New arrivals in Sliedrecht: a real tender talent

She is 27 years young and has been working in GWW for a year and a half now. Nynke Nuus, Tender Engineer at Van den Herik in Sliedrecht. We talk to Nynke about her education, interests and the step to work at Van den Herik.

"As a Tender Engineer, I have a wide range of duties," Nynke opens the conversation. "I support tenders and then I am mainly busy making calculations. There are often additional tasks, such as setting up the soil balance. I map out which soil flows are released on a project. The next day I might be called in to design soil and bank protection for a quay, or to coordinate other designs. Supervising and executing tender designs are among my duties."

From Aerospace Engineering to Offshore and Dredging Engineering

In high school, Nynke chose a profile that allowed her to keep all options open for the future. "After that, it became TU Delft for me. I did my Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering. From there I started my Masters in Offshore and Dredging Engineering. Actually those two directions do have common ground, it fascinated me how you can do extraordinary things in difficult locations," Nynke explains.

After graduating, Nynke was hired by Van den Herik through a secondment agency. "I came in at the current position. Van den Herik was looking for expansion for the tender team, wanted to scale up the department (this is an ongoing process here) and wanted more diversity within the ranks. The nice thing about my job is the variety in work and subjects, in addition to the short lines of communication here. The organization is open, transparent and pleasant; the projects I get to work on are interesting." What about the "cake treat," we want to know. Nynke smiles and explains: "It's an unwritten rule here that you treat yourself to cake at the first tender you take on. Because of the corona situation, however, that hasn't happened yet. Maybe they will have forgotten about it here when the corona crisis is over, but I fear not."

A woman in a man's world

With a year of articles about women in the GWW behind us, surely we as a trade magazine would also like to know from Nynke what it is like as a woman in a (still) man's world. "I already noticed during the study how the proportions were. For every 100 students, there was an average of 90 male and 10 female. That in itself says something, however ... it doesn't interest me. I am doing my job and know what I am talking about, I am appreciated and just count here like everyone else. However, that does not take away from the fact that every now and then I find it nice to be with female colleagues among each other for a while here."