Collega's in de spotlight

Since 2022, Siddharth and Divya have both been working at HSO in Amsterdam. She as a Delivery Manager, and he as a Service Line Director for Cloud Services.

Siddharth and Divya Singh have been married for seventeen years, have a daughter, and are originally from India. After some time, they toyed with the idea of traveling around the world and working together in different places. The adventure began when Siddharth worked for Microsoft in India. “At that time, I was already traveling regularly for work,” Siddharth explains. “Divya stayed in India with our daughter, while I spent increasingly longer periods away from home – I even lived in Singapore for three years. During that time, Divya and our daughter flew back and forth quite often.” Similar scenario made them travel to US also.

Divya also worked for Microsoft at that time, but in India. Because the family wanted to spend more time together, they decided to move together to Malta when Sid got opportunity to move to Malta in 2021 when Siddharth got a new job at KPMG in Malta. Divya says, “I continued to work remotely for Microsoft. Soon, I realized that this was not pleasant due to the significant time difference.” Eventually, Divya also started working at KPMG in Malta.

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In 2022, Siddharth was approached for a position at HSO in the Netherlands via LinkedIn. It got him thinking. “I was very interested in the job; it was a position in the cloud team, where my passion lies. When I heard that the job was in the Netherlands, I was completely sold,” Siddharth days. “We saw more opportunities for our daughter in the Netherlands, for example, in terms of education.”

The family moved to the Netherlands in the summer of 2022. When Siddharth started his new position at HSO, he came across a new position opening up in the PMO team. Perfect for his wife. Divya laughs: “I was also in talks with other companies, but I was very impressed by the culture at HSO.” HSO is the first company where the couple actually work closely together at the office. And for the first time, they can carpool.

Both Siddharth and Divya see many advantages in working for the same employer. “HSO is a fantastic company to work for and they treat us as two individuals – a must for us,” Siddharth Divya says. “It also feels comforting to work in the same building; we know that everything is going well with each other.”

The couple also values that they speak the same language when it comes to work. Knowing a lot about each other’s work has benefits, but also requires professionalism. Siddharth says, “ When I deal with Divya’s department, I maintain professionalism without any unconscious bias. We believe in transparent communication and at times we , have to step away from your personal bond with each other.”

Settling in the Netherlands

Of all the countries in which the couple has lived, they like the Netherlands the most. They love the Dutch corporate culture, partly because here, the balance between work and private life is taken very seriously. Siddharth and Divya would definitely recommend that other couples travel together and are open to working together. “You truly get to know so many different cultures in a way that cannot be compared to briefly going somewhere on vacation. Adapting and empathizing with other cultures makes you grow as a person.”

Although the family loves to travel, they have no new adventures planned. Siddharth laughs. “We want to settle in the Netherlands. Our daughter insisted on it.” The couple has bought a house near Rotterdam and plans to work at HSO for a long time to come.