Bringing in an acquaintance and receiving 2,000 euros gross; it happened to Advisor Marketing and Communications Yvonne Kamps. In fact, her former neighbor Anna Verstappen is now her direct coworker. A conversation with Yvonne and Anna, both of whom moved away but kept in touch with each other's careers through their mothers and reconnected on LinkedIn.
“We grew up in South Limburg and often played together. We never lost sight of each other, but we each went our own way. Anna moved to the north, I stayed in the south. But our mothers still live next door to each other and talk to each other all the time”, Yvonne says.
Reconnecting on LinkedIn
Yvonne has worked at APG for five years and started in a new position in a different department last year. Anna congratulated her on this on LinkedIn and that's how they got reconnected. Anna: “I asked if you could tell me more about working at APG.” Yvonne told me about the company culture, “that APG is a mega-sized, but very personal company. I knew that development prospects are important to Anna, so I also told her about the different courses I’ve been taking and others that are still coming up.”
Job opening tip-off
A job opening came up in Yvonne’s team that she thought would be a good match for Anna. “As soon as she told me about it I thought Yes, that sounds just right for me!” Anna tells us. “This is what I’m looking for in a new job. I think meaningful work with social involvement is very important. I also attach great importance to personal development and growth, and a varied range of tasks. APG offers all this. Then we had a phone call and I got a good idea of what the work and the team were like. That was so much better than just reading the job description.”
Tip for colleagues thinking about proposing someone
Yvonne: "Of course, it’s great if you know that someone in your network is looking for a new job. But be sure to ask exactly what that person is looking for. From my APG perspective I might think: this person is interesting for this department. But through our LinkedIn connection I knew, for example, that Anna is interested in development opportunities.”
Celebrating together
Yvonne received a reward for bringing Anna aboard. “The first thing I would like to do with that is to go out to dinner with Anna! To celebrate that she got hired.”