From Leiden to Kenya and Madrid: ‘Adventure makes me happy’
From psychology in Leiden to a career in data science, a new life in Kenya and working in Madrid: Hanna van der Vlis avoided the well-trodden path. She chose psychology because she is curious about people and what makes them tick. She soon discovered that the subject that gives most students nightmares was the one she likes best: Statistics. This is how she ended up doing the Master’s in Methodology and Statistics in Psychology. This proved to be the first step towards a very different life.
‘In psychology you can find arguments for very different explanations’, Van der Vlis explains. ‘I found it interesting to use statistics to explore how likely something is and whether you see the same pattern in a larger group of people. This enabled me to back up my theories with data, rather than relying on reasoning alone.’
Statistics soon proved to be her favourite part of the programme: she earned her highest marks in it, and began to choose more statistics-related courses.
Identifying and seizing opportunities
Through her contacts, she ended up at Stedin, where she did an internship in the data science department and completed her graduation project. She discovered that she found working with data in a business environment more interesting than purely academic research. Although she ended up there through a chance encounter, she doesn’t see this as pure chance. ‘If there’s one thing I’ve taken from psychology, it’s planned happenstance.’ In other words, recognising and seizing opportunities and creating your own luck.
This approach also entailed learning to make her own choices. Van der Vlis grew up the youngest in a family of five children, within a strict religious community. After leaving that behind, she discovered how liberating it was to take control of her own life. That freedom to choose her own path would return in her later career, as she seized opportunities abroad.
From Zoetermeer to Kenya
This mindset eventually took Van der Vlis to Africa. She had built a pleasant and comfortable life in Zoetermeer, with her own house and a long-term relationship. But she wanted to discover what else might be on her path. Her need for challenge and adventure continued to grow.
She started working for a Kenyan tech startup that provided loans to local farmers to buy fertiliser, for example, to improve their yields. What started as a two-week business trip developed into a new start. ‘I had to sort everything out myself: the vaccinations, flight and accommodation. And I thought: I can do this.’ Arriving in Kenya, it was love at first sight. Back in the Netherlands, she decided to leave her comfortable life behind and to move to Kenya.
‘I had to sort everything out myself: the vaccinations, flight and accommodation. And I thought: I can do this.’
She worked on algorithms to predict which farmers would pay back the loans. That took more than technical knowledge alone: little data was available and it was important to understand the local context and the people behind the numbers. Her background in psychology came in useful. The impact of the work makes it extra worthwhile. ‘The farmers had more money, and their children could finally go to school’, says Van de Vlis. ‘It was amazing to be able to contribute to that.’
But she still had itchy feet. She wanted to develop, but realised that there was limited room for growth at the startup. She also wanted to continue her international life. ‘I wanted to return to Europe but not to the Netherlands. Then my experience abroad would feel like a brief adventure before returning to my former life. I wanted to discover what it’s like to live elsewhere, to learn a new language and to build a new life in another culture.’
A new adventure in Madrid
Thanks to her network, Van der Vlis found a job at Adyen, which was setting up an AI team in Madrid. She used her data science experience to develop AI apps, working on generative AI solutions and customer service automation. Her background in psychology once again came in handy: alongside technical knowledge, it is important to look critically at data and to understand human behaviour.
Van der Vlis also wanted to continue developing outside her work. ‘Starting afresh for a second time was hard, especially because I want to be a real local rather than just hanging out with expats. I now have a Spanish boyfriend, and we only speak Spanish at home.’
She definitely has no regrets. Looking back, Van der Vlis can see how her degree in Leiden shaped her career, even though her work now extends far beyond the boundaries of traditional psychology. She learned to think critically, weigh different explanations and look further than figures alone. She uses this combination of human insight and analytical skills in her work with data and AI.
She has since left Adyen and now freelances in the sustainability sector. She sometimes wonders why she makes things so difficult for herself and is always on the lookout for something new. ‘But adventure is what makes me happy. Happiness isn’t something that happens to you; it’s something that you set in motion.’