Paul van Pol
After finishing his Bachelor mechanical engineering (specialization energy technology) Paul gained experience at different employers. In 2001 Paul joined Uticon.
Why Uticon?
“In June 2001 I started working at Uticon as a project engineer. I applied for a job at Uticon because I really wanted my job to be of a more advising nature. Also the projects are Uticon larger than I was used to. I developed myself fairly quick towards the role of project leader and that is the position I still hold.
Paul about his job at Uticon
“Although I have the same position for quite some time now, the content of the job has changed over the years. In the past our department mainly worked on monodisciplinary utility projects. Nowadays we mainly focus on industrial projects of a multidisciplinary nature within the food industry. I really like this switch because the projects are even larger now and therefor the teams you work in are larger too. I find these large multidisciplinary more challenging.
My working weeks have a number of recurring tasks, such as handling my mail, monitoring the planning and financial control of my projects. I also attend several internal and external meetings on a weekly basis. In addition to those recurring tasks, my job has a lot of variety because I sometimes work at the office, sometimes on a customer site and obviously the type of projects as well as customers change in due time.
Recently we finished a large project in the feed industry. It involved the construction of a brand new factory. I was working on this project fulltime until completion. Prior to this feed project, I worked on another large project at a chocolate manufacturer. The biggest challenge in this project was creating an indoor climate that was optimal for both the production process and the employees. In the existing situation, the indoor climate was not comfortable for the employees. We were able to improve this considerably by introducing climate zones. That way we were able to find a balance and create the optimal climate for employees and production process, also in terms of energy consumption.”
What is great about working at Uticon?
“There are a lot of things I really like about my job. Most important for me is the freedom we enjoy in our jobs. In addition, I like the variety of activities and the mix between working in the office and at the customer location. Although I am a project leader my jobs nature is still quite technical and sometimes I take care of some engineering. Another plus is the multidisciplinary nature of many projects, in which we often work across disciplines. Last but not least there is the fact that you are involved in projects from start to finish, so from design to commissioning.
My motivation I mainly get from satisfied customers. When you deliver a project withing budget and in accordance with the design and get positive feedback from our customer, I feel really satisfied. Sometimes, when things don’t work out as planned. Than we have to fix things as a team and it is the team spirit that motivates me.”
De Uticon Academy
“I am still happy about my current role. When it comes to developing myself, I mainly focus on content and broadening my knowledge and work field. In the future I would like my job to be a bit less technical and more organizational. Within Uticon this means develop towards a project management position.
When it comes to keeping my knowledge up to date and increase it, I can count on the Uticon Academy. For example, the Academy provides knowledge sessions and “in company training. To my opinion founding the Academy was a positive development. It offers me support if you want to take a course of training you can always contact the Academy to discuss the possibilities.”
The Uticon culture
“Uticon has an open and accessible culture. It is easy to approach your colleagues and you can say anything to anyone. Everybody is willing to help, it doesn’t matter if working on the same location or not.”