René Lombard

René is in the Netherlands since April 2019.

René, why did you emigrate to the Netherlands?
The average South African you can only go on a holiday to Europe and the surrounding neighbouring countries once per year if you are lucky. If you stay in the country you can easily go for a weekend to a different country and see things that you would never be able to see just by staying in South Africa.

How do you like the Netherlands? What are the biggest differences with South Africa?
It is very seldom that you would stand in long queues for something. Everything is streamlined and just simply works.
The language barrier is a bit of a struggle sometimes but with the language classes and as time progresses it becomes a lot easier.

Please tell us something about the projects you are currently working on
We are working with a team of brilliant software developers that produce a world-class product with just the latest technology stack. The backend consists of an Event-driven Microservices architecture, and build the majority of the software in .Net core 2.2 and make use of Docker containers to run the services. Each of the services communicates with one another using the RabbitMQ Message bus. We primarily use MongoDB to store the high level of traffic that goes through our system. The frontend we make use of WPF Framework in which we develop a great user experience for our clients. We strive to follow a strict Agile approach to developing software and partake in Scrum dailies. We make use of the built-in integration for Gitlab and Jira to link our code to stories and have a solid CICD pipeline. Code quality is controlled by code reviews and making use of SonarQube in the CICD pipeline.

How did the process of emigration go?
The team at Summit developers streamlined the process and provided me with all of the required documentation and arranged everything from their side quickly and efficiently. They even took care of my apartment and going the extra mile to make sure that my new apartment felt like home.

Can you explain to the South Africans who are considering to go overseas how you did experience the support from us?
Everyone is very kind hearted and very welcoming, Ton and Matthijs went the extra mile to get make the immigration process as smooth and seamless as possible, they are extremely passionate about their work and is always willing to help out. I’ve made a few great friends here making my time here in the Netherlands an absolute joy.