It's easy to get out into the world if you’re willing to put in an effort. So says 29-year-old Esben Hedegaard Jensen, who spent most of 2007 stationed in Mozambique. 
Esben, who has been an engineer in the building and electricity department of Grontmij | Carl Bro since 2006, was keen to work abroad and told his department manager about this in early 2007. Just a few months later, Esben was offered a posting as an advisor on a Danida project. In return, he had to leave a fortnight after the plans had been finalised since the project was an urgent matter following an explosion at an ammunition depot.
In Mozambique Esben got to know African work routines, where planning is not exactly cutting-edge and things therefore rarely go as expected. For Esben this meant that the project he was sent to carry out had to be put to one side when the main contractor backed out, meaning that his work duties suddenly changed.
Mozambique, a country of great contrasts
The posting to Mozambique gave Esben an insight into a culture and an approach that differ vastly from things back home in Denmark. The contrasts that exist in one of the world’s poorest countries made a huge impression on him: “It really puts your own life in perspective when you live in a compound with guards and cleaning staff, while just a few blocks away you can see people eating out of the waste bins.”
Career with Grontmij | Carl Bro
Esben sees his posting as a fine illustration of the fact that it is possible to get what you want from a career with Grontmij | Carl Bro: “It was great to see that the management listened to my request to work abroad. The whole thing really was an amazing experience.”