Grace, Indra and Benny Laban are three siblings from Indonesia who graduated from TU Delft. Although they all have a TU degree in common, their lives after TU Delft have taken them in different directions.
Benny Laban (34)
“I graduated from TU Delft in 1996 with an Aeronautics Engineering degree. My plan was to first work in the Netherlands for four years to gain some work experience before returning home to Indonesia for good, but in the midst of it, the 1998 riots in Indonesia changed my mind. I knew I couldn’t return to Jakarta and have the kind of life I wanted. I therefore decided to stay in the Netherlands for good. After a month-long holiday in Indonesia, I returned and started to look for work here.
My job search was extremely difficult, because I didn’t have a work permit here. Any company employing me would have to apply for a work permit on my behalf and that was the main cause of my problems. Ultimately, no aerospace-related company would hire me if they had to apply for my work permit. At that time, only the IT industry was willing to employ foreigners and apply for their work permits. After much thought, I decided to switch careers. I took my first job with Sogeti and haven’t looked back since.
I’ve worked as an IT specialist with Sogeti for the past seven years. My starting salary as a fresh graduate was 1,800 euro per month . too low for a university graduate. But lots of perks came with the job, like a lease car and flexible working hours. Working for Sogeti meant having to work mostly on the clients’ locations. I’ve worked for companies such as V&D, IBM, and ABN-Amro. Currently, I work at ING Investment Management.
For the first couple years I still hoped to switch back to something aerospace-related. But eventually I decided to stay in IT, because I kept learning new areas of businesses. For example, working on location for V&D, I learnt about the retail business; and now at ING, I’m learning about investments.
Of course, no job’s perfect. Being contracted to a new client isn’t always pleasurable. When I’ve built up good relationships with my colleagues in a current assignment, I’d like to stay longer, but I can’t if I’m being contracted to another company.
A few years back I married Rina. We now have two young boys. Since Rina still doesn’t speak Dutch fluently, our boys may have problems later during their education. Thus, we’ve decided to raise them with two languages. Rina speaks Indonesian to them, while I converse in Dutch.”
Grace Laban-Verhagen (39)
“I came to the Netherlands when I was 19-years-old, graduating from TU Delft in 1991 with an Electrical Engineering degree. I planned to return to Indonesia after having worked here for a few years. While wrapping up my thesis work, however, I met Gordon, whom I later married, so returning home to Indonesia was no longer a consideration.
Right after graduation I started my first job in the Netherlands with Hollandse Signaalapparaten in Hengelo. I was offered the job while completing my thesis. For five years I worked as a Radar System Designer, developing data and signal processing for naval combat radars. In 1997, I joined Nokia Nederland, as head of Group Network Planning, responsible for managing projects on pre-sales, overall project management and technical consultancy. Nokia’s official working language was English, which suited me fine.
In the meantime, Gordon and I married and had two lovely but challenging girls. Due to economic reasons, Nokia had to downsize. Business was almost down to zero in the Netherlands, so I had to travel a lot to work on projects in other countries. This wasn’t healthy to motherhood and hence I resigned from Nokia after five years. At Nokia, a major challenge I faced was having to execute redundancies as the company downsized. The management reorganization of Nokia Nederland required lots of ‘cultural adaptation’ on my part, as the relaxed, non-hierarchical culture of northern European management turned into a more rigid French culture.
My greatest achievement is being a mother and raising two daughters. In the past couple years it’s been discouraging looking for a new job, as most telecom companies are now looking for fresh graduates or ‘year-long specialists’. Sad to say, my TU Delft degree used to open doors, but now I too often hear that I’m overqualified for a job. My degree, combined with my working experience, is now more of an obstacle than a help to me.”
Indra Laban (37)
“I left Indonesia at the age of 18 to study at TU Delft. I majored in Mechanical Engineering and Production Systems, graduating in 1995. Upon graduation, I took an international post-graduate MBA program at Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University.
At that time, my plans were to explore the opportunities in Asia due to the then booming economies. I started working as a management consultant for Accenture (formerly Anderson Consulting) in Jakarta in 1997, and was later posted to Singapore. I had various clients across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Australia. What I found most interesting was the high exposure I got from working with the big multinationals in different industries, learning from their diverse business issues and working cultures.
Working in consultancy meant long hours and limited control of my personal life, given the nature of the assignments. Traveling was part of the package. It’s good if you have no family or other personal commitments. Otherwise….
In 2003 I returned to Indonesia to work for PT Trikomsel Multimedia, an Indonesian distributors of cellular products. After eight months however I moved to another position in the food industry that offered more responsibilities. Naturally, it wasn’t always about work. There’s also my family to consider when making professional decisions. So I returned to Singapore to work for Cerebros Pacific Limited, a health food company. Now I’m back in Singapore, which is my home now.
During my career, my TU Delft degree has, to a certain extent, opened doors for me. This was especially true with the big multinationals. Living as a foreigner in a local environment isn’t difficult. You just need the right mindset. We foreigners must adapt ourselves to the new environment, and not the other way round. This principle helped me greatly, whether I was living in the Netherlands, Asia or Australia.”
Grace and Benny Laban
Benny Laban (34)
“I graduated from TU Delft in 1996 with an Aeronautics Engineering degree. My plan was to first work in the Netherlands for four years to gain some work experience before returning home to Indonesia for good, but in the midst of it, the 1998 riots in Indonesia changed my mind. I knew I couldn’t return to Jakarta and have the kind of life I wanted. I therefore decided to stay in the Netherlands for good. After a month-long holiday in Indonesia, I returned and started to look for work here.
My job search was extremely difficult, because I didn’t have a work permit here. Any company employing me would have to apply for a work permit on my behalf and that was the main cause of my problems. Ultimately, no aerospace-related company would hire me if they had to apply for my work permit. At that time, only the IT industry was willing to employ foreigners and apply for their work permits. After much thought, I decided to switch careers. I took my first job with Sogeti and haven’t looked back since.
I’ve worked as an IT specialist with Sogeti for the past seven years. My starting salary as a fresh graduate was 1,800 euro per month . too low for a university graduate. But lots of perks came with the job, like a lease car and flexible working hours. Working for Sogeti meant having to work mostly on the clients’ locations. I’ve worked for companies such as V&D, IBM, and ABN-Amro. Currently, I work at ING Investment Management.
For the first couple years I still hoped to switch back to something aerospace-related. But eventually I decided to stay in IT, because I kept learning new areas of businesses. For example, working on location for V&D, I learnt about the retail business; and now at ING, I’m learning about investments.
Of course, no job’s perfect. Being contracted to a new client isn’t always pleasurable. When I’ve built up good relationships with my colleagues in a current assignment, I’d like to stay longer, but I can’t if I’m being contracted to another company.
A few years back I married Rina. We now have two young boys. Since Rina still doesn’t speak Dutch fluently, our boys may have problems later during their education. Thus, we’ve decided to raise them with two languages. Rina speaks Indonesian to them, while I converse in Dutch.”
Grace Laban-Verhagen (39)
“I came to the Netherlands when I was 19-years-old, graduating from TU Delft in 1991 with an Electrical Engineering degree. I planned to return to Indonesia after having worked here for a few years. While wrapping up my thesis work, however, I met Gordon, whom I later married, so returning home to Indonesia was no longer a consideration.
Right after graduation I started my first job in the Netherlands with Hollandse Signaalapparaten in Hengelo. I was offered the job while completing my thesis. For five years I worked as a Radar System Designer, developing data and signal processing for naval combat radars. In 1997, I joined Nokia Nederland, as head of Group Network Planning, responsible for managing projects on pre-sales, overall project management and technical consultancy. Nokia’s official working language was English, which suited me fine.
In the meantime, Gordon and I married and had two lovely but challenging girls. Due to economic reasons, Nokia had to downsize. Business was almost down to zero in the Netherlands, so I had to travel a lot to work on projects in other countries. This wasn’t healthy to motherhood and hence I resigned from Nokia after five years. At Nokia, a major challenge I faced was having to execute redundancies as the company downsized. The management reorganization of Nokia Nederland required lots of ‘cultural adaptation’ on my part, as the relaxed, non-hierarchical culture of northern European management turned into a more rigid French culture.
My greatest achievement is being a mother and raising two daughters. In the past couple years it’s been discouraging looking for a new job, as most telecom companies are now looking for fresh graduates or ‘year-long specialists’. Sad to say, my TU Delft degree used to open doors, but now I too often hear that I’m overqualified for a job. My degree, combined with my working experience, is now more of an obstacle than a help to me.”
Indra Laban (37)
“I left Indonesia at the age of 18 to study at TU Delft. I majored in Mechanical Engineering and Production Systems, graduating in 1995. Upon graduation, I took an international post-graduate MBA program at Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus University.
At that time, my plans were to explore the opportunities in Asia due to the then booming economies. I started working as a management consultant for Accenture (formerly Anderson Consulting) in Jakarta in 1997, and was later posted to Singapore. I had various clients across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Australia. What I found most interesting was the high exposure I got from working with the big multinationals in different industries, learning from their diverse business issues and working cultures.
Working in consultancy meant long hours and limited control of my personal life, given the nature of the assignments. Traveling was part of the package. It’s good if you have no family or other personal commitments. Otherwise….
In 2003 I returned to Indonesia to work for PT Trikomsel Multimedia, an Indonesian distributors of cellular products. After eight months however I moved to another position in the food industry that offered more responsibilities. Naturally, it wasn’t always about work. There’s also my family to consider when making professional decisions. So I returned to Singapore to work for Cerebros Pacific Limited, a health food company. Now I’m back in Singapore, which is my home now.
During my career, my TU Delft degree has, to a certain extent, opened doors for me. This was especially true with the big multinationals. Living as a foreigner in a local environment isn’t difficult. You just need the right mindset. We foreigners must adapt ourselves to the new environment, and not the other way round. This principle helped me greatly, whether I was living in the Netherlands, Asia or Australia.”
Grace and Benny Laban
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