John-Paul
From graduation internship to project coordinator
John-Paul is 28 years old and has been working at A.Hak for almost five years. “I started as a graduation intern at Electron in my final year of HBO Land and Water Management. Electron is one of our divisions, specializing in the construction and maintenance of underground medium and high-voltage cables. For my graduation internship, I was looking for a concrete project and at A.Hak there happened to be a ready-made internship that perfectly matched my studies. Together with my colleague Niels, I started graduating and we have both stayed with A.Hak ever since.”
After his internship, John-Paul started as a Business Office Employee, where he did a lot of calculations and looked at projects. After that, he grew into the role of Work Planner and since 2025 he has been a Project Coordinator within Electron.
No two days are the same
An average working day is difficult for John-Paul to describe, precisely because no two days are the same. “Sometimes I have a collaboration day on location with the project team. Then we coordinate things, walk around outside and gather information from the contractors and subcontractors. The next day I sit at home or in the office to work everything out: reports, schedules, deviations, preparations. There is a lot of variety, and that makes it fun.”
What does he appreciate most in his work? According to him, there are two things. “On the one hand, you contribute to society, for example to the energy transition. That is one of my motivations. On the other hand, you build something from 0 to 100. You start in 2020 and years later you see the end result. It’s like a puzzle you put together, and each project is unique.”
Working on unique projects
John-Paul cannot choose one particular project. “The great thing is that there are always unique projects. Sometimes you work on a large solar park, a wind farm or a hydrogen project. These are things that may only happen once every ten or fifteen years. That makes it special.”
He also has a fond memory: “When I flew back from Indonesia last year, my girlfriend immediately pointed out the first project I had worked on from the plane. It’s just nice that I contributed to that and that makes you proud.”
Family feeling and open doors
John-Paul describes the atmosphere at A.Hak as positive and good. “You can, so to speak, walk in on anyone. Everyone is proud of their work and helps each other. People don’t let you down if something doesn’t go right away. I like that. There really is a family feeling.”
Within his team, he gets energy from the collaboration and the humor. “If you complement each other and become attuned to each other, I think that’s great. And a joke in between is always part of it, of course.” There is also room for fun within projects: for example, the team collects tile wisdoms on the wall, including the classic “Every day at Electron is a party.”
Outside of work
Outside of work, John-Paul is often found in the kitchen. He loves to cook and likes to experiment with different dishes. His girlfriend is lucky ;). He also loves music and festivals, which he regularly attends. And a fun fact about John-Paul? “I collect old world maps. I started doing that once, and never really stopped.”
