Ali graduated as a petroleum engineer from the Universiti Teknologi Petronas in Malaysia. At the same university, he gains work experience as a research assistant, teaches and supervises students with their thesis projects. After 3 years, Ali migrates to the Netherlands, where he hopes to find work in his sector soon. That quickly turns out to be disappointing. He has no network in the Netherlands and the application process works differently than he is used to. He is looking for someone to help him get started and comes to DUO for a JOB for help.
We match Ali with Eric, who works at Vopak. Eric started as a mentor through a collaboration between DUO for a JOB and Vopak. And although Eric actually had little time in his busy schedule to participate in the mandatory mentoring training, he was very excited afterwards:
“The training is very thorough, well prepared and professionally supervised by DUO. It gave me energy and enthusiasm to start and to get out of my bubble”.
Eric has worked at Vopak for 23 years and has traveled around the world for work. The two will work together and make a step-by-step plan. They improve Ali's resume, write motivation letters, make a selection of companies that might be of interest to Ali, and arrange network discussions. They send out a lot of applications, but it turns out to be difficult to get in somewhere. Ali appears to have limited options with his specific expertise as a petroleum engineer. But the duo does not give up and they keep believing that they will succeed in the end. Eric says: “I really underestimated it. I thought it would be much easier. But I admire Ali for how positive he always remained. It was contagious!”
The duo won't let themselves be let down and that pays off: right at the end of the duo process, Ali is hired as a surveyor at Saybolt! For him, this is a great stepping stone for a career in this sector. He receives training and has many career opportunities within the company. Ali looks back on an incredibly educational time with his mentor Eric:
“It was a very positive experience for me! During this difficult period, I had a great support and sparring partner. Eric always found time in his busy schedule. I am so grateful to him! Sometimes I lost confidence, but Eric always said it would be okay because he really believed in me and always found new opportunities to explore further”.
.JPG)
