Already three years ago I started working at Itility. I’m not a person who changes jobs easily or can be persuaded to do so by a higher salary. I get motivated by the possibilities to develop and challenge myself as a professional, and I found this challenge at Itility — a place where my ambitions can be realized.
At Itility, people are not ranked by expertize or function. We work and think in roles you can fulfill in teams and in projects. It is possible to fulfill various roles in different projects and different teams, sometimes even simultaneously. Your personal goals are leading for the direction you are heading. Meaning you are the manager of your own career. I will give you a look behind the scenes and show you what working at Itility is about, and why I love my job so much.
Young Professional Program
For young, (almost) graduated talents it starts with the Young Professional Program (YPP). For six months you are submerged in the culture and philosophy of Itility by working on projects with real use cases, using a variety of tools. YPP-classes come in several flavors, like data science, cloud, software, stack, or consultancy. Each YPP-class ensures that the topics and projects you work on (as a team but playing individual roles) give a clear picture of your own talents and interests, and those of your team members. On top of that, you are encouraged to develop yourself further in areas of your passion.
Self-actualization
Within Itility, self-actualization with the help of all the different networks around you is very well embedded, as you can see in the image on the right. It shows how we feel a company culture should be shaped. Employees (also called Itilians) are trained and connected in a very comprehensive way and they learn to always look further than their own field of work and talent, developing themselves in different roles.
“Itility is… mastering repeatable innovation”
Part of the Itility-core is a lifelong learning mentality, which translates into mastering the skill of repeatable innovation. The drive comes from the people themselves; the skills are taught by Itility. The Itility Academy hosts many trainings and our so-called Season schools — Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn schools: a curriculum of various trainings per season that you can join or give. Especially since joining trainings outside your own expertize can be very valuable for both your personal growth and your day-to-day job. It also helps to open your eyes for other opportunities in the company. Provided that it is well-founded, you have the opportunity to develop in new areas of expertize. At Itility we understand that initiatives like these should be embraced. Besides motivated employees, the biggest advantages are gained experiences and nurtured curiosity.
Our mentality is the foundation of our success
Itility’s structure, simple and autonomous, is shown in more facets than just working in multidisciplinary teams. Because we strongly believe in self-management, the hierarchical structure is very flat. There are no layers of managers and project leaders. Engineers are the project leaders and the project leaders are engineers. Everyone carries their own responsibility, contributing to the bigger picture. It creates a workplace in which everyone can utilize the possibilities and opportunities they spot.
Working in a company with such a flat structure starts with its leadership. We specifically use the term leadership instead of management. “We believe in content-based leadership, visionary leadership without the superfluity of management,” as my colleague Xander states it so well. The foundation of the success of Itility lies in its business structure and the culture this creates.
Nourishing a culture of collaboration and growth
The culture within a company is defined by its employees. It all starts with the drive and curiosity of our colleagues. Itilians are keen on learning from and with each other. To achieve this, it is important to create an atmosphere in which people can give and receive content-based feedback in a direct and open way. For some this may be totally new, but my experience is you get used to this quickly because feedback is always constructive. This way you feel free to state your opinion, because the interest of the business process is always the goal. It creates a safe environment for giving and receiving feedback, stimulating collaboration and growth. All stakeholders — Itility, the customer, but definitely we as employees — benefit from this.
How does it serve us?
All the elements that make Itility the company it is, create a culture in which people are not afraid to make decisions and take responsibilities. Inherently creating a work environment where YOU are in charge of your own career. You decide in which expertize you want to develop. Operating in the fast-changing digital world, it is very well possible that you will develop in an expertize you are not aware you are interested in yet. Because who knows what will happen in two years from now, let alone five? That is one of the main reasons I love working at Itility. We work on solutions which are not available yet and are far ahead of the pack. Thanks to our business structure, but especially to the company culture in which innovation is embedded, working here is a challenging and inspiring experience for me and will continue to be so in the future.
Passion is what fuels us
Working at Itility reaches beyond roles and job descriptions, that is why we recruit for passions not vacancies. Most important is that you fit within the Itility DNA and culture, and match one of our passions.
Did you get excited about the possibilities Itility has to offer you? Then I invite you to accept the challenge of becoming my new colleague and apply at careers.itility.nl. Are you curious about the cool stuff we do? Then read some of our other blogs at blogs.itility.nl.
