Do you follow our socials? Do you read our blogs, newsletters and flyers? Do you look at our website? 

Then you know Vera's work! Vera is our topper behind all the marketing of the WBE Group. 

Time to take her from back to front. 

Read the interview with Vera here!

Tell us about yourself (age, relationship, place of residence, etc.) 

I am Vera Verhoef - Guijt. I am 28 years old and was born in Katwijk. I live together with my husband Koen in Rijnsburg. We are one of the few who can say they had a real Covid wedding, because we got married in September 2020. Last year (May 2022) our first child was born. 

What are your hobbies (besides working hard at WBE)?

I love being in the kitchen. Anyone who follows me on instagram also knows that because the baking creations and pasta are sometimes an overkill. And actually not only making food myself, but also love going out for dinner, watching 24kitchen and having dinner with friends.

Another hobby is designing, something I have from my studies. I often make wedding cards/birth announcements for friends and family. 

What did you study? 

After primary school, I first did 5 years of pre-university education at the Pieter Groen College in Katwijk. In the 5th year, I switched to HAVO because I thought VWO was too difficult.
After HAVO I first tried enter the study Advertising at the Art Academy.

To enter the art academy I first followed an evening course for a number of months. Here you learned the basics of Advertising and expanded your portfolio, which you eventually had to show at the admission. Unfortunately I was not hired after the course because they thought I was too young / too little life experience. 

Then I started the study Communication & Multimedia design (CMD) at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. The idea was that this was similar to the Advertising study, this wasn't really the case, but that didn't make the study any less fun! During CMD I mainly learned how websites are designed, tested and built, basic marketing and especially working with programs such as Photoshop, Indesign etc. A nice basis for my job now. 

What did you do before you started working at WBE?

For my CMD study, I did a number of internships at web design agencies. Here I found out that all day designing websites and/or testing the usability was not quite my thing. 

In addition to the internships, I worked as a team leader at the local Albert Heijn. Here I worked 8 years in a nice team. 

When I was in my last year of CMD, my sister-in-law told me that WBE had a vacancy open for a Junior Social Media marketer. She had been working at the flower auction for a long time and always came up with good stories about it, so I was triggered. 

Despite having to study for a few more months, I immediately applied and was hired on the condition that I complete my degree. Something that was a bit difficult! 

But all's well that ends well, because 6 years later I'm still working at WBE! 

In which department do you work at WBE?

I started as a Junior Social Media marketer for the WBE group but now I do much more than that! Nowadays I actually do all the marketing related things for the greenery branches of WBE. From Social Media to flyers, folders and the website, you can contact me! Normally I'm always the one behind the camera, but for this interview, I had to go in front of it. 

At which branch do you work?

I work at almost all branches of the WBE Group. Every day I have a different place. 

What does your average working day look like? 

My start time depends a bit on the branch I work for that day. Sometimes I start at 05:00 and sometimes at 06:30. Quite special as I was never a morning person! 

I start the day by reading my emails, I make a to-do list for the day and I make sure I'm up to date by reading a number of blogs. 

No day is the same for me. Sometimes I spend all day working on advertisements on Social Media while improving the website the day after. A recurring task in my week is planning all social media for the branches. 

What do you like best about your job? 

The best thing about my job is that I am very free to be creative. Whether I have an idea for a new folder or if I want to change something on the website. 

In addition, it is also nice to see that marketing within WBE is becoming increasingly important. This ensures that I get very nice assignments. A good example of this was the renewal of the trucks. 

What do you like least about your job?

What I like least is that many people do not yet see the added value of Social Media. While I can be very enthusiastic about a successful advertisement or posts, I sometimes receive critical comments from colleagues that they do not believe in it. 

But that's an extra challenge for me to prove otherwise! 

What is your favorite product? Why? 

My favorite product is the pink pineapple! I've felt this way since I started working for WBE. I mean, how often do you see a pink pineapple?! Colleagues were therefore not surprised that my wedding bouquet contained a pink pineapple. 

Do you have any ambitions within WBE? 

I would like to have my own marketing team within the WBE group one day. So that I, together with this team, can do even more for WBE in the field of marketing and social media. In addition, I think it would be cool to be able to brainstorm with even more creative people.