Ruben Fijn,
Team leader Bird Ecology

My love for birds started at primary school with birdwatching, together with my father and uncle. I also read many books about seabirds in particular and got to know various Dutch seabird species on the pier at IJmuiden.
When I started working at -then- Bureau Waardenburg after my Biology studies, I immediately felt at home with the close-knit, fanatical club of bird ecologists. It was the time when transmitters were emerging. I had done a lot with that during my studies and found it an exciting field of work. I really had the feeling 'here I can progress, discover things and shape how and what I want to study'. That high degree of self-development is still typical of Waardenburg Ecology.

As team leader Bird Ecology, I work together with my colleague team leader Camiel Heunks to ensure that the 25 other employees in our team can do their work as well as possible, at a good pace and in a pleasant atmosphere. I am also the project leader for various bird ecology projects. Examples of projects that I am responsible for are aircraft and boat counts of seabirds in the Dutch North Sea and the tracking of individual birds using various tracking techniques.

Supervising a process from A to Z: from identifying a problem, where you actively think along with the client, to solving it or providing insight into the background of a problem. In addition, you are literally a link in protecting nature in our small, busy country. The results and advice you provide are actually used by policymakers in government and in the business community. I really like that social relevance in my work.

The short lines, the quick switching with colleagues and the opportunities for innovation and personal initiative. Due to the size of the organization and the joint expertise of colleagues, we can do interesting and challenging work in terms of content. You never do a project alone, we are constantly talking to each other about how things can be done differently or better. And there is a lot of knowledge: whether you go on holiday to the Black Forest or kill a mosquito in your room, there is always a colleague who can tell you something about that area or that species. I also think that the say in the way you organize your work is typical of Waardenburg Ecology. You can really map out a plan for yourself and achieve it.

If you work for Waardenburg Ecology, you are actively involved in the green space in the Netherlands and you choose an organization where things are well organized and where it is pleasant.