Plenty of opportunities within DP World

It is 2013 when former bank employee Carlos Madeira leaves his city of Faro in the south of Portugal behind and heads for the Netherlands. Through a family member, he starts working as an operator and administrator at DP World (then syncreon). He has now been working at DP World for 9 years and is a project manager in Waalwijk 1 and a temporary supporting warehouse manager for the new site in Venray. Be inspired by Carlos’ career.

From the Algarve to North Brabant

Carlos: “Many people ask me why I exchanged the Algarve for North Brabant. The honest answer is that the turbulence in the banking and economy in Portugal meant that I had to create more security and stability for my family. As an assistant branch manager I worked at a bank from the United Kingdom. The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008 was a major factor in the economic and banking crisis. As a result, the bank I worked for wanted to downsize and withdraw from Portugal. All kinds of offers were made to employees to terminate employment contracts by mutual consent.n. I refused this for a long time, but in 2013 I got an offer I couldn’t refuse. Looking back, I think I made the right choice.

Alone to the Netherlands

But that did not solve the problems for Carlos. The financial situation and possibilities in Portugal were very limited. He chose to go to the Netherlands alone to explore the possibilities here before taking his family with him A family member of Carlos was already working at DP World in Tilburg and introduced him. Carlos was able to work within the merge department at DP World in Tilburg. With his background and knowledge, he went to work with administrative work in which he occasionally jumped in as an operator.

Not an easy time

Carlos says “to be honest it was a very difficult time for me. Logistics is a completely different branch of business than banking. I was an immigrant, alone in an unfamiliar country, without my family around me and I didn’t speak the language yet. The support of colleagues and ops and warehouse manager helped me through it. At Christmas that year, my family also followed me to the Netherlands. I worked hard and tackled everything. If pallets had to be stacked, I did that, clearing boxes, also fine. Andre, the warehouse manager in Tilburg, also noticed that. He took me out of the 2-shifts and put me on day shifts and I got more administrative tasks.”

Trust your ability

“I am an ambitious person and I want to keep developing, that’s why I wanted more. So I applied within the company for the vacancy of production planner in Waalwijk 1 in the Manufacturing department. In this new role I first managed a production line, later the entire department. I also supported the supervisor. He said, “Everything I don’t see, you see. You are my right hand.”

Too fast?

“The operation in Waalwijk grew and supervisors were sought. I didn’t apply right away. On the last day I decided to apply anyway and I got the job! In December 2014, for example, I became a supervisor in the Manufacturing department. It didn’t go smoothly right away. It was very busy, syncreon was looking for supervisors, but the operation was not yet fully equipped and suddenly I was managing 35 people.”

“Ups and downs are just part of it. It is important that you receive feedback when things are not going well, but certainly also when things are going well. Then everyone stays motivated. I always give 110% when I do something, which sometimes makes it a challenge for me to maintain a good work-life balance, while I also think that is very important.”

Investing in potential and talent

Again, hard work was appreciated. When a colleague fell ill for a long period of time, Carlos was asked by the operations manager if he wanted to temporarily take over the position of production manager/warehouse manager. Carlos’ manager wanted to invest in his potential and talent and this was a good step for that. Carlos: “I knew it was a temporary role, but when restructuring took place in 2017 and I went back to my role as supervisor, it was quite strange.” In 2018, Carlos was promoted to senior supervisor.

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