From a job as a corporate attorney to a career as a business analyst. That sounds like a big transition. But Madja Chouaibi disagrees: “I see so many similarities between the two careers.”

“I’ve wanted to help people my whole life. That’s probably because I always felt left out when I was younger. I wasn’t like all the rest of the kids, so I was often treated differently at school. That gave me a strong sense of justice.”
“I studied Law in Utrecht, with a specialism in corporate law. After my studies, I worked as a labor attorney and personal injury attorney. But the coronavirus pandemic made me think about whether I still enjoyed my work. My attorney’s heart still beat for the client, but I noticed that I was dealing with more and more cases on ‘automatic pilot’. That’s terrible in terms of advocacy, because you’re not giving the client 100% of your effort. I was losing touch with the profession, and that was frustrating to me as a person and attorney with a winner’s mentality.”

Astonished LinkedIn reactions

“When I was thinking about what I enjoy doing, I knew that it involved thinking in terms of solutions. One of my friends always had enthusiastic stories about working at Capgemini. So now I work there as a business analyst. When a client wants to implement new software, I analyse the best way to work towards that goal. I also work on improving processes. I examine which steps are unnecessary, and how the process can be made more efficient. Now I’m working on a migration project. The client wants to transfer his data from location A to location B. My job is to collect everyone’s preferences and pass them on to the developers so they can build a tool for them.”
“Astonished replies started to flood in when I posted my new job on LinkedIn. From ‘What are you doing at an ICT temp services company?’ to ‘But you’re not an ICT person?’ I don’t think the switch is that strange, and it even has some similarities with my previous work. As a business analyst, I also have to analyze, think strategically and quickly get down to the core of the problem. But now my client’s wish is the law. It’s a big misunderstanding that a job in ICT means writing code and building websites. It’s so much more than that.”

Constantly learning

“The great thing about Capgemini is that they take the individual into consideration. You can then plan out your own career. That works really well for me. My natural curiosity is rewarded by the unlimited number of training courses I can attend. I recently completed the training for Scrum Master, because I want to lead and motivate people. I want to help them put their own intrinsic motivation into action. That also ties in to Capgemini’s payoff: ‘Get the future you want’. I want to give my team the feeling that they can achieve anything they want.”
“If you’re feeling restless, have an affinity with ICT, and see yourself in a Capgemini job opening, then my advice is: go for it! That gut feeling is a good sign that you’re ready for the next step. You don’t have to be afraid of jumping off the deep end at Capgemini. If they believe in you, then they’ll invest in a long-term relationship. Those aren’t just empty words; you’ll really be building the future together.”
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