mandatory integration program in the Netherlands. On top of this, I had to follow English courses and exams in order to improve my communication skills.
During the internship at Marviq, I joined a small group of people who were in a similar situation as me, and we prepared ourselves for the ISTQB exam. We enjoyed supporting each other and building new ambitions for our new lives in the Netherlands. Marviq provided us with all possible guidance to be able to pass the exam and I was proud that I – together with another member of the group – was able to earn the ISTQB certificate in one try.
After the exam, we were given more training to be ready for the software development world. We were also prepared for attending professional meetings and interviews in the Dutch labour market before we were introduced to the Marviq partners. We were given internship opportunities at other companies and some of us earned the chance to get a job at those companies, but due to external circumstances, I was not lucky enough to be given that chance.
Joining Marviq
The following year was really busy for me. The Dutch and English courses were completed, exams were passed and I was able to add a new certificate to my portfolio. But the most important accomplishment was that I met some amazing people at Marviq.
Eventually, Marviq didn’t hesitate to contact me when they had a vacancy for a software tester. Since then, Marviq provided and still provides all the guidance and support I need to sharpen my skills and succeed at the job. Everyone in Marviq showed kindness, understanding
and professionality.
The main goal in testing is not to discover mistakes, but to collaborate with the development teams to achieve the best results. My work at Marviq is not limited to quality assurance, but they also involve me in other roles such as customer support, scrum master tasks and more. That provides me with trust, courage and the desire to further develop myself.
New challenges are always ahead and at Marviq those challenges can always be faced. Now my success is Marviq’s concern, and Marviq’s success is my target. I’m just proud to be a Marviqer.
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