“My job is a lot of listening, thinking and explaining”

Who are the people who consciously choose to work in the pension world? What do they do every day to take care of your retirement? And what do they enjoy about their work? In the series “The person behind your pension,” we take you behind the scenes. Bo Hanssen is a software architect. 

You're a chemistry graduate. How does a chemist end up in the pension world?
“When I had just finished my studies, a couple of big companies went belly up. Organon was closing, DSM had a hiring freeze. As a result, a lot of highly educated people entered the market who had more work experience than me. Since programming was my hobby, I took the plunge and wrote to a few software companies. That's how I ended up as a software engineer at Inther Logistics in Venray. A year and a half later, I became a father for the first time. I didn't want to miss out on that too much, so I looked for work near my hometown of Kerkrade. I started working for a large consulting firm. They placed me for a project at APG.”

What was your assignment?
“The platform that tied APG's systems together had to be renovated. As an integration specialist, I wrote software programs for this. In this project, APG architects worked together with external architects. But one of them got a new job, and another went on sabbatical. After two years, only one was left. Then I started talking to APG: I see that you actually need an extra technical architect, who can make the connection between functionality and technical infrastructure in terms of communication. That's not me yet, but I think I can become one. And so I joined APG in 2019.”

So you created your job yourself?
“It was more of an open application. APG is always looking for people. I try to understand where the needs are and how I can contribute to them with my knowledge and skills, or what I still need to learn to do so.”

What do you do as a software architect?
“As a software - or solution - architect, I describe a problem and outline the desired solutions. For example: we want to achieve some more organizational decoupling in a process, so that teams are not necessarily dependent on each other. And then others, such as DevOps engineers, detail the chosen solution.” 

Do you work for all of APG, or are you part of a team?
“Right now I'm working for the APG Pension of the Future program, and specifically for the Systems & Processes block. It's a fairly solo position, it changes from week to week who I work with a lot. I don't have people under me, but I do provide direction. In fact, I provide leadership without formal power. That's how an architect's role should be.”

What is your job within Pension of the Future program?
“Administration is a generic process: every pension administrator does it about the same. The processes that start when someone retires or dies are more specific. Those fall under the services that APG performs on behalf of the funds. The old APG systems support both the generic and the specific processes. APG has now outsourced the generic part to Festina. In order to add the 'APG sauce', we are also building a new system ourselves. But you never build everything yourself. You divide such a system into separate components and ask the question per component: build or buy? And in between there are about fifty shades of gray.
That's where my role begins. I sketch a rough solution and ask experts for additional information. Then I explain all the options as comprehensibly as possible to those who make the decisions; management when it comes to investments, and engineers when it comes to implementation. I like that interaction. I like to think. My work is all about listening, thinking and explaining clearly.”

In the meantime, you must have gained quite a bit of retirement knowledge?
“I can babble along. I understand enough what pension experts are talking about to understand their concerns and find technical solutions for them. But real pension knowledge I don't have.”

What qualities are essential to your work? 
“Curiosity. And daring to go out of your comfort zone. You also have to doubt a little. Doubt what is there and what you think you know. It is very important that you dare to acknowledge that there are people who know more than you do. And that you seek those people out and ask questions so you can learn from them.”

How would you like to develop further? 
“At APG, I hardly program anymore. But at home I still program because I think you have to keep the saw sharp. For me it is mainly a way to discover what is technically possible. I continuously want to learn more. And APG is an organization where there is a lot of knowledge. So there is always someone who can tell me something I didn't know yet. I like to think about what my role should be and what skills I need. That's why I read a lot and watch YouTube presentations by architects I think highly of. And I occasionally take courses, for example at DDD Europe. I considered doing a second master's degree, Enterprise architecture. But then we had our second child, so that master's isn't going to happen for now.”

Do you still have enough time to enjoy your children?
“I have a full-time contract, but now have six hours of parental leave per week for my daughter (9) and my son (2).”

Do you also often work from home? 
“I work in the office as much as possible. Partly because I depend on what I hear around me. Then it just works better to be present. Moreover, I often sit in meetings and I prefer not to meet via Teams. Because I like to pay attention to body language. When I work at home, I also get distracted faster. Just doing some laundry or something. After all that working at home during corona, I also love being back in the office.”

And how do you relax? 
“I like to walk, it's a nice way to organize my thoughts. I try to walk at least half an hour every day. If I can't do it during my break, I go in the evening, when the kids are in bed. With my kids, I usually walk at the zoo; we live within walking distance of it. Or we go cycling. I don't really like biking myself, but then my kids are on their bikes and I run after them.”