They made it - testimonials

Jean-Patrick Holvoet

After graduating as an engineer and a master in general management I decided to start my career in the financial sector.
Fortis invited me to their selection days and I joined the company as International Management Trainee on September 1st 2006.
The main reason why I joined the International Management Trainee Program was that it would give me the possibility to work in most of the businesses and the international dimension.
During my traineeship I worked in the following departments: Retail Banking, Fortis Lease; Business Development and Integration, Global Markets, Acquisition and Leveraged Finance in London, Corporate Banking in Hong Kong
In addition, all the Trainees were given professional training courses and skill-building classes.

The fact that I had been working in a specialised environment for 18 months, on both company wide and cross-border projects made the traineeship even more appealing to me.

After completing the traineeship in Hong Kong I had the opportunity to contribute to the start up of Specialised Financial Services in Asia and decided to move to Hong Kong.
I joined the Specialised Financials Services Office as a project manager and as integration officer for the leasing department in Asia.
Besides the know-how that I was able to pick up during the different assignments of my traineeship, the general experience has enabled me to better understand, right from the start, the ins and outs of how the bank globally works.
In addition, during this time I developed a strong network within the organisation.