Global Graduate IT – My Journey


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Hej Hej and Servus, my name is Alex and I’ve joined SKF’s Global Graduate Program in September 2018. Let’s take a look at this exciting journey step by step.

I’m originally from a mid-sized town located in the southern part of Germany. In summer 2018, I graduated from the Julius-Maximilian’s University in Würzburg with a master’s degree in business information technology (Wirtschaftsinfomatik). While waiting for my final grades, I started to look around for possible job opportunities all over Germany.

At that moment I did not have a strong focus on a particular company, but what I was sure about, is that I wanted to work in an international environment and within the IT field.

During this time, I was on my way to visit a friend in the close by city of Schweinfurt. Coming from the highway, you can’t miss seeing SKF Germany’s HQ from afar, especially because it is written with huge letters on the building!

Source:pbp SKF Germany HQ in Schweinfurt, Germany

That was the moment, when SKF crossed my mind. The next day I sat down and started my research about the company, and what a lucky coincidence! Right at that time, they were looking to fill a Global Graduate position in the IoT Development team in Schweinfurt. I sent my application the same day and just a few days later I received an e-mail with an invitation for the first interview.

The first interview was with an HR representative as well as my future manager. The whole conversation as well as the atmosphere were friendly and relaxed, yet professional.

That day I left the interview with a good feeling and just a few days later I was invited for the second interview with some representatives from the Global Graduate Program in Sweden via Skype.

After this skype meeting, there was a third and final meeting with the local HR, as well as with the manager of IoT Technologies. A few days later I received the final job offer.

Introduction Month

The trainees and I spent the first month at the HQ in Gothenburg, where we met the whole top management team. We also had a factory tour to understand our manufacturing process, in addition to several sessions on the company setup and strategies. All in all, the introduction month was a great opportunity to meet the other trainees and start creating a network within the company.

First Rotation

I started my first rotation in my home unit; IoT-Development, in Schweinfurt Germany. In our project, we were working on a solution for Machine-to-Cloud connectivity. Besides that, I was involved in designing a concept for the service and operation model for the factories and the IT organization to support the industry 4.0 approach.

It was a great experience working with such a nice, professional and extremely knowledgeable team. They were supporting me along the way and I’ve learned a lot of new skills and topics. One of the highlights of my rotation was the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Summit in Berlin, where we joined with the whole team listening to different sessions about Cloud Computing.

AWS Summit Berlin 2019

Time passed by really quickly and just a few days after the summit, I was on a plane headed to Sweden kick start my second rotation in SKF’s Headquarters.

Second Rotation

Currently I’m in my second rotation in the Business Process Solutions team, working on a Robot Process Automation (RPA) initiative. Setting up a digital workforce will increase efficiency and allow my colleagues to focus on other important tasks. Working with different stakeholders from different departments is sometimes challenging but also really rewarding once we can present results and create value. I really enjoy working in the new team and getting more insights on SKF as a company.

What’s next?

In September I will head to Canada, to support the Digitalization team there for 5 months and learn more about SKF’s Digitalization strategy. I’m looking forward!

Being with SKF for now eight months, I am sure that I took the right decision to join this company. An intercultural and truly global company with demanding and diverse projects which allows me to grow and take responsibility.

I hope this post gave a small insight to my trainee journey with SKF! If you have any questions, feel free to reach out!

Cheers und bis bald 🙂

Alex

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Nur die Harten kommen in den Garten (Only the strongest survive)


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Me at SKF Group Headquarters in Gothenburg

Hola a todos!

First rotation

I’m Emilio from Gothenburg, Sweden. I started at SKF end of August in the global marketing team. There I did my first project, the project involved digital marketing and digital campaigns. It was super fun, I got to meet so much inspiring colleagues and other people during the various courses I did.

Me and Lisa looking for the perfect spot to do the promo shooting

Second rotation

I’m currently on my second rotation in Schweinfurt, Germany, working on a very interesting mountain bike project. I am responsible of all the social media strategy in this mountain bike project. The project is about providing our mountain bike customers with better products, this project will therefore have an impact on mountain bikers all over the world.

 

Me, Alessandra and Rasmus (also global trainees) sightseeing in the beautiful city of Würzburg

Germany as a country is very beautiful and all the people are super nice. Two things that strike me is that Germany is more analog than I thought. Most of the places don’t accept card and you pay everything with cash (restaurants, stores, taxi etc.). Another thing is the internet connection in the country, is super slow, I’m very surprised. When it comes to the German work culture the German colleagues are way more prepared during each meeting than we Swedes are, also they like quick and efficient decisions (not waiting for a consensus like we Swedes tend to do). Time is of essence for Germans, they don’t want you to be late nor to waste their time with a poorly executed meeting or PowerPoint presentation.

 

Sunset in Buenos Aires

Third rotation

For my third and last rotation, SKF is sending me to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I’m super excited to see what Latin America can give me both professionally but also personally. In one way, you could say that I will experience how my life could have been if I was born and raised there instead of Sweden.

 

Un saludo desde Alemania,

Emilio

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International Stand Manager at the IAA


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In September this year, I got the unique opportunity to work as Scania’s International Stand Manager at the 66th IAA for Commercial Vehicles, which was held in Hanover, Germany.

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In short, a stand manager is responsible for the stand operation throughout the exhibition. He or she has to initiate or arrange any support needed to make sure things run smoothly and has the authority to take decisions, for instance regarding staffing.

As the international stand manager, I was responsible for approximately 40 international staff members each day, that came from Sweden, Brazil and Russia and manned the stand. Every morning and evening, when the exhibition closed, I sat down with the German stand manager and discussed which issues we would bring up at the next morning meeting. We, first, held a morning meeting for the German and the international staff members together. The German stand manager held the meeting in German, while I summarized his speech in English. This also meant that I sometimes had to translate “on the spot” or that I quickly had to summarize speeches of the German management team. During these meetings, I always presented three experts from my international team to the German staff members in order to enhance the cooperation between the German and the international team.

I, then, held a separate morning meeting for my international staff, in which I checked attendance and informed the staff members about expected visitors and VIP guests on that day. Additionally, I told them, if we were expecting bigger customer groups and colleagues from Scania’s distributors to visit our stand. As the main contact person for the international staff, I was responsible for giving my staff the support they needed in order to perform their work tasks. This implied, for example, to ensure that every staff member had a work outfit, nametag, pin, locker, etc. but also making sure that the staff members felt comfortable and took enough breaks to eat and drink.

After the international morning meeting, I stopped by Scania’s information desk, to inform the hostesses about which international staff members were manning the stand that day. Besides being responsible for the international staff, I was in charge of our international conference rooms. Hence, I met with the catering manager every morning to discuss the conference room bookings. Furthermore, I checked regularly that the Scania stand was in a representative condition, which means that I ensured that the stand was tidy, that we never ran out of marketing material, and that all the technical equipment functioned properly.

The Scania stand was comprised, among others, of a VIP Lounge and a Driver’s Bar. As the stand manager, I had the authority to decide who was allowed to enter the VIP lounge and I had to watch out that the VIP lounge was never overcrowded. Scania distributors from all over the world travelled to the IAA. Many of them came with bigger customer groups. For some of these groups, I had to make special arrangements on the stand. I closed off a section of the Driver’s Bar, for instance, and checked that security staff was in place and that the catering was informed about the visit of bigger customer groups.

I spent most of the remaining time behind the reception desk, where I welcomed Scania employees from all over the world that visited the exhibition and assisted them, for example, with storing their luggage in our luggage room or finding a place to work. Furthermore, I accompanied guests to the conference rooms, when they had meetings with Scania employees and ensured that guests that had a meeting with the management team were taken care of. Moreover, I was the main contact person for all international and German customers and suppliers that were looking for Scania representatives from certain markets or that wanted to get in touch with our technical experts when they had specific questions concerning our products. I also gathered all contact requests from different suppliers and forwarded their brochures and business cards to the Purchasing department in Södertälje. Another work task was to take care of VIP guests at our stand and to arrange private guided tours of our stand with my staff members.

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The work load at the IAA was very high, and I worked approximately 11 to 12 hours a day. The first three days were especially tough until everything fell into place. During these days, my phone rang constantly while three people around me wanted my attention simultaneously. It is difficult to prepare for the role as the stand manager, since the main task is simply to “function”, to be extremely flexible, highly service-minded, and to find the best solution possible under time pressure, so that our guests have the best experience at the Scania stand and receive the support they need. Luckily, I was supported by two coordinators, who assisted me at the reception desk and helped me in all staff-related issues.

Since we had just launched a completely new truck generation, our stand was very popular and totally overcrowded during the weekend.

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We were all very proud to present our new truck range at the IAA and an absolute highlight was that Scania won the International Truck of the Year award, which was handed out during the press day of the IAA.

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Another personal highlight for me as a true Scania fan was that I spotted the legendary Svempa at our stand, who designs and builds unique Scania concept trucks, among others the Red Pearl and the Chimera, which I saw at the International ADAC Truck-Grand-Prix at the Nürburgring during my third trainee placement at Scania Deutschland GmbH. Of course, I did not miss the chance to ask him if I could take a picture with him.

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After having worked five days in the row, the new international stand manager from Sweden arrived, who took over for the remaining five exhibition days. Due to the long working hours and the fact that I was standing or running around most of the time, I was quite exhausted and glad when the new stand manager arrived. However, working as the international stand manager was definitely a great opportunity and learning experience. It was fun to get to know so many Scania employees and to have close contact with our customers and suppliers. I enjoyed the collaboration with Scania Germany at our stand and I can definitely imagine myself working as Scania’s international stand manager again at the next IAA.

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My third trainee placement in Germany


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I moved to Koblenz, Germany, in the end of April 2016 for my third trainee placement, which I spent at the department “Strategy, Communication & Marketing” at Scania Deutschland GmbH.

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Germany is my home country, but I have never worked in Germany before. Thus, I was very excited to see what working for Scania would be like in Germany. Scania has an extremely Swedish organizational culture (for more information see my second blog entry: How to choose the right company) and although the organizational culture at Scania Germany is “Scania-like”, the differences between the two business cultures is still noticeable. My trainee placement in Germany was very structured and organized. Everything – from chair to computer – was ready to use upon my arrival. Furthermore, Scania Germany has very clear hierarchies and the language in meetings is more direct than in Sweden. The work tasks were quite varied reaching from administrative tasks to demanding projects, hence, I always had something to work on.

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I spent a lot of time on proof-reading all kinds of marketing material, such as brochures and press releases and even got to write the press release for the International ADAC Truck-Grand-Prix – a huge trucker festival taking place at famous Nürburgring – on my own. I also assisted the team “Business Intelligence & Sales Processes” with evaluating and summarizing the results of a questionnaire filled in by the Scania dealers in Germany.

However, the most interesting and valuable experience for me was being involved in the IAA project. The IAA is the world’s largest exhibition for commercial vehicles in Hanover, Germany, and takes place every second year. I assisted the project manager in planning the set-up of the marketing material as well as proof reading it. In addition, I coordinated a video shoot for a customer testimonial for the IAA. Being involved in the IAA project was a great preparation for my role as a stand manager at the IAA this year. Besides, the department “Strategy, Communication & Marketing” closely cooperates with my home department, “Marketing Communications” in Sweden. Hence, it was very interesting for me to work with my home department from a distributor perspective.

My third trainee placement also involved some travelling: I attended an IAA meeting in Sweden and visited the IFAT in Munich, which is the world’s leading trade fair for water, sewage, waste and raw materials management.

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I travelled to Frankfurt, to take part in the VDA International Press Workshop, where I met the top managers of the automotive industry, among others Andreas Renschler (Volkswagen AG, Volkswagen Truck & Bus GmbH) and Henrik Henriksson, the CEO of Scania. Moreover, I attended an award ceremony in Stuttgart, which was held by ETM, a publisher house, where Scania won a prize in the tipper category.

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A very interesting event to attend was the International ADAC Truck-Grand-Prix, which takes place at the Nürburgring in Germany every year.

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All in all, my trainee placement in Germany has been very valuable and I have learned a lot at Scania Germany in general and at the department “Strategy, Communication & Marketing” in particular. From day one, I felt like being part of the team and I can definitely imagine myself going back to Scania Germany for some time in the future.

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