Ger Schoeber studied electronics, software and computer science and started his career as a software developer at Philips in 1984. Five years later, he took post at High Tech Automation, a technical software service provider, and moved up to system architecture and project management. In 2001, Schoeber founded Task Switch, his own consulting company on multidisciplinary system architecting activities. From 2008 until 2011 he worked for Sioux as a consultant and developer of business cases. He then joined the Hotraco Group as Manager Innovation & Technology in 2011. In 2021, he joined Lightyear in Helmond as group lead and domain expert System Engineering. Ger Schoeber is also an international trainer on Systems Architecting for High Tech Institute and is president of the Dutch INCOSE chapter.

Ger Schoeber foudn Task Switch in 2001. Since then, he has been coaching and training system architects, for example at Philips CTT. Schoeber considers system architecture to be a relatively new profession. Therefore, system architects often lack support, unlike engineers and project managers. “That’s why I’m delighted to continue training system architects at High Tech Institute.”

As a lecturer, Schoeber focuses on communication. “Engineers often have a purely technical point of view. At the same time, they need to understand the customer and his market in order to deliver the right technical solution. Communication failures and intercultural issues can make this very hard. System architects need to learn how to close the communication gaps in order to make their company successful. In our ‘System architect(ing)’ training they get ample opportunities to practice. For example, at the end of the course, they have to convince a management board of their solution.”

Schoeber enjoys teaching and often takes his own past mistakes as a starting point. “This makes it very clear to the trainees how much theory and practice can differ.”

The die-hard technical expert should above all not become a system architect