Meet Belén about career development in digital

What makes a great company even greater? This is open to many opinions, but if I were to choose one thing, it would definitely be its people. Working at a company that values its people is something that was not at the top of my mind when I was finishing my degree and searching for a job, but something I learned to value more and more as time passed by.

– Hi there! To you, the one reading this, I hope that my experience and that of my colleagues will be of help to you! –

My career path at Roche started four years ago when I learned about the IniTiate programme in Madrid, a programme for recent graduates in the area of IT infrastructure. The programme was a great opportunity for me to explore new development areas, so I was excited to apply for it. I did not know at that time how good that decision was.

During that one-year programme, I learned a lot about project management and, more importantly, how many different and significant things we do at Roche, and thus how wide the range of development opportunities are. I could contribute to many different projects and work with people from all over the world. From the very first day, I enjoyed working with open-minded colleagues willing to collaborate and help each other grow. Thanks to that collaboration environment, my manager and the team I worked with, I was able to develop myself into agile frameworks and take on the role of a Scrum Master.

In order to promote and strengthen agile ways of working further, all Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches were soon grouped together, forming a new team in the area of IT infrastructure. Our brand-new Agile team was definitely fun. We were empowered from the beginning, owning our team strategy and direction, we listened to everyone’s ideas, supported them and evolved them together and in collaboration with more experts from other Roche functions. As an example, I had the opportunity to facilitate workshops not only in the area of Informatics but also in the Product Development and Medical Affairs area.

Working with so many different cultures triggered my interest in having a closer experience. With the support of my manager, I applied for a position abroad, and a few months later, I moved to Roche Costa Rica! It has been almost two years now and it has definitely been the biggest learning and most enriching professional and personal experience so far.

While Madrid is a Roche Informatics Hub, Costa Rica is mainly hosted by RSS (Roche Services & Solutions). Working from a different country (and continent!) hosted by another Roche area helped me get more knowledge about how diverse we and our functions are and how much we can benefit from it. I could, for example, connect with other agile colleagues who support, instead of Informatics, groups such as Finance or Procurement and who shared with me what other perspectives they applied in their daily work.

Coming back to my first reflection and based on my experience, Roche is great because people at Roche are great. From more than 100,000 inspiring colleagues many things can be learned. So I am excited to continue my path in this family, getting to know more and more of its members and to continue appreciating the valuable work we all do. Regardless of our function or location, the nicest aspect of this family is that ultimately we are all working together to do now what patients need next.

– I hope this was useful and your interest increased! Hopefully, I will meet you soon :) –

Meet Belén about career development in digital

Belén

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