Bartosz graduated this year with a degree in Physical Geography with Geoinformation at the University of Gdansk. He began his adventure with Ambiens with the day he started his final year of graduate studies. At Ambiens, he supports the ongoing project tasks of the Offshore Team. He specializes in GIS, data analysis of abiotic environmental parameters, and his favorite disciplines are meteorology and climatology.

How did you find out about Ambiens and what prompted you to apply for a position with the company?

I found out about Ambiens less than two months before I started working there. At that time I was doing my apprenticeship and during the most ordinary conversation with the Apprenticeship Manager the topic of post-graduation work spontaneously came up, and then specifically a certain company that is planning to create a new team in Gdynia and is eager to engage young people. At first, I didn’t pay much attention to this offer, because my natural reaction was the thought that a student is not able to compete on the job market with someone who has already completed studies… As far as I remember, only after a few days of reflection (and analysis of the number of hours of classes in the coming semesters) and checking what Ambiens actually does, I decided to give it a try after all. I found that with a favorable schedule, I would be able to offer quite a bit of availability during the week. What was my surprise when I received a positive response! During the conversation with Paulina and Michał, I learned more about the company’s operations, potential responsibilities, and confirmed my earlier conviction that I would like to work there and be able to apply my knowledge of the environment – in the RES industry. But most importantly, the conversation was very relaxed and nice, you could just sense that I was dealing with a healthy work environment, and this is very important to me, because you have to take care of your mental health.

Did you manage to balance your hours at work with your classes at the University?

Of course, the beginnings can be the hardest, especially since I had to deal with responsibilities I hadn’t dealt with before. Due to the fact that I had to work part-time through the University, there were times (of my own free will) when I would take my computer home and, already after working hours, refine the texts I had written earlier in the environmental appendices. I did this for its own sake, because I knew that by devoting more time to practice at the very beginning, in the future I would be able to cope with the timeliness of my tasks without much trouble, despite fewer hours at work. And that’s exactly what happened!

On the other hand, if it comes to some sudden changes in the schedule, making up missed classes or studying for exams and exams themselves – there were no problems with this at all. Paulina and Michał are understanding in this regard, so that in the case of the situations presented above, which personally happened to me, we were always able to get along. So, to answer the question – yes, I was able to reconcile these things.

Release of meteorological radiosonde as part of aerological measurements

Release of meteorological radiosonde as part of aerological measurements

And how about the inevitable duty of writing a thesis – can you find time for that too?

I will frankly admit that there have been moments for better and worse, but with this I think anyone who has ever had contact with writing a thesis will agree… There were times when, after returning from work, where I spent most of the day, for example, on the analysis of environmental data, I had absolutely no desire to sit down to work on my master’s thesis, I felt a kind of “burned out”. But chores are chores, it was necessary to move forward with progress. Weekends were salutary. On the one hand, it was a pity, because, of course, it would be most enjoyable to relax after a whole week and do something interesting, but on the other hand, dedicating Saturday and Sunday to writing a thesis, one could make really great progress. Fortunately, in exceptional cases there was no problem for me to take a day off at work to focus 100% on my thesis, which I appreciate very much.

How do you think the knowledge you gained from your studies proved to be useful in practice?

When it comes to environmental issues, the answer is – of course, yes. Although, from my own experience, I think that what matters at work is, first of all, independence, managing your own time, the ability to search for scientific sources and extract useful information from these sources, and these abilities can be acquired by writing at least a thesis, which, of course, is related to studies, but nevertheless requires acting on your own. But what I must admit is that thanks to my studies I have acquired practical knowledge that will enable me to pursue new solutions in the future. Due to the large amount of geoinformation in my studies, I had the opportunity to get to know GIS or RStudio in depth, for example, and these environments provide countless opportunities – if only for spatial and statistical analysis, which came in handy more than once for the work of our entire Team.

What are your plans for the future?

One of the biggest aspirations is to get a PhD (or even higher!), but that will still come in life. At the moment in Poland, but also in many other countries, we are seeing a “revolution” when it comes to offshore wind energy. Besides, we really need a lot of specialists in Poland, so I think it would be good to be a part of that and, by the way, to be able to add my “brick” to the transformation and development of the energy industry in Poland. At Ambiens, on the other hand, I would like to continue to develop in terms of data analysis and GIS in the broadest sense, because this is something that interests me, and it’s also an important part of the work on the EIA report, so I would be doing something very important by the way.

Do you perhaps have a closing word for your younger studying colleagues?

The moral is quite simple, don’t be afraid to recruit for a position in your profession, even if you are still studying! As a pessimistic person, I didn’t believe that without a master’s degree I would get a job in my profession. Then I didn’t believe that I would manage here, and yet I’m still here, and my cooperation with Ambiens has been very productive. If you can manage your own time and are able to tire your mind a little during this hard period that is the end of studies, then it’s worth trying. Really, the opportunity to work in a profession while you are still studying puts a positive spin on life.

Finally: sea or mountains?

Although I very much appreciate the mountain scenery, I would choose the sea regardless of the season. It’s hard for me to describe it in words, yet there is something about the sea that makes me feel calm and relaxed being in its immediate vicinity.

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