Inside Temenos – A Series of Inspiring Career Journeys, Ximena, Sebastian and Tom
At Temenos, we believe that our people make the difference. What we create and achieve is a result of the aspirations and goals of the 5000+ unique individuals that make up Temenos today. Our people drive real change, and working together as a team is what got us to where we are today.
In this special edition of “Inside Temenos” we’ve asked 3 colleagues with very different backgrounds to answer a few questions & walk us through their inspirational stories. Ximena, Tom and Sebastian come from our Business Solutions team and they are currently looking for new colleagues – click here if you want to join their team!
Tell us about your role: When did you join Temenos?
Ximena: I joined Temenos Ecuador in March 2014 as Senior Business Consultant for the Services area. I relocated to Temenos Germany in spring 2015 and have been working as a Business Solutions Consultant for the European Business Solutions Team ever since.
Tom: I joined Temenos in Frankfurt back in 2007, as Functional Consultant within the Services organization. This was just a couple of months after the acquisition of ACTIS, which now makes up a significant part of Temenos Germany.
Sebastian: I joined Temenos in Romania at the beginning of 2015 as Technical Business Intelligence Consultant. Currently, I’m part of the Business Solutions Group at Temenos in Germany.
What is your position in the company and how would you describe it in one phrase?
Ximena: I believe my Business Solutions Consultant position offers diversified working areas, which make the role interesting and exciting all the time. My job is never the same one day after the other.
Tom: As Manager Business Solutions for the German-speaking markets plus Italy I am part of a truly European team which constantly assembles ad-hoc groups to work on opportunities in an ever-changing industry at an accelerated pace.
Sebastian: I work as Senior Business Intelligence Solutions Consultant – I think the best description of my role is having the opportunity to deal with one of the most challenging and fast-changing topics in Fintech: Analytics. I find it truly fascinating!
How did your career journey look before and what attracted you to join Temenos?
Ximena: During my previous Job at a Bank in Germany, I was involved in a system integration and migration project. My banking background and the activities performed during the project attracted me to apply for a consultancy job at Temenos, why I felt I could really further my career in a more international environment.
Tom: I’ve been working within banking systems pretty much all my professional life. After 5 years of programmer/analyst work at ACTIS, I was looking to change towards the client/user side, and joined BearingPoint for a 2-year consulting journey, implementing Basel II regulatory reporting software across banks in Germany. When Temenos acquired ACTIS, my former mentor called me to talk about the opportunity to join Temenos. I was ready to jump ship because the international perspective attracted me from the moment I heard about the acquisition, so here I am!
Sebastian: I started my career as probably most of the young people like me in a Help Desk, working as an IT support agent and dwelling in all the lines of standard IT support; which gave me a comprehensive understanding and knowledge in IT. Later on, moved to a Data Analyst position and from there I had the luck to interview for Temenos, and the rest is history as they say. One of the main things that made me choose Temenos was allowing me to combine travelling with work and be part of an international team.
Tell us about your journey within Temenos:
Ximena: My first role was Senior Business Consultant in the Services area at Temenos Ecuador. My first assignment was to an implementation Project in Costa Rica where I had the opportunity to interact with the customer providing support onsite.
I had an excellent mentor when I began my journey as a Services consultant. This was absolutely the best way to learn and approach the system, to get closer to the implementation methodology and to learn about Services.
In 2015, I relocated to Temenos Germany as I decided to change to the European Pre-Sales Team.
Tom: Soon after joining the Temenos Services organization, sales in Germany had accelerated, and there were projects all over the place. My mentor asked me to join one as Functional Lead, a role I had no previous experience in. It was an awful lot of work and quite a challenging position, but also a great learning experience.
My plan when joining was to learn new software, indirectly help to sell via successful project execution, and leave after a couple of years to go freelance. Besides learning, none of this exactly materialized, and after a couple of years, my mentor helped me move within the organization.
That is when I joined Business Solutions. Not soon thereafter, my mentor left, but we stayed friends. Now that he is in early retirement, talking to him is just as precious; he was a great coach since when I started my career in Temenos.
Sebastian: My first role was as a Technical Business Intelligence Consultant, and I was travelling a lot to implement the Temenos Analytics solution at customers. As I was coming from a Data Analysis background, this helped me understand the product and apply all my technical knowledge, which enabled me to grow more and more here with Temenos.
I could say I was lucky to be part of a brilliant smaller team at the beginning, which made things so much better and I feel I truly received all the support needed to succeed in my job.
I could not say I had a mentor per se, but two key colleagues helped me a lot – one of them still works for Temenos, and I still call him up for discussions and advice occasionally.
Tell us about yourself – what are you passionate about? Who are you outside the workplace?
Ximena: I am passionate about different cultures, languages, and countries. That is another reason why I love the Temenos world and its diversity, as it brings a piece of each culture into my life every day. Outside work, I am proud mother and wife.
Tom: Always on the move, I used to backpack with my then-girlfriend. I am now happily married and proud father of a four-year-old kid, crazy about my record collection and road bike. I sometimes make people nervous due to my partially ascetic lifestyle: I’ve been a vegetarian for over 15 years, we switched off TV when our daughter was born, and I quit drinking alcohol in 2018.
Sebastian: My two biggest passions are photography and travelling. I love sightseeing, meeting new cultures and experience the local cuisine. I am a real foodie, so it’s rather important to have a culinary experience when I’m on a trip as I love cooking and baking as well. I find photography binds them all, as I love immortalizing specific moments from my trips, be it a particular location that I’m visiting or the food I’m having along the way.
What do you think makes Temenos unique as an employer?
Ximena: Temenos believes in People Power, therefore relies and invests in employees offering professional and personal development opportunities. Moreover, there is this feeling of comradery spread throughout the organization: whenever required, colleagues help each other out unconditionally – working at Temenos makes me feel part of a big family.
Tom: It is fantastic to be part of such a success story, but at the same time, Temenos feels like a start-up. You have the freedom to get things done the way you think is right, you can always ask someone for help, and micro management is not in our DNA here.
Sebastian: I think Temenos has the gift of bringing out the best in people, even though it’s a sales oriented company – I believe it’s also a people’s company. Temenos values its employees and rewards them as best as possible for their success. I believe our company culture is also a key differentiator in the industry, as it enables you to feel like you are part of a big family and that you will always receive the support needed to be successful.
If you want to join Ximena, Tom & Sebastian in Temenos Business Solutions click here & check out the available opportunities.