'Time flies when you're having fun', a statement that certainly applies to Rutger Frantzen. Meanwhile he has been with ENTER for 5 years, a period that he does not experience as long at all. "I am now working on my third interesting project. If you do what you like, time just goes very fast.”
Through ENTER he started at Philips on an assignment in the field of digital pathology. This was followed by ASML and now he's working for Nedschroef. Rutger: "The other day, I realized that I've been working at Nedschroef for a year already!” Interesting work, great colleagues and the opportunity to continue to develop: that's Rutger's formula for success over the past 5 years. "I am also very grateful to Koen Schilders and Perjan Kuijten of ENTER. I started as a Front End Developer and now I am a team lead. I always get the confidence and space to do the things that suit me.”
"Team spirit and involvement, that's what it's all about for me"
Rutger Frantzen
The figurehead
In the 5 years that he now works for ENTER, he has always been involved with ENTER. In several marketing publications he played a role as a kind of 'figurehead': with portrait photo and quote 'The freedom to explore'. "When I was asked to do so, I really liked that. I feel at home at ENTER. I also like to meet my other colleagues at the various social events. It's really a pity that due to COVID we can't do that right now.”
He doesn’t meet with his Nedschroef colleagues live either. "We also appear to be a well-oiled machine as a team online, but still a dimension is lacking. You don't have any coffee talk and new colleagues get started without really being able to look them in the eye. We used to go to our office in Vienna on a regular basis, where part of our team is based. If you also know each other personally, it's just a little easier and much more fun. If you go live with a product that everyone has worked really hard for, you want to be able to celebrate it with each other. Have a beer together.”
"Ik voel me thuis bij ENTER. Ik ontmoet ook graag mijn andere collega’s op de verschillende sociale events."
Rutger Frantzen
Invictus Games
Team spirit and commitment, that's what it's all about for Rutger. He also joined the Red Cross 12 years ago as a volunteer. "I thought I should take a first aid course. I just lived in The Hague and thought: 'Maybe this way I will get to know some more people'. And before I knew it, I was involved in all sorts of things”, he says with a dry wit that he is known for. He is still the event coordinator for this region. Again that same smile: "Yes, I coordinate events… only not now..." But that does not mean nothing had to be done in the last period, on the contrary. "We now support various COVID interventions. This varies from recruiting volunteers to pack food parcels, to organizing support for flu vaccinations and arranging logistical matters for the Municipal Health Services.” He is now working on the plans for the support of the Invictus Games, which will hopefully take place in The Hague next year.
In Brabant, where he lives at the moment, he is team leader of the Red Cross Emergency Response Team. In that capacity he also wears a squeaker. "Because of course I will always be a first aid worker in the first place.” In the meantime he has received two badges of honour from the Red Cross, one of which was awarded only once to 150 volunteers as an incentive prize to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Red Cross. "You had to be nominated for this and I myself had nominated others for it. They received the award, but so did I! That was and still is very special to me.”