‘I found out that a job as a legal assistant is not for me. I want to work with my hands. Before this I had been doing that for a while at a large technical company. When I posted my resume on a job site, Corina van Aperloo called me not long after. She asked if I wanted to come and meet her. I already knew Joey, one of Corina and Martin's two sons. We made an appointment and I was allowed to join them for half a day to experience whether this was something for me.’
Specialised work
‘At MCAP, I work on the unique project KM3NeT. For Nikhef (National Institute for Subatomic Physics), we are producing cables for a super-telescope that can detect neutrino particles. KM3NeT consists of a network of cables and spheres with detectors and will be located in the Mediterranean Sea at a depth of 3 to 5 km. We will insert optical fibres and power cables into tubes tens of metres long. Several of these are coupled together to form long cables with a branch point at each coupling. Inserting the optical fibres is highly specialised work. It also has to be done very carefully, otherwise they will break. At first I found it very exciting, but after a while I got the hang of it.’
Nicest job so far
‘At the company where I was employed before this, many people worked. This made me feel like a number. Here it is different. MCAP is still quite small, so everyone knows each other. We also eat together at the same table. That’s nice. When rolling out and inserting the optical fibres, we need help from other colleagues, but otherwise I do the entire project from start to finish together with just one other colleague. That gives us a lot of freedom. We connect the optical fibres with fusion splices. We solder the copper cables for the power supply of the spheres onto the PCBs. Finally, we make everything waterproof and pressure-resistant. We do start working with more colleagues on this project. That way we are each other's back-up and we can work on other projects too. After all, I like variety myself. I really like it at MCAP. I think this is the best job so far.’
Would you also prefer to work with your hands within an approachable family business where beautiful high-quality products are made? Then feel free to contact us to get acquainted. Who knows, you might become as happy as Manon.
