VERA MEIJVOGEL AS SAFETY ENGINEER @ TRANSAVIA

How did you get your current job?

I applied for this job when I was doing my graduation internship at another department at Transavia. I did my third-year internship at the Safety and Quality Assurance department at Transavia in the first semester of 2017-2018 and could come back during the summer holidays in 2018. I really enjoyed the work I was doing there and specifically the work environment. That is why I decided to apply for this job. After two interviews with several colleagues I received the good news that I was hired for this job!

What are your daily operations?

My daily tasks vary from day to day and so does the workload. Most of the time, I am busy with the analysis of the safety reports coming in from the flight- and cabin crew, ground handlers and our technical department. After carefully reading and analyzing the report to know what exactly has happened, we risk assess the report and determine if and what type of follow-up action is needed. I am also the administrator of our Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) program. This means that I am responsible for processing, analyzing and validating the flight data which is retrieved from our aircraft. I am monitoring the data for exceedances and identifiable trends on which other departments can take action.

Next to the daily tasks, I am involved in different projects wherever my knowledge or expertise is needed. Examples of this are developing the reporting tool for submitting safety reports and changing the way we retrieve the data from our aircraft.

What do you like the most at your job?

What I really enjoy about my job is that every day is different. You never know exactly what your day will look like because it can happen that you have to take immediate action upon incoming information, and you have to change all your plans for that day. Also, you know all ins- and outs about the daily operation of the airline.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

To be honest, I don’t know what I want to do or achieve in the upcoming years. Since I started at the Aviation Academy I have learned that it is really important to do what you like to do and that you really enjoy your work. When you do something you really like to do, it really gives you energy to start the day and be efficient and it makes you really eager to learn more about a certain topic. Therefore, in the upcoming years I will see what happens and take the chances when I feel good to do so.

What did you like the most from your education that helps you out nowadays in your work?

There is not specifically one item or topic I really like the most which helps me now in my work. But I think that the soft skills which I have developed during my studies are really valuable in my day to day job. Examples of these soft skills are being critical to your own and others’ work, being able to analyze data and I think most important is taking initiative by yourself. At the Aviation Academy I experienced that it is difficult to learn and accomplish something when you are not asking questions and stepping up during a project. In a real work environment, it is exactly the same. You really have to take the initiative and be able to explain the value of what you want to achieve before someone will help you reaching that goal.

Are you still connected with the Aviation Academy?

Every semester we have a position for an intern at our department and I am a company supervisor for this intern. So, in that way, I am still connected to the Aviation Academy.