Career

Testimonials

Sofie D’Hane

Surveyor
Employed since: 15/08/’07

Why did you choose DEME?

After my graduation I did not want to end up with a 9 to 5 job somewhere in a Belgian office, I preferred a bit more action. Documentaries on TV often showed huge construction projects, among which quite a lot of dredging projects, and I wanted to be a part of that.
A few of my former classmates were already working for DEME. After having attended the job day, getting to know the company better, its activities, some of its employees, the atmosphere… I was even more convinced I had to apply for a job. And successfully. After a few days at the office, I was immediately thrown in at the deep end and sent to my very first project site.

What do you like about your job?

Being a surveyor provides most of all a lot of variety. Firstly, there is the work outside: you get on board of the vessel and carry out hydrographical surveys, or you do plotting or measuring work on shore. Furthermore, there is the work at the office: processes, making maps, calculating volumes…Finally, as a surveyor you partly function as the IT person on site. You install the survey equipment on board of the vessels, you make sure that the software as well as the hardware side of things is ok, and so on. The projects and circumstances are also very different for every project. Since I started, I have worked for a year on a site in India where we participated in a gas pipeline project and lived in a self constructed camp. The current project is entirely different: a harbour extension in South-Africa. Here we live in an apartment in a charming city. You live and work with people from all over the world and you get to know new cultures by staying in one particular place for a long period of time.
Each day at DEME is very diverse, very instructive, and a lot of fun. The satisfaction of finding a solution to a problem, seeing the work progress, the close relationship that grows between you and your colleagues by spending a lot of time together, the new places you discover, … those are the things that make up my ideal job.

Would you recommend DEME to friends and acquaintances? Why?

I have already recommended this job to a few people among my acquaintances. In order to carry out this job, you need some sense of adventure and you should be prepared to leave your home for a certain period of time. Furthermore you should be eager to learn. This job involves a lot of responsibility, because you must carry out the work as efficiently as possible. You must also be able to work in harmony with others in order to achieve as much as possible with the smallest number of people possible. Whoever thinks having these qualities, I can recommend a job at DEME, whether he/she is a friend, an acquaintance or a stranger.