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Yoshita Gayashan
Quote:'' When you see an opportunity, it is your own responsibility to take it.''
What is your educational background?
I am from Sri Lanka and came to the Netherlands for my education. In 2016 I started studying mechatronics engineering at Fontys University of Applied Sciences. I knew in which discipline I wanted to study, but not where. I started to look for universities in Sri Lanka but soon concluded that I wanted to study abroad. When The Netherlands came across, I started exploring the opportunities here and became enthusiastic about it.
How did you end up at VDL?
When I came to the Netherlands, I immediately started looking for a part-time job in addition to my studies. I wanted to do something with welding because I was good at that. Therefore, I completed a mbo TIG welding course at level 1, 2 and 3 next to my education at Fontys. During this course, I asked my teacher for help in finding a job. He then suggested VDL, so I applied at VDL Lasindustrie and started working as a welder at first. Because of my visa I had to look for another job after one year. For this reason I applied at VDL Industrial Modules and started in the position of robot programmer, but later returned to VDL Lasindustrie.
In what position are you now?
Now I work as a process engineer at VDL Lasindustrie. My main task is programming the robots. We have 7 welding robots in total and me and my colleague program the welding robots online (at the robot itself) and offline (at the computer). Basically, I am going through the whole process, meaning that I figure out how we are going to make it, what the challenges are and how are we arranging things in order to get a good product out of the robot.
How much time does it take to program the robots?
This depends on the product and can be for example one month. We are currently making bus chassis for a VDL sister company. This is quite a complicated process and therefore takes more time. We must test, check the quality, fix problems and so on.
What qualities do you need for this position?
You must be able to work well together. It can sometimes be difficult to bring an idea to life because there are so many different thoughts and ideas. Therefore it is very important that you communicate clearly with each other about this. You need to be open-minded and patient.
In fact, this is exactly why I like my job so much. When you start a thinking process together, it gives yourself a chance to think in a different way. You learn from others and gain new insights.
Can you give an example of a challenge you regularly face?
Then I would say it's the language. Obviously, there are many Dutch colleagues, so it can sometimes become a mix of English and Dutch. If there are certain expressions it can be tricky to understand each other sometimes. But again, you only learn from this. So although the language is usually not a big issue, there are times when this can still be a small challenge.
What do you like about VDL?
If you want to achieve something, there are mor then enough possibilities. When you see an opportunity, it is your own responsibility to take it. Just go for it.