Lately there has been a lot of work-related travelling. My suitcase has been standing ready in the hallway at all times, my eurobonus card is happy and my friends has started to get tired of me answering “sorry, I can’t meet up this week, I’m in Germany”.

Having a job that allows me to travel a lot has always been something that I would like to experience, and it was one of the reason why I applied for the Octapharma trainee program in the first place. And even though it includes a lot of my two least favorite activities: packing and unpacking, I really enjoy it.

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Hardworking French and Swedish trainees in Lachen, Switzerland.

It can be hard to keep your routines from home when you travel a lot, but travelling gives me new routines as well. All the time spent at airports, airplanes and trains gives me time to read a lot of books which I don’t have time for otherwise and when I don’t have my friends to hang out with I bring my trainers so that I can exercise, something that I often down-prioritize at home because there is always so many other things going on.  

Just like the placements in Stockholm there is a big variation in the tasks and experiences at the different off site placements. One week can be about strategic market decisions and budget, like when me and my production trainee colleagues visited our Head office for a week, and the next week you fold and pack 2000 cartons for our finished products, like me and my colleague Emil did the other day at our packaging and distribution center in Dessau.  

Both above mentioned tasks are interesting in their own way. Being at the corporate office gives you a better understanding for the company as a whole. But on the other side it has been great seeing the packaging of the products, because even if I have been in the production facility in both Stockholm and Vienna and seen how our products are made I don’t think I have ever felt closer to the end customer than when I can actually see the finished box that will be delivered from Dessau to our patients. And honestly, how many chances in the future will I have to be part of an assembly line? As with working night shifts in the production I choose to think about this as a once in a lifetime opportunity, and a valuable experience.  

Now I’m leaving for the airport again, and the next time I write it will be from Heidelberg.

Cheers!

Hanna

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Me and Emil sightseeing in Berlin while visiting our site in Dessau.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Cooking-class as teamactivity on our latest Trainee Summit in Heidelberg.

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Visiting Zürich with our French trainee colleagues

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Enjoying a nice dinner in Heidelberg at Trainee Summit