Kay Wilmsen, Mechanical Product Design group leader, on the training centre...
Immediately after completing my HTS Automotive Engineering degree, I started working for VIRO (February 2011). I was really drawn to the range of clients and projects. I wasn't sure of what I liked yet, and this was the perfect way to find out what my ambitions were. I started working in the Design Engineer 2 role, where I followed the usual technical courses from our training centre such as working with ‘NX Unigraphics’ and ‘Place and Shape tolerances’, which naturally made me a better design engineer.
After seven months, I was seconded to DAF where I worked as a Chassis design engineer. In this role, I realised that I liked to work on further developing products and that I always wanted to be know why we do things and when we do them. My role at DAF unfortunately did not offer me sufficient development opportunities in this respect.
I discussed my Personal Development Plan (POP) with my supervisor.
This gave me the opportunity to return to the office and give substance to the expansion of the DAF-VIRO collaboration as a starting project engineer. My experiences within DAF added value to my work in the office at VIRO.
To further develop my organisational competences, I completed the ‘Project management for technicians’ course. By applying this knowledge in practice, I guaranteed and improved the internal quality of our DAF projects. As time went by, VIRO gained more and more clients besides DAF, such as Kraker Trailers and Knorr Bremse, on behalf of which I led a number of temporary projects. As we made more and more product designs, which clients themselves then produced, I thought it would be useful to gain more knowledge of production techniques. Because of this, I was better able to ask clients specific questions and to fulfil their wishes. I did this by completing the ‘Makeability and Materials’ course, because it focused on material types and specific production techniques such as welding, machining and sheet metal/stitching.
To continue to develop myself, I also looked at specific activities that I wanted to become better at doing and which were not addressed in my study programme. An increasing portion of my work was handling requests and quotes. To improve my work in this respect, I completed the ‘Requirement Engineering’ course, which focused on translating client questions and requirements. This meant that I became more aware of the need to ask more questions and of gaining clarity on the requirements of the client. In my eyes, clear agreements between the client and the executing party are crucial for every project.
After a good three or four years of working as a Project Engineer, I was responsible for clients such as DAF, AGCO, SCANIA and RAVO and started to build a fixed team.
After a good three of four years of working as a Project Engineer, I was responsible for clients such as DAF, AGCO, SCANIA and RAVO and started to build a fixed team.
As of 1 January 2018, I was given the opportunity to prove myself as Group Leader. In this role, I am responsible for a group of employees (+/- 15) – mainly the younger ones. I try to ensure that they feel sufficiently challenged when working on our projects, while also making sure that they develop in their field of expertise and/or interests. In my current role, VIRO gave me the opportunity to participate in the ‘Bullet Proof Manager’ course, and I have attended the first interesting and instructive session.
Lastly, the VIRO Academy has given me the space to plot my own course at my own pace – I'm in control.
Also read the stories of Jacob about career development, Rick, about jobrotation en Stefan, on the strength of sharing knowledge