Hi,

Around 3 months ago I started my professional worklife. The very same day 25 others did the same thing. We became the Scania Graduate Trainees 2016/2017.

I’ll save the introduction weeks for yet another blog post because these have been very well described in blog posts by my colleagues. If you’re thinking about applying for the next year’s program – application opens in week 51 (hint hint) – and are curious about what you are to experience during the recruting process and the first weeks at the program, do yourself a favor and read the entries by Simon Ingebrand & Alexandra Wilbs!

What I feel has not been as well covered though is the aspect of starting your career as part of a trainee group. In my last entry I mentioned that this gives you a network from day one, and it seems this is a special kind of connection. My mentor (trainee 2014) has told me they still have lunch every week and see each other outside of work. Also representatives from our exboard (many of them former trainees!) shared stories about how they had been in the trainee program together and how these connections had been valuable throughout their careers within the company. And I think this should not be under estimated. Scania is a rather large company which holds an incredible amount of knowledge and information, and when writing our Master’s thesis, I experienced that knowing whom to ask heavily reduces the time spent looking for it!

Well, apart from the strategic side of it, having a bunch of new friends experiencing the same sort of things (being new at a department, feeling frustrated or happy about anything, loving or hating their projects etcetera) is a great support. We can laugh it of, support each other with contacts and advice and find out how others handle the situations. It is also a way to get inspiration and to sort out your thoughts about where and when to spend your rotations, since we are spread out over a large number of functions at Scania.

The introduction contributed in creating a sense of us being a group, especially while we had workshop practices at the production units in Södertälje. But the group also consists of social and including people coming up with ideas of how to spend evenings and weekends. So far, we have for example had a couple of after works, wine- & cheese tasting, afternoon tea, dinners and a lecture. And this weekend, a bunch of us went on a field trip visiting Herman (this year’s trainee at Ferruform) in Luleå! Ferruform Scania AB is a wholly owned subsidiary of Scania producing e.g. driven rear axles and side beams for just-in-time deliveries to the assembly plants in Södertälje, Zwolle and Angers. We got a guided tour at their production site and reflected upon how much was similar to what we have seen in Södertälje, but also how much more organized and new those sites feel. Of course we also took the opportunity to spend the weekend exploring the city. A new adventure awaits already this week though; on Thursday we’ll leave for Sälen! 🙂

Here comes some photos for you to get to know my trainee group.
The quality is not the best, but the company is!

Having sushi after work.

Studying for truck driving license.

Wine tasting.

Dinner and dance.

Hanging out in a Scania truck.

Early mornings… time for assembly work.

Visiting Ferruform.

All the best,

// Therese

Finally time to post my first entry! So here it goes:

Today I got the question: what does it feels like to start working after uni?
And my answer was: it’s surprisingly easy.
But of course this is not entirely true; it can also be highly complex and has its ups and downs. So, I will share my stories and experiences with you as honestly as possible.

When finding myself at the end of my engineering studies, I spent much time reflecting upon how I wanted the journey to continue. All of a sudden it was time to get out of that marvelous bubble of student life in Lund. Being a “generalist specialist” (as I this weekend learnt that my education can be labeled, thanks for the expression!), and also curious as a person, I ended up in parallel recruiting processes. This period was interesting because one day you think you have learnt something about yourself and your aspirations, only to have a setback and doubt it the next day. I had long knew though, that a trainee program would be a interesting way of bridging the gap, while it offers a professional environment where you get introduced to several areas, presented to a broad range of challenges and start to build your network from day one. Furthermore, the focus is on learning as much as possible about the organisation and developing your own skills! So in the end, when the opportunity presented itself, I finally followed my gut feeling (facilitated by the professional but yet highly engaged and welcoming atmosphere experienced during the recruitment process) and accepted a trainee position at Scania CV AB – a choice I am very happy with.

It has now been almost 3 months (my god, that went quick!) and there’s heaps of stuff that I would like to share in this forum. But let’s start with the most recent experience; my first business trip. To the Netherlands. Alone. I have been given the responsibility for a project with rather blurry frames which I am to fill with content, with the help of a resource in Holland. This is of course challenging, and sometimes I just wish that someone would tell me what to do. But I also know that wouldn’t be as fun in the end. The project targets how we can work to better create an understanding of the flow of products all the way to our end customers. Hence, 1 1/2 week ago I was kinda nervous and did not know how to fill the agenda for the three day long visit, but then I reminded myself; if you want challenges, go grasp the opportunities! So off I went, and it was incredibly instructive.

Since I am currently employed within the industrial side, this trip was also a way for me to learn how the same flow can be interpreted from the commercial point of view. The distributor I visited is located in Breda, a two hour flight and an additional one hour train trip from Stockholm. I felt rather excited waking up at the hotel, knowing that I would get picked up and spend my day at this head office. I gladly experienced that the entire day had been dedicated to me, where a manager and I sat down to discuss the project, their market setup and challenges, and how to proceed from here. And once again it struck me how open and friendly the employees are at this company; willing to share information and experiences. This is built into the Scania culture, where one of the core values is ‘Respect for the Individual’, and we seek to capture the knowledge, experience and ambition of each individual to continuously improve and develop. I personally feel I thrive in an environment where knowledge sharing is encouraged and the standard answer (at least to my experience so far) is: “Of course, just book a meeting in my calendar!”

During my second day I got to attend pulse meetings and to further discuss the project with several employees. I also seized the opportunity to get an introduction to our pre-sales tool and to have lunch with some of the managers (sushi buffet, yay!). Moving on to Amsterdam, which was the second stop of the trip. The hotel was situated in an industrial part of town and the dealer just a 10 minute drive from there. Spent a full day at the local sales back office, where I got to experience how they work with planning activities and how complex the flow setup can be; from the chassis delivered from factory, to the point where the vehicle is ready to be picked up by the customer (I think I am growing rather fond of our products, they can be pretty cool…). The atmosphere was, again, open and the colleagues seemed to enjoy each others company – at least we laughed more or less during the entire lunch. Knowing I had learnt a lot about this market and our customers, I entered the workshop just in time to see some of them picking up their vehicles before it was time to close the business for this day.

Someone liked the Swedish handicraft.

Time for me to wrap up this day and blog post as well.

//Therese

PS. Breda is a pretty little town, which seems to host a great amount of cosy restaurants, cafes and pubs. Happy to discover this part of the country as well!