My Irish story- By Katleen Bell-Bonjean

I was born on the 30th of December 1971 in St.- Antonius Brecht, which is situated about half an hour outside of Antwerp. When I was 19, I moved to England ( Bristol) to improve my English. I returned to Belgium a year later. The travelbug hadn't quite left me ( I don't know if it ever will) so I went to the US. I travelled all around the place, as I had a ticket from North West that allowed me to travel on standby for a whole month. I went to Boston, Minneapolis, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver and many other places. I had such a good time there, that I returned within the year, this time to visit Canada as well. Looking back, I think I prefer Canada.

Finally back in Belgium, I wanted to take a TEFL(Teach English as a Foreign Language) course, as I was thinking of teaching English as foreign language in some exotic country. I stumbled into an Irish guy in a cafe in Antwerp, and the choise was made, I was going to take the course in Dublin.

Having done a bit of research in Dublin what was on offer, it appeared that the TEFL was really developed for native speakers, and that non native speakers couldn't really take the course : - (. There are other courses around, and one that is aimed at none native speakers are the Cambridge exams. There are three levels, and I took the highest level, namely the proficiency exams. I studied for a few weeks in the Ilac Library in Dublin to master the exam. The exams weren't easy, but I am proud to say that I did pass! Hip , Hip , Hooray!

At this stage, I was in Dublin for nearly 3 months, and money was getting tight!. I had to make a decision, stay and find a job or go back to Belgium. I had heard from the VDAB in Antwerp ( equivalent to Irish FAS), that I could transfer my Belgian unemployment benefit to Ireland( or any other EU member state), if my purpose of being in Ireland ( or any EU member state) was to find employment. VDAB

In those days Dublin wasn't such a popular to find a job, let alone a multi - lingual job. I distinctively remember when I told a big recruitment agencies in Dublin that I spoke Dutch, French, English and German that they never really had requirements for multilinguals. 6 Months later that had changed and every recruitment agency I had registered with called me saying that they had a job for me! Especially people who's native language is Dutch (sometimes they even specifically ask for Flemish speakers) should have no trouble finding a job. There are plenty around!

I had nearly given up in February 1994, when I got a phone call from Skillbase ( now Skillsgroup) .
I was offered a job in National Pen, who are based inDundalk. I couldn't drive ( I can drive now!!)) and had to go by train to Dundalk. My day to day job was to call customers from National Pen in the Netherlands and to ask if they were interested in purchasing personalized pen by telephone. It was one of the most difficult times of my stay in Ireland, as I had to get up early in the morning, get on train, get in a taxi and the same in the evening. I had to get a taxi as the factory of National Pen isn't exactly in the centre of Dundalk. In some cases the train was delayed, broke down etc., so I was late at work or sometimes only home at 8 in the evening

Anway, it was a contract for 6 months and it was all worth it ( in the end!). At that time, I was sharing a house with at least 5 students, and my monthly rent was ONLY 72 Pounds. These days however, finding a room in shared house for less than 50 pounds A WEEK are hard to come by.

My contract was for 6 months so after I finished in National I found a job in EFIS, who went bankrupt after 9 months. I worked for a while in Meridian Vat Reclaim, who also decided to close down their marketing division.

I finally ended up at Software Spectrum. They are the largest reseller of Sofware in the world. I was there for nearly 3 years and was introduced to the delights of a call centre. I took care of customers in the Benelux and occasionally French and German customers.

I learned a lot about licensing policies of the major software housese ( such as Microsoft, Lotus , IBM etc.), but also about customer service, customer satisfaction, how do you keep customers, orderprocesses, internal systems, pricing policies, negociating etc. I had never really worked for an American company ( or in the sense that the policies where very much American), so I was exposed to different ways, which was at time interesting. I discovered differences in my own opinion and theirs, but I think I also became wiser(?!) out of it. I was of course a foreigner but so where they, so there was a degree of adaptation/confrontation with the Irish way on their behalf too!

Software Spectrum was at that time still quite small, and the orders were processed in a very manual way, using an order book. As time went on and systems were introduced, it all became a lot easier. After about a year, I was getting a little bored ( I had plenty of work!), but I think I needed a different challange. This challenge I was given when I was promoted to the position of Licensing Specialist. My job was mainly to train inside and outside sales on the various aspects of the licensing program of Microsoft, called Microsoft Select. I was also responsible for the approval of license orders through our order sytems, license reports to Microsoft, liaising between the American office and Sydney. As you can read , a very filled and varied job! I thoroughly enjoyed it.

At that stage however, David and myself were having enough of living in Dublin. It's a big city with lot's of traffic and pollution( don't underestimate this!) and we were very keen to move to quieter places.
I found myself a job in APC in Galway, which is in the West of Ireland. This time, my job is a combination of technical support and customer support APC, that stands for : American Power Conversion, sells all kinds of UPS's. They are most commonly used in computer environments and serve as back up power supply when there are powercuts, sags, dips etc. A UPS can shut down your server in such a way that you don't lose your data.

I mainly took calls from the Benelux , France and in the beginning also Germany, Switzerland and Austria. APC has Freephone numbers all over Europe and those calls are then transferred to Galway to the desk of a person who speaks that languge. I work together with lot's of different nationalities which is really nice. You could say we have a smaller version of the United Nations here. I was also the year 2000 Coordinator and dealt with queries from European customers related to our products.

It's been a while since I last updated this page - and we are now about 3 years later :) and I am still with APC, I have moved on to the Project Team, where I look after Large Projects in the Benelux and Africa. This is mainly the rollout of Three Phase products( known as Silcon) and a new Solution Called ISX - Infrastructure.

Oh my, we are now May 2005, and I have just gotten a moment to look at my website again.. It's outdated, so I'll have to update it!! I am now working in NetIQ ( Since September 2003. I work in the maintenance renewal team, which I find very interesting. People purchase support contract, and when those are about to expire we remind them and send out invoices...We have been blessed with a baby son in June 2004, and we are about to move house, so it's all happening.

Fast Forward another year, and we had another baby son in June 06. Still with NetIQ, but moved into the role of Customer Satisfaction Liason, reviewing feedback and satisfaction rates, and generally ensuring that the customers had a good experience dealing with the company.. so if were busy with one, it's double the fun now. I am currently on maternity leave, and hope to do something from home starting in January 07. I am also reviewing the existing pages, and updating them, so it contains more accurate info for those who are wanting to move to Ireland.

We are now End of October 2007 and my my plans to start my own business have come to fruititation!!!! I have set up a company called Belgian Treasures - Gifts from the heart!. I initially started with products that are from Belgium( and no, not chocolate), but then I also acquired the sole distribution rights to the Bobux leather Shoes and apparel from New Zealand, so it's not just Belgium it's from all over the place!. I distribute a designer lifestyle collection from Belgium called Rube & Rutje( designed by a Belgian Schoolteacher) and a great natural range by Inatura. Visit my website to find out more!! I will be exhitibing at the Bigintobaby Show in the RDS, on the 24th and 25th of November. See you there!