This month, Valentin is celebrating his two-year anniversary at Sirus. But how did it all start for him? In this blog he gives an overview of his space journey at Sirus.
Not your conventional beginning
My start at Sirus was interesting to say the least since I started during the Corona pandemic. That however didn’t stand in the way of a warm welcome at the company.
With my two degrees – Spatial Planning and IT – working at Sirus was a dream come true for me. Smart Cities have sparked my interest a long time ago and haven’t stopped fascinating me. I like to see things move and in IT there’s always something happening. Working in IT means improving the lives of people in a quick and efficient way. If you want to have an impact, this sector is where you need to be.
My first projects
My very first project was at Schoeller Allibert, a Belgian producer and supplier of reusable plastic packaging. There I met my first Sirus colleague Maarten. The project at Schoeller Allibert was very interesting since I got to work with IoT and sensors. Being able to monitor live data was both challenging and educational at the same time. Afterwards, I was appointed to the Hospital Logistics case. Another fun challenge, since I got to learn so much from master-developers/Sirus-astronauts Tim and Sam.
Being able to monitor live data was both challenging and educational at the same time.
Right now, I am working at Digitaal Vlaanderen where, unlike at the previous projects, I get to work both front-end and back-end, as a full-stack developer, with .NET Core and Vue.js. You could say I was very excited to get to know this technology!
Digitaal Vlaanderen
Currently, I am working in the data solutions department of Digitaal Vlaanderen. There I am working on an application called MAGDA Online Pro. MAGDA Online Pro is a user-friendly web application that uses the MAGDA platform for sharing data. Public organizations like schools, police departments, hospitals and governments can go there to look up data from citizens or companies (address, date of birth, place of birth…).
All sorts of data is categorized on the platform, such as, for example, educational degrees, details about who owns a specific plot of land or licence plate number. Access to this data is only authorized if you’re a recognized and approved public organisation, so not to citizens or commercial organizations.
My team
At Digitaal Vlaanderen, I am working together with a team of 5 developers (4 full-stack and 1 front-end developer(s)) and a tester, business analyst and product owner.
The challenging aspect of this project is that all of the data on the platform is anonymized so only the people who are authorized can access the personal data of the citizens. Apart from that challenge, I am learning a lot from the people on this project. I had never really worked with Vue.js so I have gained an enormous amount of knowledge already. At this project, we are constantly challenged to write better code and to look for the best possible solution. And we can actually look for and implement this best possible solution, since we get the required amount of time to do so. This way, we can optimally deliver qualitative work, and that’s very rewarding and satisfying. It pushes us to constantly think and rethink our decisions.
At this project, we are constantly challenged to write better code, to look for the best possible solution. It pushes us to think and rethink our decisions.
My experience at Sirus
Even though I am not often physically present at Sirus, I do feel like I am part of the Sirus team and atmosphere. I am very happy to work here and I hope to stay here as lang as I can. I want to get to know my Sirus colleagues better by working together with them on different projects in the future.
At Sirus you get to work for cities, you are assigned to challenging projects, you get to play with all sorts of different sensors and you can develop platforms for sharing data. So there’s always something you haven’t done yet that you can do next. I am a big fan of this variety of projects and assignments. As a thirtysomething I am still relatively young in the IT sector. I am here now to gain as much knowledge as I can so that I can grow into an expert one day. I am, however, not under any pressure since I feel like I can grow at my own pace here at Sirus. I get the time to learn without being rushed and I love that.
As a thirtysomething I am still relatively young in the IT sector.
Behind the screen, ball or steering wheel
Apart from my job at Sirus, I love to go out and exercise. I play soccer twice or three times a week and I go biking and running a lot of the time as well. Sports is kind of my second job. I’m a big fan of Union Sint-Gilloise and I love to listen to music, collect vinyl records or read a book or two when I’m at home. In the weekends, you can find me living my life in the vibrant city of Brussels, where I live.
Two years have passed and I can say time has flown. I’m looking forward to spending even more time at this company, gaining a lot more knowledge and enjoying events with my team mates.
Do you also want to work at Sirus?
Check our current vacancies.
Did you know the Sirus team members joining our mission in 2022 will be travelling with us to the NASA in Florida next year?
