Thanks to the Lovinklaan Foundation’s excellent and fast decision on my participation in industrial audit, I hurried to Rome on May 20th. The 1st (of 2) day of the on-site audit started the next morning in Cisterna di Latina with the introductory meeting with the site managers and technicians. We were warmly welcomed, instructed on the safety rules on the site and expectations of the audit. This friendly atmosphere accompanied us during the whole visit. We were a international group of Laura Simone working for ADE, Geert Notenboom – ANL and me from APL. It was an invaluable experience for me, as in the next week I was supposed to start the industrial audit on 2 Polish sites – starting of the Water for Industry (WFI) business in Poland. Laura helped with understanding the situation of the Client and exchanged information in Italian. My participation in industrial water audit was possible thanks to fast action by René Hoeijmakers ANL, Anna Rusek APL, Rafał Matak APL and Federico Nava AIT. Due to the limited time because of the decision on my Quest and the starting date, I had to quickly read through the documents about the site, which Laura kindly sent to me. She also informed me on the dress-code during the water audit, so I’ve packed my PPE, because the site is 60 km away from Rome. I’ve been looking for a Quest opportunity for several months, since I was chosen to be the person responsible for Water for Industry in Poland. I didn’t have […]
From Australia to Belgium: you have been sharing knowledge around the world! See this overview of all blogs shared in Q2 2015 by ARCADIS employees about their #ARCADISQuest experiences: flip.it/BP59l
ARCADIS Global Shapers, as how generally perceived it, is an opportunity to gain knowledge, personally develop, share experiences and create a global network. But what’s really fascinating about the program is that these chunks of learnings and experience can already … Continue reading →
As I am interested in Business Advisory, I applied for a Quest at the UK team. The field of Business Advisory is currently at a nascent stage in Germany. Therefore the objective of the Quest was to facilitate an exchange of experience and knowledge. Before I started my Quest week, some preparation work had to be done. To get a better first insight and to figure out which topics are most educational, I had a telephone conference with the colleagues from London and Leeds. During the telephone conference I spoke to Nick Kealey (Quest host) and Julie Hodgson (organizer of my Quest week) from Leeds as well as Rebecca Harlow (Quest buddy) from London. We discussed all the topics I wanted to be introduced to by the different colleagues I was to meet during the Quest week. Afterwards I received a fantastic, well planned and really busy agenda prepared by Julie Hodgson. My Quest to the United Kingdom started with a nice sunny day at Heathrow airport at 7.30 o´clock early in the morning. To get to Paddington Station I took the Heathrow Express, which is a really fast and futuristic looking train. After I arrived at my hotel, which was near Paddington station and also near the EC Harris HQ, I was greeted by Rebecca Harlow and Nicola Harrison who had completed her Quest in the Hanover office only a few weeks earlier. On Sunday we explored London and got to know each other during a Sushi lunch and […]
My name is Angelica Ferra, and I am honored to write an entry for the Global Shapers blog. I am a Project Assistant on a PMCM project at Harvard University, through the ARCADIS-US operating company. My role resides on the … Continue reading →
The Green Buildings team in Belgium, leaded by Bram De Meester and based in Ghent, is one of the most advanced and experienced teams in the field of the Green Building business in ARCADIS Europe. Having part of our activities in Germany in the Green Building field, my manager and I naturally decided to send me to Belgium. Being a native French speaker, I could moreover easily communicate with the colleagues working in Wallonia, the French speaking part of Belgium. The goals of my Quest were to share and obtain knowledge in the Green Building field, especially in the certifications (LEED, BREEAM etc.) and the building thermal and daylighting simulations. Another goal was also to see how they work, which projects they work on and of course to expand my professional network. During my Quest, I have been to the different offices in Belgium: Ghent, Antwerp (HQ), Brussels and Liège, which permitted me to meet many people and see how they work. I also visited a construction site or a building where ARCADIS Belgium is involved in almost every day . The most impressive construction site was the new distribution center of Nike, which is going to be the biggest of Europe. They are installing many green technologies (photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, geothermal heat pumps, green roofs etc.) and are targeting the LEED Gold certification. We visited the site regarding these matters but ARCADIS is also involved in many other parts of the project, such as the HVAC and fire […]
Quest: a great opportunity to learn more about the worldwide expertise of ARCADIS and meet colleagues you didn’t even know exist. One of the focus areas of ARCADIS at this moment is globalization. This also applies for the rail-signaling department in the Netherlands, where I currently work. The Quest program gives you the opportunity to find out if there are some possibilities for departments all over the world, to collaborate with in the future. That’s why I wanted to go on a quest; to find out if there was some market opportunity for rail signaling outside of the Netherlands.The first step was to find a destination. If you search on the arcadisquest.com website you find out that ARCADIS is everywhere. At that moment I found out about the center of excellence rail. Rail in the Netherlands is appointed as center of excellence and North America and England are mentioned as the focus areas where ARCADIS sees possibilities to expand their rail activities. With this knowledge I started to look for a host in the United States. At the same time I heard the news that ARCADIS won the quotation for the California Hi-speed line. The first Hi-speed line in the US, a really interesting fact for our department. And so the destination Los Angeles was set. However my host Paul Dalida in Los Angeles asked me to join a committee meeting about Hi-speed rail systems organized by AREMA (American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association). For me; as being specialized in […]
Thank you for applying for Global Shapers: Generation 2015. These last few weeks proved to be very exciting. In total 413 amazing applications were submitted. Yammer, Twitter and our Facebook page exploded! Thanks for sharing your excitement about Global Shapers: Generation … Continue reading →
My experience of Global Shapers: Generation 2014 (GS 2014), was incredibly awesome. The fact that you get to know 99 other young professionals that are just like you, with similar questions and concerns, is great. For me, the experience transported … Continue reading →
The most interesting part of my quest to Bangalore is the difference in the outside and the inside. Every place is outside is busy, filthy, and unwelcoming. But it can’t be further from the opposite inside the office here. The office is meticulously clean, and although it is full and everyone is busy, it is a quiet hum of collaboration rather than the chaos of outside. And the team has been very welcoming. Ashish has been a great host. We have had time discuss many things on my list of objectives, but he has also taken time to introduce me to as many people as possible. The kitchen staff bring me coffee and water to my desk without me even having to ask. And they also have food catered for lunch every day, and yesterday’s curry dal was fantastic. I cannot wait to see what today brings.