Victor Nendongo

At Work

When I arrived at Julius Bear Academy (JBA) the office looked like an office out of Google. Open space, colorful and a very friendly environment. The team is full of amazing people of different personalities. The values of JBA are care, passion and excellence and I came to know this through the team’s constant willingness to help each other through problems especially for someone like me that does not have a financial or banking background. They introduced me to how they achieve excellence. I was part of two teams, this made me have two different supervisors. For each team I would work on totally not related projects. I was under the Human Resource department working for Learning Technology where I was responsible, among other team tasks, for the creation of automated Python 3.0 scripts that created executive charts. I was mainly part of the reporting side of the team. For the other team I worked as an E-learning course designer and among other tasks solve common E-learning issues. These are all intensive roles that I was responsible for, hence I learned how to organize, communicate and most importantly schedule my work. Using the agile method every day I would have a morning catch up with both my supervisors individually about my progress regarding the projects and here I would answer three questions. What did I do the last time we met? What is standing in my way to complete my task? And what will I work on for the day?

These guys became my family as I would spend hours with them. I learned a lot from paying attention to detail even the smallest of things matters, to learning about bank policies and how to ensure that your employees are ahead of competition. I met professionals from all over the world. For once in my life I was not just Victor from the small town Ondangwa, Namibia. I was Victor representing Ondangwa, Namibia to the world.

My Swiss host family

I could never get myself to tell you how amazing my family was to me. They opened their doors for me, gave me a bed, gave me a jacket when I was cold, gave me food. The first two months work was really requiring a lot from me and I became depressed. They took me to a mountain for hiking and when I got at the top, I was motivated and I walked back down the mountain. The following day I went to work and I gave my best and I never regretted that decision and it’s all thanks to my family. They gave me brothers that I never had. They were not hosting me, they made me part of their family.  

Highlights and challenges in Switzerland

The most important lesson I learned from my three months stay in Switzerland was “Always under promise yourself and always over deliver”. Coming from a culture were boosting was the only way I believed will get people interested in me. I was given a simple task in my first week of work, to convert the size of 1000 images to one size in one go. I understood the problem, I understood what was required from me to get the job done, however I did not put into consideration that the programming language that I was going to use, is new to me I never used it before. The environment that I found myself in was new. I told my supervisor that I will have the job done in two days. Two days turned into three weeks. Sometimes it is the best to under promise yourself and over deliver. This ensures that not only do you reduce the pressure upon yourself, however you place yourself in the most favorable situation if you get the job done in less time, you win the clients trust and showed that you had put in a lot of effort to get the job done.

Everything that happened in the last three months was a challenge. The one challenge that really stood out to me and required me to shift and discover a new side of me was when I was required to learn a new programming language along with its major libraries during my stay here in Switzerland. This was a necessary shift as without the new skills that I acquired through sleepless nights of the first two months I wouldn’t have completed my project for one of the teams I was part of at Julius Bear Academy.

my future plans

Five years ago, if you told me that in the future, I would come work in Switzerland, for Julius Baer private Bank, and become a Data Scientist and E-learning Developer, I wouldn’t have believed you. However, that was my future and currently it’s my history.

If I were to mention my future plans, you wouldn’t believe me. Let us wait until it’s a story to talk about. One thing for sure it involves working with people to improve the lives of people. More like the organization that was responsible for putting me on a plan for the first time in my life. An educational opportunity was given to me by B360 an opportunity I will pass on to the next.

Personal message

I did not get this internship because I had good grades. I am a year behind with my Bachelors, I am going back home to fight another war. I got this internship because I showed my ambition, my creativity, my weakness. I showed who I was, who I am and who I wanted to become. When you find yourself here remember who you are? Where you are from?  And If you look closely,  Switzerland has no natural resources, however their currency is higher than the US and European currency. This place was built by people that decided to put in the hours. My final message to you my friend, like the Swiss railways, when you snooze you are left behind, Put in the hours.