After fulfilling several roles in HR and partnerships over the last seven years at Microsoft, Anita Koster is now the Microsoft Alliance & Ecosystem Lead at Avanade for the Benelux region. A completely new role which she helped shape and define over the last two years.

In ‘Career development’ we tell the stories of Avanadi who play a crucial role in the ongoing process of developing your skills as you explore and refine your career path. Through workshops, programmes, talks and other events. Improving your career development will help you stay focused and prepared when it's time to seek a promotion or apply for a new opportunity. Start today!

Specializing in business partnerships

Avanade is a joint venture between Accenture and Microsoft, which purposely seeks strategic partnerships with specialist technology platforms. In order to build innovative solutions and help clients unlock more value from their IT: “Through Microsoft, I learned about Avanades’ core business and vision for the market. It was a natural step to move from one partner ecosystem to the next, in which I was able to co-create my own role and responsibilities. We work with a network of partners that transforms business. But we need to put in the work, and I had the opportunity to specialize in this domain for Avanade. Only if we work together, will we create the right solution and deliver the right results. In the last two years I continued to develop my skills, grasping all opportunities to show what is in our DNA. I embrace learning by doing; an action-oriented methodology. That is why I voluntarily set-up a workshop programme focused on career development. Putting yourself out there, asking for what you want and taking responsibility for your own career path.”

Workshop programme

After just one year, Anita was chosen to partake in an international leadership programme: “Yearly, one individual from each country has the opportunity to join this specific programme that helps attendees elevate their skills to lead in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing market. I worked together with an international project group and chose a theme that was important to me and our company: career development. I decided to create workshops about self-promotion, targeting women who work at Avanade. My goal was to inform participants about the journey in career development and provide a framework for learning and advancing in your career. Topics that we spoke about: network and peers, aspirations and ambitions, opportunities and how to seize them, practical information about promotion rounds and that you are the one who decides the next step in your career.”

Getting what you want

Before joining Avanade, Anita already was heavily involved with development, diversity and inclusion: “This time I was able to pour my experience and knowledge into a constructive concept and create a theme based workshop programme. The first round was a huge success and we keep hearing success stories from female colleagues, regarding promotion and career development accomplishments. They found the programme open, transparent and innovative. In the near future we will organize another round of workshops for everyone working at Avanade, helping them self promote and providing practical information and cases to work on. At Avanade, we put people first. Working together on this programme, we are able to create a strong community of professionals who know what they want and how to get this.”

Click here for more information on careers at Avanade.