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Linda Molendijk, Work Planner

As a gardener's daughter, she was used to tromping through the mud in boots. Linda Molendijk joined Transport & Drilling Solutions (TDS) as a trainee and immediately felt right at home. ‘It just suits me.' After her one-year traineeship, rotating through four of the five business units, she is now happily working as a work planner at TDS.

Linda studied Technology Management at Rotterdam University where she specialised in Management & Consultancy. She quickly realised, however, that when you work as a consultant, you remain an outsider. Her ambition was to work on great projects together with colleagues. After seeing a Monsterboard posting in 2011, Linda took the traineeship at Visser & Smit Hanab.

 

‘You receive this close supervision and they draw up a programme for you based on your competencies. What are your strengths and what do you need to work on? Plus, you learn so much more than just engineering. For instance, you gain a lot more insight into how the business community operates. I'd recommend it to anyone.'

More and more fun

As a work planner, Linda primarily works on projects related to transport pipelines. ‘The installation of The New Heating Network (DNWW) in Rotterdam, for example. And now, for the first time, I'm the sole work planner for a project: the re-routing of five transport pipelines as part of widening the A9 motorway.' Planning, purchasing, monitoring progress, discussing day-to-day activities and problems with the project managers... Linda thinks the job of a work planner is a really good fit with her degree in Technology Management. ‘There are, of course, always things you can't learn at school. That's what's so great about the traineeship; you learn a bit about everything in a very short space of time. And that knowledge comes in handy on the job. Plus, I'm still learning every day. I'm really getting a hang of the work and that just makes it more and more fun.'

A woman in construction

‘As a woman working in this man's world you do have to prove yourself a bit more,' Linda feels. ‘But that's probably true of any engineering company. In which case, you're better off at Visser & Smit Hanab. Because it's such a friendly company with a "family atmosphere". You can see that from the low turnover of people. We're celebrating someone's 25-year anniversary practically every week. I love it here!'