Discussing career tracks with Jaël Pauwels

I completed a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and switched my focus to photonic engineering for my master’s and to photonic computing for my PhD degree.

A PhD is fun, but you start to wonder what am I practically contributing to society? I wanted to work in more concrete terms of output and deliverables. So I was happy when Addestino reached out, and I started in January this year, and up until this point, it’s been a wild learning journey.

It’s easy to lose touch with just how much of a specialist you’ve become when you work too long on the same topic. You become less aware of other disciplines or even soft skills. So the positioning of Addestino and its offer stood out to me because it would allow me to explore different fields and projects and move between the technical and business sides.

As a former PhD student, starting at Addestino had a slight culture shock, not in a negative sense, it was just a completely different environment. Practically speaking, you jump in on day one, and there’s a lot of support from colleagues, mentors, and HR to manage everything.

Addestino, at a senior management level, has excellent experience and methods for taking in people like myself with a technical background. They can decipher what we know and how our skills are valuable and put us within projects that force us to grow.

Addesino takes input from employees very much to heart; they help us switch projects according to our preferences or what kind of work we like or don’t.

At the moment, I’m taking whatever projects they put in my path; and I’m learning so much from non-technical projects, including soft skills I’ll use forever.

“I’m in an exploratory phase, trying to figure out what I enjoy and don’t, to narrow down what makes me want to jump up in the morning.”