Skip to main content Arjen Wiersma

The Cycle Continues

I am leaving NOVI. Yes, I know, it is sad news. For almost 6 years I have been building and maintaining an organisation that provides the best cybersecurity and software development (Bachelor) education in The Netherlands. In that time I have done amazing things:

  • Created a short course format for people that want to switch careers. With some back of the napkin calculations I have seen over 2500 students pass through one of the programs.
  • I lead a team of quality assurance, educational development, EduTech developers and teachers to build an awesome EduTech tool and provide top-notch education.
  • Started and hosted the Hack The Box NL meetups for 4 years.
  • I became part of the management team and helped the organisation through an M&A proces

It has been a wild ride, but like all things that begin, it must end.

I was listening to the Application Security podcast with Jim Routh in which he talks about the 15 year cycle of his career. At first I thought that it did not make much sense, but after a while of reflecting on that statement I found that I myself have a 10 year cycle.

In my career there have been blocks of 10 years in which my interest and career change and re-align.

The first cycle was Software Development. I started as a software engineer (programming professionally) in 1996, working in the Dutch industry and then at Personify in San Francisco. When I moved back to The Netherlands I worked at Tiscali where I transitioned from software development into architecture.

Cycle two was all about architecture. From Tiscali I moved on to eBuddy in 2006 as the lead architect for our chatplatform. It was a beautiful combination of coding and designing and I look back at it with great love. From the insane time at an internet startup I moved into an architecture role at Infomedics. I combined my coding and architecture skills to build out an amazing platform that serves millions of people on a daily basis. During my time at Infomedics I achived a Bachelor Degree in ICT and I started making Cyber Security a more present part of my career, from obtaining certifications such as CEH and OSCP to managing ISO 27001 and ISAE 3402 certifications for our tech teams.

The third cycle is education. From 2016 onward I have worked in education. First I did it as a hobby project, next to my work hours I would give classes at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam in Infrastructure Security, Forensics, Software Security and guided students in their projects and final exams. I even created a completely new Associate Degree in Cybersecurity. In 2019 I made a full switch to education by joining NOVI. During my time at NOVI I attained my Master's Degree and transitioned into a more strategic role where I managed a large part of the organisation next to giving classes and building curricula.

And now my fourth cycle has appeared. Each cycle up to now has brought me amazing challenges, wonderful people and a lot of knowledge. So it is an exciting time to look forward to.