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

Hej Hej TraineeBloggen!

My name is Allan Methven and I am one of the new Global Trainees at SKF! let me tell you a bit about myself and my experiences so far.

UK Global Trainees- Allan & Henry

About Me:

I am from a small town on the west coast of Scotland (If you are fortunate enough to meet me, you may have some issues understanding my accent as most people do). I studied Engineering with Management at Edinburgh Napier University while also working as an Assistant Engineer for a privately owned company within Water Sector.

Once I had completed my studies I had the opportunity to join a Graduate Programme with a large manufacturing company within Aerospace Industry. After a year on the programme and having held two 6 month supervisory roles, I was preparing to move to Wales for my final year.

One morning I just happened to be scrolling through LinkedIn and I came across the job advert for the position of a Global Trainee at SKF. While working for an engineering company I had come across SKF on several occasions as we purchased SKF bearings and also Condition Monitoring products. I had also been on training courses held by SKF in the past. Taking all of this into consideration it was a no-brainer applying for the job.

Lets fast forward a few months…

Gothenburg:

I accepted the offer to join SKF in September and within two weeks I was in Gothenburg with ten other Global Trainees from around the world meeting Alrik Danielson the SKF CEO.  I don’t think you could have asked for a better start to a new job!

                    Global Trainee’s with Alrik Danielson- SKF CEO

I  spent one month with the other global trainees in Gothenburg where we met all members of the group management team while also taking part in Factory tours to understand the manufacturing process. To me, the introduction month was a perfect way to get to know each other while also allowing us to find out more about the future of SKF. This would also be the start to me building my global network within SKF!

Where am I know?

I was hired by SKF to work within the Innovation & Business Development unit. A lot of people only know SKF for their bearings but we are a lot more than just bearings. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to tell the condition of your machine before it fails? Well, we can, using Condition Monitoring.  I am currently working at the Hardware and Software Development Centre here in Livingston where we design the Condition Monitoring products that allow us to do this. This has been a really interesting rotation as it has allowed me to understand the product development process for these products.

In addition to learning about the product development process, I have also been working on a project that is looking at we can further support the Sales & Service teams throughout SKF. This has allowed me to understand what information the Sales teams require to be able to sell these products to the market and also what support our Service Engineers require in the field. This project has allowed me to grow my global network as I am regularly speaking to Sales Directors and Business Development Managers from all around the world!

What’s Next?

At the end of March, I will head to Finland to work within the Industrial Market Sales team for five months. This will allow me to understand how the Sales teams operate in other countries. My final rotation will be to working at the Precision Bearing Factory in Italy where I will get an deep insight to how the precision bearings are manufactured!

Final word:

I hope you all the best in your careers and if you are ever in Scotland give me a shout and I will be happy to give you a tour!

Cheers,

Allan