Arianne van de Wetering 

For our Role Model Campaign, we met with Arianne van de Wetering, a Health Data Specialist at Nictiz. With more than 20 years of experience in information exchange, she explained how her desire to solve analytical challenges in society keeps her motivated. She wants to keep growing and evolving as an expert and be valuable by solving analytical difficulties. Arianne enjoys spending quality time with her partner and two kids, exploring new cultures, and staying active by playing sports.      

Questioning, Business or an IT degree?    

Early on, Arianne had struggled to decide on a singular field. She knew she was interested in technical subjects but questioned whether a technical university would be the right place for her. Instead, she decided to study business administration to keep her options broad enough to explore different fields. During this time, studying business administration, she realised how passionate she was about the technical elements of business, which led to her pursuing a master’s degree in information management. She even considered adding another major in informatics but was unwilling to sacrifice her student social life at that time. Instead, she decided to pursue a career that would bring her closer to her dreams.   

Finding the intersection   

To complete her degree in business administration, she needed to write her thesis on a company’s operations. After searching, she found a logistics company that partnered with an IT company for their business-critical operations. She was attracted by the type of work this IT company accomplished. After graduation, she applied and was hired by them. She acquired a role as the middle-woman for IT integration between the logistics company and its customers. She saw how she could combine her business knowledge with her technical passion. Information exchange has been a common subject of expertise in her career. With this experience, she soon worked with many telecom operators in the Netherlands.  

The role of being a project leader in her career   

Arianne was thriving, which naturally meant she got promoted to team/project leader. After performing in these roles for some time, it dawned upon her that being responsible for team members gave her less and less time for the tasks that genuinely energised her: analytical thinking and technical creativity. She wanted to specialise even further and continued to improve her technical knowledge without the responsibility of managing other people. While companies often value team leaders for their people skills and organisational capabilities, Arianne contests that teams require and must appreciate experts in individual fields.     

Social impact   

Arianne worked with the IT company for several more years. However, she soon realised that she wanted to work in a field where she would positively impact society’s most pressing challenges. This was one of the factors drawing her towards Nictiz, as with Nictiz, she could work directly on the information exchange in the health sector. Almost a decade ago, she began her career at Nictiz and reflected that this was one of the best career moves for her as Nictiz also enabled her to truly choose her technical career path.    

Working culture at Nictiz   

By supporting Arianne’s decision to choose her career path, Nictiz is one of the leading examples of how a company can help their employees grow in their career journeys. When we asked Arianne what it is like to work for Nictiz, she replied confidently: “It’s an enjoyable company to work with. My colleagues are all very passionate about their work, and we share the same interest. It’s OK to make mistakes since we all learn from our mistakes.” It’s also essential for her to have a good team, which she found at Nictiz. Especially during the pandemic, the fact that she could have fun with her team of techies kept her motivated.   

Values in life and career   

What is stunning about Arianne’s personality is how she gets motivated by improving healthcare through her position at Nictiz. Maintaining a work-life balance is crucial to Arianne, considering she had children earlier in her career. In order to keep this balance, she had a period where she worked part-time, and she truly appreciates her employer’s flexibility in allowing this. She advises others starting their careers to practise saying no and exercising their professional boundaries. This considered, Arianne shares with us that: “You need to remain flexible because you will need to change, and the world around you will change. So, you will need to adapt.” Her story serves as a reminder that you can find your passion with hard work, dedication, and the support of a great company.

Find out more about the participation of Arianne van de Wetering in the Role Model Campaign here.

Want to read more stories? Visit this page for an overview of all our Role Models from the Role Model Campaign 2023.