Hello Charlotte, Change Lead in Belgium.

In this series, we’ll put the spotlight on Devoteam G Cloud’s experts who are always at the forefront of driving progress in the exciting and rapidly evolving Google Cloud world. In this article, you’ll meet Charlotte, Change Lead at Devoteam G Cloud Belgium. She has been nominated for Young ICT Lady of the Year 2023 and is among the last 10 selected ladies. If we had to describe her in one word, we would go for fearless! She always sets her teeth in new situations and challenges. But she is so much more than one word. Get to know her, find out what brought her to the ICT world, and get answers to plenty of other pressing questions about this amazing lady.

Can you introduce yourself?

Hi, I’m Charlotte, currently working at Devoteam G Cloud as a Change Lead. My role is to spark the people’s side of change and drive adoption among businesses that are going through small or major changes. What drives me and makes me happy is when a user is impacted by the change. Remarks like: “This training was worth it” or “I love these new tools”, really make my day.

About the nomination for Young ICT Lady of the Year 2023, I feel very honoured to be selected and to end up in the top 10 candidates. We ran an election within Devoteam G Cloud to choose our internal Young ICT Lady of the Year candidate, and I received the most votes from my colleagues. Being chosen by my colleagues is one of the best feelings ever, even though I’m not at ease with being in the spotlight. I may not like being in the spotlight, but I like adventure. Whether it’s delivering a complex IT project, hiking through glaciers in Greenland, or climbing in the mountains of Patagonia.’

My background and how I ended up in IT.

I just happen to be a woman in IT, with no background in IT at all. I studied public relations and languages. Since a very young age, I was fascinated by everything tech. We got our first computer at home in 1992, when I was two years old. One thing led to another. I found floppy disks with games, and my “gaming career” began. After my studies, I started at a telecom company where I was assigned to Big Data and IOT projects. Later I worked as one of the project managers on developing a new mobile application in the banking sector. And before I knew it, I worked at Devoteam G Cloud where I became a Change Manager.

Best professional advice I’ve ever received.

You’re capable of much more than you think! It’s not just advice I got from several different people, it’s a sentence I live by. If people believe in me then why wouldn’t I believe in myself? This encouragement helps me to take on more complex projects and to see them as a challenge. I can give it a try and it’s going to work, or maybe not and that’s also fine. 

What advice would you give to younger women just entering the workforce today?

Just dare and take the risk. As a young person, what do you have to lose? There are still so many experiences and opportunities ahead of you. The company that’s hiring you will teach you the necessary skills to perform on the job. Also, you can teach yourself. You can learn anything. I’m living proof of that. 

How do we make sure more women choose an IT career path?

In my opinion, it is important to immerse girls in STEM from an early age just like boys. We need to motivate and encourage children in the same way, no matter who they are. Challenge girls to make their voices heard in this society. Girls do not have to do only delicate or caring work, those days are behind us. Education and parenting have an important role to play here.

What challenges would you like to take on yourself in the future?

I see myself taking on more of a mentoring role in the future. Helping people grow in their roles, inspiring them, and transferring knowledge is great. But I don’t see myself just behind a desk. It is a dream of mine to take a trip with my brother on his sailboat and cross the Drake Passage to Antarctica. Hopefully, I will be on that sailboat within five years.