At the palace in Mysore

Welcome to my trainee blog! In this blog I will write about my life as a trainee in the Telenor Global Trainee Program. The trainee program began in September 2009 and right now I just started my second placement, which is in Bangalore, India. In India, Telenor launched its first commercial service in December 2009 under the brand Uninor. During the coming six months I will drive a project to launch postpaid services in the Indian state of Karnataka, in south west India.

Becoming a trainee
So who am I? Prior to becoming a trainee within the Telenor Group, I finished my Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Linköping University. During my university studies I had been an exchange student to both RWTH Aachen, Germany, and to Stanford University, USA, and therefore I had my mind set on becoming a trainee as I wanted to yet increase my international experience. A combination of the company culture, values and vision together with the telecom industry itself and the setup of the trainee program, led me to join Telenor as a trainee.

My first six months
I started my first placement as a trainee in the Networks department of Telenor Sweden in Stockholm last September. During my seven months in Telenor Sweden I worked on three major projects. One of which was the establishment of a Network Performance Management function.

The trainee program
My journey as a trainee will be 18 months long, hence after my placement in India I expect to join Telenor Sweden again, however within a new division. The point of the trainee program is the get to know the Telenor Group in as many aspects as possible. Therefore all of us fifteen trainees meet for seminars throughout the 18 months. So far we have been to Telenor Norway, Telenor Hungary and Telenor Serbia to get to know the different business units, to extend our knowledge of the telecom industry and to build our networks. For more info on the actual program itself, please visit: http://telenor.se/privat/telenor-karriar/trainee/globala-traineeprogrammet/index.html.

My hope is that this blog will give you an insight to the life as a trainee. Don’t hesitate to ask questions; in a year you might become a global trainee in Telenor yourself, don’t miss that chance.