Nic is Belgian and French-speaking. He was born in Brussels, but his parents lived on the Ivory Coast.  After two years, the family moved to Uganda. They stayed for another two years in Uganda before moving to the Netherlands. One of the reasons Nic and his younger brother went to the BSN was because their parents expected to be moving countries again soon and thought that an education in English was probably the most portable. But, it didn’t work out like that; Nic’s father got a new job with a Dutch company, and Nic ended up staying at the BSN for his entire schooling.

“It's an international environment. There're all sorts of very cool, interesting people. A lot of my closest friends now are still people from BSN.”

School Days

The most memorable aspects of Nic’s BSN experience, perhaps unsurprisingly, are his enduring friendships and the sports he was involved in. His standout memory was leading the BSN football team to victory in the ISST (International School Sports Tournament) in Paris in 2011. This was a large event with two divisions and 24 schools participating, so it was a big achievement.

“The tournament was in November, so you spent the first two months of the of the school year preparing and training hard as a team. We took it very seriously. In Year 13, most of the squad were friends of mine as well. Just the whole experience of being captain and being there with my mates, winning the tournament in Paris, that’s pretty memorable.”

Nic’s favourite teacher, Mr Floyd, taught languages and was skilled at differentiated instruction. He also had an uncanny ability to detect lies when it came to unsubmitted homework.

“Mr Floyd knew what was required from him to get students to improve. So even in a class with, say, 20 people, where there are such differences in levels and talents, he would be able to differentiate, demanding a lot from the more advanced students while still taking good care of the ones who were a bit behind.”

Nic’s favourite subject was History, which is still one of his interests. He describes himself as a very analytical person, so his strongest subjects at school were Maths, Science, and, later, in the Sixth Form, Economics.

Post-BSN Career Decisions

Nic left the Sixth Form to study Economics at Erasmus University in Rotterdam without having any real idea of what he wanted to do as a career—he’s still discovering that, actually:

“When I started Economics during IB, I thought, ‘This is something I'm good at and find very interesting. I like the logic and the real-world application.’ It just made sense. So I decided that I was going to study Economics at uni, and at least I had figured out the next step. But, it was only in the third year of my bachelor’s degree that I discovered an interest in Finance. I did a master’s in Finance, and then things just kind of happened. There was never a predestined plan for me or a eureka moment of: “That's it! I want to do this.””

 It is hopefully a comforting example that you don't need to have it all figured out at age 18.

Finding the Fit

Nic started his career in Finance at Deloitte, then moved to ING, and recently started a new job at bunq. Without getting too technical, because it is very technical, Nic works within the treasury function of bunq, which forms the link between the customer’s deposits on one side of the balance sheet and the investments—mortgages and loans—on the other side. Nic’s main responsibility is to manage the bank’s interest rate risk. He is dealing with lots of financial models and technical concepts.

“bunq is quite young and small. We are still figuring things out. So, it means that you get put in positions where you have lots of responsibilities, which is both incredibly rewarding and can also be quite stressful. But that is the best way to learn and grow – get thrown in the deep end of the pool and figure out a way to swim out.”

Nic sought out a company where he could have a big impact and enjoys the challenge of a high-expectation, high-stakes environment.

Valuable Career Advice

When asked what skills Nic feels are necessary to work in his industry, there was no hesitation: effective communication. A skill that is likely applicable to any (work) context.

“I've seen countless people around me who could be considered whiz kids from an IQ point of view, but just because they're unable to deliver a message effectively, their careers have stalled. The good news is that you can work at it.

There are many different aspects to this, but two that are often neglected and go hand-in-hand are being a very good listener and asking the right questions. Even if you're not in a dedicated sales role, you're spending a considerable part of your career trying to influence people in one way or another, whether that's customers, investors, or trying to get management’s buy-in for a proposal."

Putting School into Perspective

In 2022, Nic took part in a Career Networking event with BSN Sixth Form students and was surprised to receive lots of questions about how to position yourself to get in at the best universities.

“I'd completely forgotten about that whole idea because you come to realise quite quickly that people don't care about that as much as you think they do.

A case in point is my current employer; they didn't even ask to see my CV. Of course, they tested me thoroughly. But, essentially, what they're saying is, ‘We don't really care where you learned this, where you worked, what have you. We just want to know what you're like, what you can do now and what you can bring to the table.’ And I think that's very reassuring.

There's no need to worry that if you haven't got the best grades in Sixth Form, then that's it—you've ruined your career prospects or whatever. There are a lot of opportunities to get back and correct that. Also, I think general advice is to spend your limited time doing a broad set of things: putting yourself out there, doing your sports, your music, other hobbies, and socialising.

The same goes for university, by the way: you can put all your time into graduating with honours or the equivalent, but I think you'll get a lot more from doing internships and joining clubs. You also meet interesting people and grow your network.”

A Role Model

One very influential and inspiring figure in Nic’s early career was the person who first hired him at Deloitte. He was a senior partner leading a big team in a hardworking, high-pressure environment.

“He just made time to do things that he was interested in, including teaching Maths to disadvantaged kids in the evenings and coaching his son's football team.

He epitomised this modern style of leadership where empathy is at the forefront, and he would always ask you how you're doing on a personal level. There were a few instances, not directly with me, but with colleagues, he stepped in to protect. Even if it meant sacrificing commercial interest. You don’t see this very often. And so, in some ways, that was the perfect leader to have at my first job when I was still very naïve, coming out of university with almost no expectations of what business life, professional life is going to be, to have this guy being the first person to shape me. So, he comes as close as there is to a role model in terms of how I want to be as well."