It was an interesting beginning of my journey with Vanderlande

In 2008, I was working in Dubai Airport for Inter-Roller (subcontractor of Siemens). When I decided to switch jobs, I just had found a list of top 20 material handling system suppliers on the Internet. I sent my resume directly to all 20 suppliers. Out of the 20 companies, I got a positive response from 5 companies namely Vanderlande, Siemens Dematic UK, BCS Australia, Siemens Dubai and FKI logistics.

Let me share my interesting story of the beginning of my journey with Vanderlande. Mr. Anton Sprangers from Vanderlande contacted me and asked me to come to India or The Netherlands for an interview. He mentioned that they had a plan to set up an office in India and he frequently traveled between India and The Netherlands. I replied that since I had just returned from my holiday, it was difficult for me to get a holiday in the coming months. So I asked Mr. Anton Sprangers and Mr. Willem Thielsch if it was possible to plan a meeting at Dubai Airport during a transit in Dubai. Because I worked at Dubai Airport, I suggested we could have a first round of interviews during their transfer waiting time there.

I got a call from Mr. Willem, who said: “We are ready to come to Dubai for an interview, if you could arrange a few more candidates”. I was happy and I got resumes from my potential colleagues and shared all resumes. Mr. Willem and Mr. Anton were really happy and confirmed that they would visit Dubai for sure and they shared a vision for VOICE (Vanderlande Office Centre of Engineering) with me. They asked me to give a presentation to all candidates, organize the meeting with them and plan a meeting location, time slots etc.

I shared the presentation with all Dubai candidates and made an interview schedule for 2 days with all candidates and shared it with Mr. Willem & Mr. Anton. Almost all candidates who had a meeting in Dubai got a job within Vanderlande.

Back in 2008, there was no VOICE office in Pune yet, so me and another candidate were given the opportunity to work directly at our office in Veghel, The Netherlands. It makes me Vanderlande’s first knowledge migrant worker from another continent (Non-EU citizen). All other candidates started later in the VOICE office in Pune.

I can proudly say that I am part of VOICE’s and Vanderlande’s growth. When I started my journey with Vanderlande in 2008, Vanderlande was not as big as today. The campus in Veghel only had building 1 and building 10A and we didn’t have enough space for my team. So Vanderlande needed to hire office space, that was 1 km away from the campus. The original plan for VOICE was to have just 15 Specialists and 75 Commissioning Engineers, while currently there are over 900 people working in the Pune office.

I was part of Vanderlande’s 60 year celebration and look forward to meet 75 year celebration. I congratulate and personally thank all colleagues who have joined me from Dubai and provided their best result to make VOICE and Vanderlande successful.