‘When the application phase starts I still feel the energy that the program gave me’

03 marzo 2017

My name is Thijs Homan, I am 29 years old and I live in Amersfoort, The Netherlands. I work since 2012 at Arcadis as a traffic & transport consultant. GS team2 - Copy

When I think about Global Shapers, I feel a little like an old man. It is already four years ago that I participated in the Global Shapers program in 2013 in Hong Kong and China. Since then a lot happened. I am a couple of years older, I have a little less hair on my head and our company changed a lot. But when the application phase starts I still feel the energy that the program gave me.

In short: I still think that Global Shapers is the best way to kick-start your career within Arcadis. It taught me that the Arcadis world is very diverse and that we do a lot of very cool projects. We got a lot of talented and nice people all over the world and that everybody is very proud of the projects they work on. The program also taught me to step forward and take every chance you like to take, because within Arcadis everything (or at least a lot) is possible.

Last year I (virtually) raised my hand when GS-alumni were invited to the Arcadis Global Leadership Forum in Berlin. I arranged my travels and told my manager that I wanted to go there to hear from and talk with our leaders about the future of Arcadis. In Berlin I met around 30 GS-alumni, some of my year that I didn’t see for a long time and other Global Shapers from different years. Last year I also stepped forward when the Arcadis Shelter program was looking for mobility experts for a mission to Nepal. I was selected and I helped the people in Nepal by making a mobility plan for the rebuilding of a town that was devastated by the earthquakes in 2015. And on top of that, not too long ago, I went to the European Leadership Forum in Paris to talk about the strategy for coming year because I applied and was selected for a wildcard to participate.Shelter

Today, I am not the young guy I was four years ago. I got more experienced and my team got filled up with a lot of youngsters last years. My time in Global Shapers learned me to step forward and take chances and it really enriches my work at Arcadis. Therefore every year when the application phase starts, I promote the program to young people in my team. Hopefully I can show them some of my enthusiasm about the program and get them to apply for Global Shapers. So that they will have a similar experience that kick-starts their career in a way Global Shapers did with mine.

 

-Thijs Homan

Global Shaper: Generation 2013

Blogs