Meeting with the participants of the STIB-MIVB's Young Starter programme
Today, let's embark on the dynamic world of STIB, the Brussels Intercommunal Transport Company, which embodies THE reference that moves the Brussels-Capital Region! As an emblematic figure of employment in Brussels, STIB creates a meaningful and game-changing professional environment , especially for young graduates in civil, industrial, electromechanical, mechanical, electrical or IT-oriented engineering. 👨 🎓 Discover below the testimonies of Corentin, Noha and Hugo, three participants of the Young Starter program, a real springboard of opportunities!
What did you study and what school do you come from? What made you want to go in this direction?
Hugo : I am French and I started my studies in France in an engineering school (generalist), in Marseille. I chose this fairly wide option because I wasn't sure which direction I wanted to take. Then I got a double degree to specialize. I first searched in my school's partner universities as well as the master's degrees offered. I lived in the North of France and I came to Brussels because I was not far away and I felt interest in electromechanics in transport (automotive and railway technologies). I studied at the Polytechnique and now live in Belgium.
Corentin : Basically, I'm coming out of Solvay , so it's more about management, economics, finance, etc. However, I decided to do my dissertation on mobility in Brussels as well as on Good Move and its impact on air quality. It's far from my studies but I was very interested in this whole ecosystem and so I did an additional one-year Master's degree in transport and logistics to complete it.
Then I worked for a year in a municipality as a mobility advisor. The Young Starter programme, which really interested me, was an opportunity for me to join STIB.
Noha : I come from UC Leuven and I studied electromechanical engineering with a specialization in energy.
The reason why I wanted to go in this direction? In Rheto, I had a math teacher who used to be an engineer. He made me passionate about studying engineering because he told me it was "learning how to learn" and I love it.
I was not disappointed because during my studies, we were quickly thrown into the deep end. We had to do a lot of work on our own to produce things, to solve problems on our own with the documents available. I am happy to have learned in this way and to have done this study because it is a quality that serves me not only in my professional life but also in my everyday life.
And as a result, here you are now at STIB. Noha and Hugo, what motivated you to join them?
Noha : I really want to have an impact on the ecological and energy transition. I wondered a lot how I could do it. I first thought of the world of energy because that's what I specialized in, but it has a lot to do with the private sector. Which means, in my opinion, that profitability will always come before the transition, the environment, the human aspect...
STIB is one of the few companies with which I felt aligned in terms of personal values because the primary objective is to transport people while providing a quality service (this is before profitability above all). That's what attracted me here because I think it's a great lens that combines an ecological and social aspect. I feel like I'm giving back to the community.
Hugo : I was contacted by STIB, which presented me with its programme. The 3 missions, the discovery of the sector and the fact that it is not directly a permanent job appealed to me because I like to touch everything. The support aspect of this program is, in my opinion, a good springboard between school and the world of work. However, we sign a permanent contract and it's a real investment, so I want to stay with STIB in the medium term because I feel good there! The fact of contributing to the life of Brussels, of being able to improve, to have a concrete impact, gives a lot of meaning.
Hugo, can you tell us more about your job at STIB?
Hugo : I've been a Young Starter since September 2022 and I'm on my third assignment. The program consists of 3 missions of 8 months. For my part, I had the chance to carry out my first mission at the metro (Operations - BUM), as part of the management of incidents (of all types). A strategic mission where I was in contact with the management of the BUM, as it concerns the organization and the structure. This includes the "incident investigation" side and then the structuring around "real-time and post-incident incident management". This makes it possible to give an assessment of the severity and to define how far the information should be escalated.
My second mission was in Infrastructure as part of the renovation of the tram depot on Avenue du Roi. I was involved in the technical coordination of the architect system: collecting needs with the client, monitoring the site, managing that the techniques fit well into each other...
Currently, I have returned to Operations for driver scheduling and vehicle management software. This mainly concerns the Tram and Bus Business Units. We are deploying a new version, so there is a configuration component but also training and follow-up with agents using this software.
Corentin, can you explain to us how your onboarding went?
Corentin : In my opinion, when you arrive as a Young Starter, there are two stages : the arrival at the company as such where my manager welcomed us during a 3-day onboarding which combines, among other things, the presentation of STIB, work tools, field visits and explanations that allow us to find our way around easily. Then comes the arrival in the team where we benefit from an onboarding focused on our mission. We meet the people we will be working with and our mentor, who explains what he expects from us and the tools to succeed in achieving the objectives and accompany us during the mission. He will also be attentive to our training.
We are not interns! But the status of Young Starter allows us to receive more supervision than an experienced person while leaving us the autonomy to develop. Their valuable advice allows us to carry out the mission but also to benefit from small annexes that contribute to our development.
Could you explain to us how the principle of the different missions works?
Corentin : The Young Starter program consists of 3 missions of 8 months. A department makes a request because they need an extra person on a particular topic or project. We can choose our mission from a selection, according to our personal interests and skills (engineers, IT, business, economics, etc.). We can also meet with the managers to better understand their expectations and find out if it is a good match.
Another interesting aspect of the program is that we can go and see people ourselves and take steps based on what attracts us. For example, during one of my projects, I met Elodie and I had to interview her. She explained her job to me and it was totally what I was looking for. I asked her if she needed a Young Starter because I was looking for my second assignment. She put together something especially for me because she was interested.
Apart from the mission, which takes up more or less 90% of our time, there is a whole series of training courses that punctuate our Young Starter journey (hard skills, such as general and applied project management in the context of STIB or soft skills, to better manage active listening, collaboration, our personality, etc.).
In August, we participated, with the Young Starters team, in a Development Center, which allowed us to identify our strengths and development points. We were accompanied by a coach in order to define, with our mentors, an action plan to grow in our skills.
In this route, we also have more "fun" activities such as visits to depots or driving vehicles (metro-tram). You can find out who you're working for and why you're working, which you can't always see when you're in an office. This allows us to see that each in our own way we are working towards a common goal.
So far, if you had to sum up your backgrounds in one word, what would it be?
Corentin : IMPACT.
This is a bit of what I said above. I work to improve the comfort, the accessibility of the surface network or improve the commercial speed of vehicles... Bringing real solutions to the network. I work for millions of clients every day and it's very motivating.
Noha: JOURNEY.
I feel well looked after, there is a particular focus on my personal development. I see it as an investment in the employee that I am but also as an individual. These are tools that are as useful for my professional life as they are for my personal life, it's human development in the end.
It is one of STIB's great strengths to invest in people in this way in order to become better in our jobs but also in our private lives!
Hugo : TOGETHER.
During my first two assignments, I was able to tour the departments and realize that we all had a common goal. Overall, we feel that there is a great sense of belonging to STIB, people are proud of what they do and of being able to help (helping hand, answering questions, etc.). At the end of my first mission, even though it only lasted 8 months, I had the opportunity to celebrate it during a drink with about fifteen people including the metro management. Integration is easy and interactions are special: availability, openness, respect...
Noha, do you have an achievement or project that you are particularly proud of?
Noha : I contributed to the inventory of the assets of the metro stations. I made a sort of tree structure that includes the different equipment, which had never been done before within the SSE.
The purpose of this tree structure is that it can be used by everyone, but it will mainly be used by the Asset Management department. They are the ones who study the assets and make the right investment choices over their entire lifecycle. This will allow them to have a list of everything that exists and not miss any information.
It was very rewarding because I had to collaborate with different people such as experts in the field and I was lucky enough to be able to coordinate this project.
I'm proud of it because it was the first responsibility I was given by my mentor and it went well. I am grateful that he has given me thefreedom to coordinate this project.
Hugo, if we understand correctly, you're coming to the end of your last mission? And now, what's going to happen?
Hugo : Yes! But being on a permanent contract, my adventure will continue thanks to internal mobility through which I will be able to apply for the positions that open up and interest me. The positive side is that as a Young Starter, you can prepare for it because you know, from the beginning, that your first part of your career lasts 2 years. We can project ourselves.
We are always accompanied by our HR manager, recruiters and others to see where we want to go. HR members can go and meet the teams to propose our profiles and find opportunities or we can go directly to meet the managers. A real structure is in place to help us. As far as I'm concerned, I haven't applied yet, but I know that I want to stay at STIB on the operations side for human contact and to be in the field.
Anything else to share with us?
Corentin : During my two missions, I always faced super nice, benevolent, dynamic people... I felt well looked after at all times and I am happy to have been alongside passionate colleagues who want to make things happen, to move the lines. My mentors trusted me by giving me important projects such as tram storage, which is quite complex. We are not considered as interns, we are serious projects with expectations from the hierarchy.
👉 Do you also want to get on track with a meaningful job? Discover STIB as you've never seen it before and join the Young Starters team: https://www.meet-my-job.com/entreprises-impact/stib-mivb !