…In northern England, more precisely in a small town called Darlington. My name is Caroline Lilja,  I’m a Global Trainee within Sourcing, and I moved here a week ago to start my second rotation in the UK Sourcing team. Very exciting!

The last few weeks have been a lot about meeting new people and traveling. I have been in Germany for our second Training Module and as mentioned, I just moved to the UK for my second rotation.

Training Module in Germany

As you might know, between each rotation, we have a training week in one of Husqvarna Group’s main sites. This time we got to visit Ulm, Gardena’s headquarter. The module typically consists of a lot of interesting presentations from different areas within the company performed by senior managers, former trainees and other amazing colleagues. The week in Ulm also offered some practical exercises like Lego simulation, project management training and, last but not least, nice food and great company! The top two things during the week was according to me, the LEGO simulation and the cooking event. The LEGO simulation is a fun activity about continues improvements and we as a group did really well! It’s so much fun to work with bright and driven people! We also got the opportunity to challenge our ability to cooperate when we, one night, attended a cooking class. We were supposed to cook a three-course dinner for 15 people… But honestly speaking, I think the real chef cooked all the food and we just messed around in the kitchen ;).

Second rotation in the UK

After the week in Ulm, I did a quick touch down in Sweden to finish up some work and then I went straight to the UK for my second rotation. In the UK we make, according to me, our coolest product. The robotic lawnmower! And wow! The UK office have really welcomed me and from day 1, I’ve felt like I’m a part of the team. Of course, it is a bit overwhelming to move to a new country, leaving the safe ground in Sweden to explore something new. But that really triggers me, and I think it’s good to step outside your comfort zone from time to time to experience new sides of yourself. Sometimes you just have to throw yourself into the unknown and see what happens. To wrap up my first week in the UK, I went out for a typical British pub crawl with my fantastic colleagues from the office, see picture below.

Professional skills and personal development

For me the trainee program is not just a great opportunity to develop my professional skills, I also get the possibility to travel around the world to learn from different cultures and to meet great new friends! This program gives me an opportunity to grow as a person and to step outside my comfort zone. Husqvarna Group is a company that understands how important it is for people to grow, not just professionally but as an individual. I’m so glad that I got this amazing opportunity.

Until next time, take care :)!

Regards,

Caroline

Hi, readers!

Now it’s my turn to write about the Husqvarna Group’s Global Trainee Program. My name is Stefan Kessler and I am the Global Trainee in sales. I joined Husqvarna Group after finishing my masters in Industrial Engineering and Management at the Friedrich-Alexander University in Nuremberg-Erlangen, Germany.

My first assignment in GARDENA’s online business team

The Global Trainee Program consists of four 6-month assignments in different teams, divisions and even countries, giving each of us the opportunity to experience the diversity of the Group. During my first assignment I have been a member of the online business & new channel sales team of the GARDENA division in Ulm, Germany. As one of three divisions within the Husqvarna Group, GARDENA is focusing on the needs of passionate gardeners by offering a wide range of gardening products like watering systems, garden tools, robotics or pumps.

The team is maintaining & developing our relationships with our e-commerce customers in Germany. Furthermore it is constantly identifying new sales opportunities beyond the traditional sales channels, like food retailing or loyalty programs. Therefore, I was able to gain valuable insights into the daily work of an account manager and got a good understanding of our brand and its awareness in the markets. My personal highlights during my first assignment were following:

•  Customer visit at one of our large e-commerce accounts in Germany   

• A successful new customer acquisition 

• Being involved in the development of a new sales strategy for the German market

Moreover I had the opportunity to participate in a sales conference for all sales & district managers of the German, Austrian and Swiss market. During that week new products for the garden season were presented and product testing & workshops took place. Besides the attractive agenda, the event was for me a chance to become familiar with the sales organization of GARDENA and the people behind it.

Training Modules between assignments

What’s really remarkable for the Global Trainee Program are the training modules between our assignments. During the two years we are going to visit all major sites of the Group in Sweden, Germany, the US and China. Besides the fact that you meet your trainee colleagues, the training modules give you the chance to broaden and deepen your perspectives and understanding of the Group.

We started with the first module in Sweden visiting the head office in Stockholm, the home base in Huskvarna and the Construction division in Jonsered. What I really enjoyed was the warm welcome and openness of the colleagues (from factory workers to vice presidents), sharing their experience with us.

Therefore I am really looking forward to my trainee journey and my development within the group. My next assignment will lead me to a country, where hover mowers are really popular. To give a hint: It’s the motherland of football & gardening. 😉

Stay tuned

Until next time!

Stefan

Hello Blog-readers,

My name is Kevin Caleca Jr. and I am the Global Trainee in Electric & Electrical Systems in North America for the Husqvarna division. I am twenty four years old and I am from Georgia, United States of America. I graduated from Georgia Southern University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering with a concentration in power systems and electrical hardware. Before starting my career at Husqvarna Group I had been an engineering intern at Briggs and Stratton, one of our engine partners. The manufacturing plant I worked at built engines for some of our riding lawn mowers; this enabled me to work with Husqvarna Group’s plant in Orangeburg. The experience and knowledge I gained from working at Briggs and Stratton motivated me to apply for the Global Trainee position at Husqvarna Group.

When I began my career here in July, my first rotation was with the R&D Test Group. During this rotation I worked on testing battery products, batteries, riding lawn mowers, developing DFMEA’s (Design Failure Mode & Effects Analysis), creating test plans, and various other projects. In the process of working on these projects, I have learned of the great lengths we go through to ensure the best quality in our products for our customers. All of the rigorous testing and comprehensive methods used in product development is vital to uphold the integrity of our products as well as the company. These experiences are not only helping me grow as an engineer, but also preparing me for my future and end goal position.

My next rotation will be working with Product Management. This rotation will give me the opportunity to step out of my engineering job and experience the business practices that are applied to our products. I look forward to broadening my horizons and getting exposure to the various components of the company.

After that rotation I will be heading to Sweden. I am excited for my future endeavors and to learn to better myself and the company. Best of all for this New Year.

Hello readers!

I’m Christian, the Global Trainee in the area of research and development for electronics and software in Ulm. I live close to Ulm in south Germany. Originally, I already joined Husqvarna Group (strictly speaking the Gardena division) in 2010 for the dual study program at the cooperative state university of Baden-Württemberg. After that I worked for two years as an electrical engineer especially in the field of IoT. During this time, I realized that I can expand my knowledge even further. This motivated me to start my master studies – of course also in Electrical Engineering. After my graduation I returned to Husqvarna Group and I had the unique opportunity to become a part of the Global Trainee program. Besides this opportunity the reason why I wanted to come back to the company was, that I really liked working with my old team and the very good collaboration and atmosphere.

For a good start as the new trainee group and to immediately get to know all the important stuff about the company we got an introductory week in Sweden. After this first week I started directly to support my old team with their development projects. In particular I primarily write embedded software for microcontrollers, a task which I really love to do! In addition, I also do some hardware reviews to find issues and improve the new products.

The department currently has no department head. Therefore, I’ve got the great chance (which is of course also a big challenge) to be part of important decisions. For example: for me a whole new task was to be actively involved in job interviews from an employer point. So, for the first time I had to really assess the applicants. That was a very valuable experience.

So finally let’s risk a view into the future. Starting in March next year I’ll spend half a year in Sweden, which I am already looking forward to!

Wishing you all a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year!

Hej readers!

My name is Raphael and I am the Global Trainee in Supply Chain Management. I originally come from Hamburg, Germany, but moved to Jönköping in summer 2016 to study Supply Chain Management here, like many of my fellow Germans. While most Germans returned to Germany after graduation, I liked it here in Sweden so I decided  to stay.

Before moving to Sweden, I worked in Germany and I bring experience in IT and data management from Hamburg. At an earlier point in my career, I realized  that I wanted to develop into an analyst role. When I start a new position, I like to differentiate myself and find a role in which I feel I can make a difference. And there are certainly many ways to do that, depending on your own talents and personality. I saw an opportunity to choose the Analyst direction and I went for it.
So when I started at Husqvarna Group some months back, I gradually recognized that my skills in SQL, Power Query and Excel would not get to waste.

I like working as an Analyst because it challenges me on a daily basis and it makes me investigate adjacent business areas that I may otherwise not have looked into. The process of making sense of data leads me to understanding processes from different perspectives by talking with different departments. When thinking of an Analyst, people sometimes associate that with a person who sits quietly in front of a computer the whole day but I think it is much more than that.
Next to that, I also work as a demand coordinator for several countries in Asia. I try to match their demand with our production as good as possible. That is sometimes challenging because we have customers all around the globe, even small countries like the Fiji islands, and we also produce our products in many countries. That creates a very complex supply chain that we need to manage.

I hope telling you a bit about my and/or our challenges got you more interested. As you can see, as a Trainee in the Husqvarna Group you are not expected to sit by and watch. Instead you get a lot of responsibilities and opportunities very early on – which I find very exciting!  

Hi, blog-readers!

I’m the Global Trainee in Brand & Marketing in the Husqvarna division, Oscar Gezelius. I’m 24 years old from Stockholm, Sweden and the first trainee in our new group to write a blog post. Even though it’s just over a month since the Trainee Program started, I’ve been here since the beginning of May, since both me and my superior thought – “why not start straightaway if we’re both ready for it?”. Even though I’ve been here for over five months, I still feel really new in a few ways. There’s a lot to learn here and new experiences and new people to meet every day. This was part of the charm of working at a larger company like Husqvarna Group and one of the reasons I applied for this program.

As a Swede, Husqvarna is a brand which I’ve known for most of my life – even if I’ve known it for products which aren’t manufactured today – and the great history of the brand really attracted me to the company. This, coupled with the development possibilities and the promise of at least 6 months abroad is what made me apply in the end. And I’m really glad I did!

As my first assignment, I work as a Social Media Coordinator, working with all aspects of our channels on a global level. I was handed lots of fun tasks and responsibility from the get-go:

• Being part of developing and implementing a global social media strategy
• Evaluating, investing and rolling out a social media management software internationally
• Being responsible for social media campaign and influencer management for one of our biggest global launches for 2018
• Heading up a new influencer marketing program.

These are my major projects, but I keep busy with other stuff as well. So there’s a lot of trust put in you from the beginning, something I hope will be the case in my other assignments as well. My colleagues have been very welcoming and are eager to help (something I’ve noticed everywhere in this company) which makes this a whole lot easier!

Looking ahead, I’m really excited about what’s in store for the coming two years – going to Paris for my next rotation is one of those things but also the training modules we will have in China, USA and Germany! As a keen traveller, the international spread of this company means there are doors to the world everywhere. Not only that, but you are given important assignments and a lot of possibilities to really have an impact on the business as well as your own development.

Until next time!

Hi everyone, now it’s time for me to write another post about my experience of the Trainee Program at Husqvarna Group. I wrote my last post, more than a year ago, and I can’t believe that it has already been a year. I guess time flies when you have fun!

Now I’m sitting in northern England reflecting over my last 1,5 years and I’m grateful to be a part of this great company and Trainee Program. What great experiences and learnings I’ve got during this time, I’m sure it will have a positive impact on the rest of my career. I will soon move back to Sweden after being in England for 6 months working in Manufacturing Engineering and Product Support.

Mandatory football match  (Newcastle)

But before I start my next rotation I will fly to Shanghai for a week of training with the other trainees. During this week we will visit our manufacturing sites in China as well as the main office in Shanghai, which I very much look forward to. These weeks in between the rotations are great! It is always fun the meet all the other trainees and share laughs and experiences. We also get a great opportunity to boost our career and increase the understanding about the challenges and opportunities within the Group.

The last six months, I’ve spent in our factory in the UK, where we make our robotic lawnmowers. It has been a great experience with great co-workers, both at work and outside of work. During this period I have spent half my time with the manufacturing Engineering team, focusing on new technologies and automation opportunities. The second part I’ve spent with Product Support, where my focus has been more towards process development activities.

This will probably be my last blog post here, but not the last from the trainees at Husqvarna Group, don’t forget to check them out! And if you are interested in hearing more about the Trainee Program and manufacturing, let me know in a comment.

Picture from presentation skills training in Charlotte NC. (Part of last training)

What do Swedish coffee breaks, internet of things, chainsaws, lithium batteries, and robots all have in common?……….me. I have interacted extensively with all of these things and many more through my time as a Global Trainee with Husqvarna Group.

I joined Husqvarna Group after finishing my electrical engineering bachelors at Georgia Tech in the summer of 2016. My trainee journey began at the R&D test department of the North American headquarters based in Charlotte, NC. It was a wonderful way to get hands on exposure to the products and begin building, what was to become, a very extensive network of useful connections.

Product training in the forest of Huskvarna –   Battery Chainsaw

Come September I traded in my steel toed boots for a pair of tight jeans and a parka, then boarded my first flight for Stockholm, Sweden.

In Stockholm, I joined up with the other trainees for a week of introduction to the global organization. Here is where I had my first experience with the Swedish tradition of Fika: a coffee break with colleagues and friends that’s often accompanied by a nice pastry (to really understand just check out the Fika song https://youtu.be/oRIeytEXGhQ).

Breast Cancer Awareness in the Stockholm Office

I jumped right into my next rotation with the Stockholm based Technology Office. In the technology office, I worked extensively with the Battery Box project. An exercise in IoT, sharing economies, and strategic corporate partnerships. It was an exciting experience to stretch our thinking around how we interact with our customers.

After a few months, I headed south to the thriving metropolis of Huskvarna, the namesake and largest Swedish site of our Group. In Huskvarna I worked initially with the Pro Battery test team. I got to work extensively with our line of professional lithium powered hand tools and their related products. This gave me a terrific opportunity to familiarize myself with the lithium batteries systems that are rapidly changing the face of the industry. While in Huskvarna I also had the privilege of working with the Automower development team. The Automowers are easily the most electrically complex products in our portfolio and many will argue that they are the future of several segments of the industry. Here I was given the opportunity to help map the development process for the hardware team and in doing so became quite familiar with all the onboard systems.

Before I knew it 9 months had passed and it was time for me to head back to my home base in Charlotte. I ventured out from my technical background to spend 6 months working with our purchasing team. It is always important to work outside of your comfort zone sometimes and I found that I very much enjoyed the face time I got with our current and potential suppliers. I have gained a new appreciation for what they do and I am very glad I had the chance to experience a new perspective.

Trainee Project Management Training in Ulm, Germany

As I am wrapping up my time in Charlotte and preparing for my next and final international rotation in Germany, I look back on the last year and a half. My time in Sweden was a fantastic cultural experience. My world view has been expanded and I made friends and connections that will follow me for a lifetime. What stands out most clearly is just how valuable that cultural experience is, especially in this international work place. I am so grateful for all the technical knowledge that I’ve learned in my time so far. It is obvious that the future of this industry is intertwined with technology such as lithium power and IoT, and it is imperative that we facilitate development in those areas. However, what I value the most from my time as a trainee and what I believe will take me the furthest, are the relationships I have developed along the way.

こんにちわ みんなさん!

My name is Jacob Eriksson and I’m a global trainee in R&D, Husqvarna Division. I am currently six weeks in to my third rotation in R&D in Kawagoe, Japan, located roughly 1h by train from central Tokyo.

Besides working as an engineer in ongoing projects, part of my assignment is to look for opportunities to improve cross-site collaboration between our R&D departments and how we work with knowledge management. This gives me an opportunity to assist in strategic and administrative work while also working on the nitty gritty details in form of engineering work. A good balance of micro and macro so to speak.

Being able to spend 6 months living and working in another country is an amazing opportunity that comes with the Husqvarna Group Global Trainee Program. My first weeks here in Japan has been nothing short of fantastic. My weeks have been packed with exploration, dinners with colleagues, important learnings and the occasional culture clash (some of them being synchronized exercise twice a day and pizza with corn and mayonnaise). To learn about the differences between the Japanese market compared to the other ones we operate in has been especially interesting. The terrain, ageing population and agricultural system gives the Japanese market its own set of unique challenges that we need to tackle.

To make a list of all the great experiences I have had here so far would take too long, but some of the favorites are: 20m Gundam statues, hundreds of years old temples, Tokyo motor show, cat cafés(!), hot springs,  meandering through a pulsating night time Tokyo and fantastic food.

My time so far in the Husqvarna Group Global Trainee Program has been full of awesome experiences together with my fellow trainees and coworkers. My personal development curve has been the steepest that I have experienced so far and the opportunities for challenges and growth is second to none. I can guarantee that if you join the trainee program you will get the opportunity to make your own set of awesome experiences while traveling the world and maximizing your personal development.

P.S A bonus is that when working in Japanese R&D you get a cool uniform D.S

Hello there!

My name is Maja and I am a trainee within HR. Working as an HR-trainee at Husqvarna is truly an experience. I finished my second assignment in our finance team in September and I just moved to the US for 6 months – do I have to say I’m excited?? 🙂
The trainee program and the tasks have been a true experience so far. Coming to the finance department with an HR background was challenging to say the least. But with the challenge came a lot of learnings. If I’d guess about my future I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the most important rotation in my trainee program.

One thing that cannot be overstated is the value of the network you get as a trainee. First of all you get the opportunity to work in multiple divisions in multiple countries. In addition to that you have your trainee group which consists of people from all over the world and who are spread out over all different divisions and countries within the company. After the trainee program you are most likely one of very few people who can honestly say that you know what’s really going on in the company 😉

So the question your probably still asking yourself… How is it to live and work in Huskvarna, a tiny village outside of Jönköping?
When I first moved to Jönköping I was blown away of how beautiful the city is. It’s literally on the beach of Vättern. I moved here from Gothenburg and I had never been to the area before. If you come from a bigger city, I can totally understand that you might be a bit hesitant to moving to a smaller city…But let me just say, – you won’t regret it. Jönköping is a really nice city, with a broad selection of bars, restaurants and cafés. It’s also very close to the nature (the views of Vättern is breathtaking) and has many sites to explore in the nearby area.

So to sum up. The absolute best thing of the trainee program is all the amazing people you will meet. Husqvarna is a very international company so prepare yourself to meet new friends from all over the world. There is always something going on, after works, events and other activities to join every weekend.

All the best,
Maja