Portrait of: Wouter van de Rijdt
Meet our team: today a portrait of Wouter van de Rijdt
Wouter van de Rijdt, a 31-year-old tax specialist from Boxmeer, has only been with Kuipers & Claassen for a few months. He is mainly concerned with advising clients and filing income tax returns.
That Wouter became a tax specialist does not say that this is where his ambitions lay directly. His search for a useful interpretation of a future career started elsewhere. Although compulsory military service has been officially suspended in the Netherlands since 1997, he applied to become a soldier. The combination of sports and being outdoors really appealed to him. During the examinations with the Marine Corps, he realized that a career in green did not suit him. He himself describes himself as "fairly opinionated. This quickly put tension on the assessment process of the inspections. With his parents holding up a mirror to him at this stage as to whether this was the right choice, he realized that his future lay elsewhere. His challenges are going elsewhere.
Via a detour, Wouter eventually ends up at Nyenrode Business University. While he first dropped out at 5 vwo, he still did 4 and 5 havo in one academic year. After successfully completing his college propaedeutic, he met the admission requirements for a university bachelor's degree. At Maastricht University, he completed his tax law studies after several years. He is currently in the final phase of his master's degree at Nyenrode.
Wouter grows up with his sister and brother within the Van de Rijdt family. Three different children with diverse personalities. His own description "I'm a little down-to-earth" typifies him the most. He does not see the choice between introverted and extroverted as an option. His somewhat rigid upbringing regularly made him rebellious. Whereas friends were given much more freedom in their youth, he had to be home on time in the evening. Looking back, he can put this period into perspective. At home, among other things, he learned the value of money. The budget was not unlimited. To buy the coveted G-Star jeans, Wouter had to contribute himself, his parents taught him. This foundation stood him in good stead when he started living independently. He is still grateful to his parents for it.
Wouter is moving from Noord-Brabant to Amsterdam as soon as he joins Deloitte at the Zuidas in 2020 as a business analyst and later as a consultant. A conscious choice for the opportunities this offers. In addition to his family, he values contact with his friends. Because most of them live in the south of the Netherlands, he makes a conscious effort to plan regular contact moments to see each other. The recent move to Alkmaar, even further north, makes this even more important. In addition to weekly telephone contact with his parents, he describes visiting his parents' home as "the sweet spot," knowing that he is welcome at any time.
Working part-time is nothing to Wouter. Even working on the weekends is not a taboo for him. He is young and still has enough energy to work a maximum number of hours. He attributes this in part to his drive to do things, the pursuit of a goal. Even if that means sacrificing other things in the process. Although he can really enjoy a walk in the early hours of the morning, he does not hesitate to get some work done at night, when he can't sleep. Not least for chores where he can help others based on his expertise. He prefers not to stand on the sidelines but to participate in the requests for help of family and friends.
On the sports front, that drive is reflected in his ambition to run the five largest marathons in the world, with a time limit of no more than three hours. Thus, while preparing for such a marathon, he must not only choose a good diet, but also deny himself things in order to arrive at the start line well prepared. After finishing the Paris marathon, he suffers an injury during the Rotterdam marathon, forcing him to give up after nineteen kilometers. Visibly disappointed with his entry for the New York marathon where corona restrictions threw a spanner in the works. Whether his ambition in this area will ever come true, the future will tell. Wouter does not hesitate to adjust his plans if necessary. His girlfriend sometimes supports him in this with slight urges. Although in his younger years he had a lot of fun with the soccer team, sometimes meeting several times a week to train and play matches, more individualistic sports now also give him satisfaction. Occasionally riding the long ride to his parents' house alone on his bike. Preferably in as short a time as possible.
Wouter's drive is evident in a piece of entrepreneurship that becomes visible when he and friends organize nine annual festivals for some ten thousand visitors. With a generous budget, this has its challenges and pleasures. Because organizing the festival involves a considerable investment of time, making it increasingly difficult to combine with the organizers' jobs and family life, the festival stopped last year.
He now knows how to better shape the stubbornness and directness of his younger years by adapting to others. Not every situation requires the same approach. Not every type of person appreciates the same approach. The monthly Friday afternoon drink also helps with this towards colleagues. Meeting each other in a different way.
In the future, Wouter would prefer to shape social involvement together with his employer. For example, by helping needy elderly people with their tax returns free of charge. This group of people is closest to his heart. He would like to contribute by doing something for them in his professional field.
One step further in this is his emotional involvement with family and friends. When the wife of a friend who provided him with a second home during his troubled boyhood is struck down by serious health problems, Wouter is really touched. Although his emotion may not be outwardly visible then, he describes his feelings as "Then I'm really finished, then I break. In this regard, he recognizes himself in his own father, who shows more of his emotions as he gets older.
Developments in life also bring shifts on the business front. After Wouter starts his career at Bol Adviseurs in Boxmeer as a junior tax return clerk in 2016, he enjoys the contact he has with clients, mainly entrepreneurs. After he makes the move to the much larger Deloitte, he notices that the personal client contact there in his position is a lot less. Although he is grateful for the expertise he gained there, Wouter still sees his future in a different type of firm. When he comes into contact with Kuipers & Claassen, advisor Melissa Beek asks if he might be interested in a vacancy as a tax specialist. In conversations with Senna Hansen and Laurens Bezemer, it appears that the involvement of the employees within the firm is given greater priority due to the small scale of the firm. The flat organizational structure gives employees room to implement improvements immediately.
Of Kuipers & Claassen's four core values, passion appeals most to Wouter. Both for the profession and the customer. Without passion, the other core values - professional, proactive and personal - do not really come into their own, he explains. Especially within the firm, Wouter feels that a young outlook, 'a breath of fresh air' as he describes it, is appreciated. Having gained experience elsewhere for a number of years, Wouter sees the opportunity to grow personally at Kuipers & Claassen with a conscious decision to enter into a joint future.
Quotes
Stubborn is also wise.
I'm a little down-to-earth.
I'm not going to stand on the sidelines.
When I look at my father, that's how I want to grow old too.
