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One week's notice, one suitcase, one clear goal
I had one clear goal when I started studying engineering
Not a specific role, not a particular sector, just abroad! I wanted to work internationally. I wanted to live somewhere completely different, be surrounded by people I didn't know yet, and contribute to projects that would push me.
That was the dream from the beginning. So when BESIX offered me the chance to go to Tanzania at 24 to work on a jetty, on one week's notice, I said yes before I'd finished reading the message!
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I arrived not knowing a single colleague. I had no background in marine works. I had a suitcase, a lot of energy, and the conviction that younger me had made the right call.
At the heart of complexity
If you'd asked me before Tanzania what marine works involved, I would have given you a vague answer. I knew it existed as a discipline. I didn't know how much I would love it.
The complexity is mind-blowing. You're working in environments that don't cooperate: tides, weather, difficult terrain, logistics chains that stretch across continents. The Technical Office sits at the heart of that complexity. Our task there was to review documentation, coordinate flows between design and execution… and catch discrepancies before they become problems on the ground! You're the link between what was designed and what gets built. When that gap is a marine structure in the Indian Ocean, the stakes feel very real.
The people make all the difference
I can say without hesitation that the team made my time in Tanzania. Loïc, Sami, Brieuc… I was surrounded by people who were brilliant at their work and who also happened to be great human beings.
When you're an expat, especially on your first posting, colleagues become something more than colleagues. You share the long days, the difficult moments, the evenings when you miss home. Over time, that shared experience builds something solid. They became family. I use that word deliberately, because I mean it.
A team like that doesn't just make the work more enjoyable. It makes you better at the work. When you trust the people around you, you ask better questions, take more initiative, push further than you would alone.
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What I've understood about myself
I was made for this! I know that sounds confident, and I suppose it is. But it's the kind of confidence that only comes after. After the disorientation of a new country, after the first weeks of finding your footing on a technically unfamiliar project, after the moments where you're not sure you're getting it right and you push through anyway.
Younger me had the instinct that I was made for this… and this jetty in Tanzania gave me the evidence!
What's next
My chapter in Tanzania has now closed, and I look back on it with a huge smile. For the project, the place, the people: all of it.
And now, direction Mozambique. A new Technical Office team, a new jetty, a new set of challenges to get into. Marine works again, which feels right. A different scale (even bigger!), a different context, and the same excitement I had when I first said yes to Tanzania.
That's what I'd want anyone considering this kind of career to understand. The projects don't repeat, the learning doesn't stop. And if you're the kind of person who finds that energizing rather than exhausting, this industry has a lot to offer you.
Amber is a Technical Office Engineer at BESIX, currently based in Mozambique on the LNG project in Afungi, Cabo Delgado. She previously worked on another marine project in Tanga, Tanzania.
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