Nu är den sista veckan av den tre månader långa utbildningsperioden klar och nästa vecka påbörjar praktikperioden.

Under veckan har vi fortsatt med en kurs i webbutbildning som vi började med förra veckan. Vi har fått lära oss både nya och gamla tekniker inom webbutveckling. De gamla teknikerna är viktiga att kunna eftersom många av de äldre systemen, som fortfarande är i bruk, bygger på dessa tekniker.

Sista veckan i traineerummet.

Nästa vecka så kommer vi att lämna traineerummet och gå ut till olika utvecklingsteam där vi kommer att få jobba med riktiga uppgifter.

Som jag skrev i förra inlägget vill jag försöka mig på en liten sammanfattning om vad jag har gjort under mina tre första månader som trainee på JM. Så here we go, som man säger på svengelska, eller nått.

Det var en gång 14 små traineer som började jobba på en varsin byggarbetsplats, så kallat ute i produktion. Jag var en av dem och blev placerad i Kanalstaden som är ett område i Åkersberga precis vid en kanal (namnet Kanalstaden är en ledtråd) där vi bygger flerbostadshus. Detta projekt skulle komma att bli ett väldigt trevligt bostadsområde där massa människor skulle komma att leva lyckliga i alla sina dagar. Eeeh, ja.. Skämt och sido, det kommer att bli ett väldigt trevligt bostadsområde som angränsar en strandpromenad längs vattnet!

Vår roll har varit biträdande arbetsledare på stomme, alltså på ett projekt som är i stomskedet. Jag hade aldrig jobbat ute i produktion förut och visste verkligen inte alls vad jag hade att vänta mig. Känslan jag hade inför första arbetsdagen kan nog bäst beskrivas som skräckblandad förtjusning.

Första veckan var jag helt ute med hantverkarna, vilket var väldigt kul och lärorikt. De tog emot mig med öppna armar och lärde entusiastiskt ut så mycket de kunde (eller kanske snarare så mycket jag orkade ta emot…). Jag var med och gjöt en bottenplatta, agerade signalman vid loss och lyft med kranen, spikade (…eller ”hamrade” som jag nöjt kallade det tills någon barmhärtig själ rättade mig), borrade, men skuggade framförallt mest mina kollegor och frågade tusen frågor om allting jag såg.

Resterande 11 veckor spenderade jag främst i kontorsbodarna där jag försökte lära mig vad det innebar att vara arbetsledare och få ett grepp om hur de olika momenten och processerna i en byggnation på JM går till. Helt enkelt få en liten bit av den helhet jag så gärna vill ta med mig efter min två års tid som trainee.

Då i princip allting för mig var nytt har jag lärt mig massor. Framförallt ganska små saker som vad olika byggnadsdelar heter, hur en hantverkares vardag ser ut, hur snabbt saker och ting plötsligt kan gå där ute, hur viktigt det är att arbeta lösningsorienterat och hur viktig det är att kunna ta snabba beslut. Framförallt har jag fått ytterligare insikt i hur viktigt det är att skapa och upprätthålla relationer inom sitt arbete. Och hur avgörande sättet en kommunicerar på som både ledare och medarbetare är för resultatet.

Min sista dag förra onsdagen avslutades med prinsesstårta och presenter av mina fina kollegor. Tack för den här tiden! Det är självklart tråkigt att lämna alla trevliga människor där borta, men det ska också bli kul att få prova på projektering de näst kommande fem månaderna och se hur allt jag (förhoppningsvis) har lärt mig kommer till användning. Och det här med att jag lämnar arbetskamrater i Åkersberga är kanske lite väl dramatiskt eftersom jag faktiskt har fått reda på att jag kommer fortsätta med projekten i Kanalstaden under min tid på projektering också. I’ll be back så att säga, mohaha! Lite då och då i alla fall 😉

Ha det så bra så hörs vi nästa gång! 🙂

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

Hi, my name is Gizem Bozkus and I am one of five graduates at Fujitsu Sweden. I have been with the company for almost three months now and it has been great so far! The past few months have been a combination of personal development, learning about the company as a whole and getting started on new projects.

Just last week all graduates took part in “Fujitsu Day” in Gothenburg, which involved several really interesting seminars about different services we provide our customers. The day was really valuable, packed with lots of information and even the chance to try out some of our new products and innovations! However, on the way home from Gothenburg our train broke down for several hours. More precisely, it ended up taking us 6 extra hours to get back to Stockholm via a detour. But hey, at least we graduates had plenty of time to get to know each other better over free sandwiches and now we can also say we have been to Falköping 😉

Have a nice day everyone!

Was happy to be stuck with these lovely ladies.

Hej allesammans!

Nu tar jag glatt över stafettpinnen från My och går in i rollen som ny traineebloggare på JM! Kommer ihåg när jag själv satt och läste Mys inlägg när jag skulle ansöka till traineeprogrammet, good times alltså. Grymt bra jobbat av dig i alla fall My, det har varit bra läsning! Mys inlägg har inte publicerats här utan kan hittas på JMs egna hemsida.

Men vem är då jag? Jo, det ska jag försöka berätta lite sådär kortfattat. Jag heter Alexandra Ivanov, är 26 år gammal (sen igår faktiskt) och uppväxt i Halmstad. Jag har pluggat till civilingenjör inom lantmäteri i Lund och nu bor jag i Stockholm, där jag sen typ tre månader tillbaka har jobbat på JM som trainee inom projektutveckling. Känns som om det var igår min första arbetsdag var, tiden har gått sjukt fort. Men det som väntar mig nu är alltså två år som trainee där jag kommer förflytta mig mellan fem olika block, som det kallas. Första blocket (där jag varit de senaste tre månaderna, avverkar sista dagen nu på onsdag faktiskt(!!!)) som är ute i produktion, andra blocket kommer vara projektering, tredje = verksamhetsplanering, fjärde = projektledning och sist men inte minst så avslutas det femte ute i produktion igen. Och mellan varje block har vi alla 14 traineer som började nu i höstas en teorivecka tillsammans här i Stockholm med utbildning och lite annat smått och gott. Fråga mig inte vad de olika blocken innebär, för det vet jag inte, haha! Det blir väl bland annat det som jag kommer försöka dela med mig av här i bloggen, vad jag gör och hur det är att vara trainee osv. Vi får upptäcka det här tillsammans helt enkelt! 😉 Har även en liten tanke om att mina traineebuddies ska få kika in här lite då och då och gästblogga, så att ni får lite andra perspektiv också! Annars lär jag ju tråka ihjäl er med mitt babbel.

Det känns som om jag har massor att berätta om mina tre första månader, har varit med om så mycket nytt att tankarna är helt huller om buller i huvudet. Helt ärligt är det väl typ så känslan har varit här på jobbet överlag den här tiden. Jag tror att jag ska försöka mig på att samla tankarna lite och reflektera över den tid som varit, så att ni som läsare kan komma ikapp och liksom följa med mig från början. Men tror det får bli i nästa inlägg, annars är nog risken stor att jag skriver novell här he-he. Det är för övrigt dags för teorivecka nummer två nästa vecka, är så sjukt taggad!!! Ska bli så himla kul att träffa alla andra i traineegänget igen och höra om deras erfarenheter. Plus att vi ska få lära oss en hel del om att leda oss själva, så sjukt spännande och nyttigt tycker jag. För hur ska jag kunna leda andra om jag inte ens kan leda mig själv?

Avslutar det här lite spridda inlägget med lite egobilder från bygget här ute! 🙂

Jag och Kaby (hantverkare och lagbas) fångar vår feeling på bild.

Jag försöker få till en klassisk byggpose men misslyckas ganska brutalt.

Ha en bra fortsatt måndag!!!

Förra veckan var vi i SABOs traineegäng i Kiruna för modul 2 för Omvärldsanalys och Affärsmannaskap. Vad passar inte bättre än att då sätta sig in i de utmaningar som Kiruna står inför i och med den pågående och kommande stadsflytten. Hur ser framtiden ut och vad är det man behöver vara vaksam på när staden flyttas?

Kort sammanfattat så flyttas staden för att malmbrytningen orsakar sprickbildningar i berget som går in under Kiruna stad. Därför flyttar man stadskärnan med affärsverksamhet, stadshus, bostäder m.m. drygt 2 km. Gruvbolaget , LKAB står för kostnaderna för flytten.

Vi fick förmånen att träffa ett par av de aktörer som driver flytten, dels Kirunabostäders projektledare och Kiruna stads projektledare. Kirunabostäder står inför utmaningen att sälja de delar av sitt bestånd som ligger i flyttzonen och att bygga nya bostäder i den nya stadskärnan. De har samma problematik som alla andra bostadsbolag har och det är att deras kunder har svårt att klara de nya hyrorna som det blir med nyproduktion. Samtidigt har de inget annat val än att ersätta de hus som ligger i flyttzonen med nya. Vidare är det redan högtryck på den svenska byggmarknaden som gör att det dessutom är svårt att få tag i arbetskraft.

Kiruna stad har den unika uppgiften att koordinera och leda flytten av en stad, hur ofta görs det? Nästan aldrig. Det gör att det inte finns något facit eller liknande projekt att se och lära ifrån. De har antagit en enorm men också fantastisk uppgift. Jag blev paff över hur lite de har detaljstyrt byggandet av den nya staden. De har självklart en stadsplan och en utvecklingsplan, men den styr inte alls i detalj hur det ska se ut. Utan säger mer att i det här kvarteret ska vi ha bostäder, affärsverksamhet, ett stadshus, torg, park m.m. Sen är det mycket upp till entreprenörerna och byggbolagen att komma in med bra förslag. Min förvåning över detta kommer ifrån att i min vardag och verklighet har kommunen/ kommunerna en förmåga att detaljstyra exakt vad som ska byggas i sina mer och mer detaljrika detaljplaner, det gör att det blir knepigare för oss som bostadsbolag att bygga det mest lämpliga, smarta och effektivaste på platsen. Kan bara hoppas att fler kommuner ser på Kiruna och tar efter!

Vi besökte förstås även gruvan. Vi var “bara” ner 500 m från 0 nivån, men de bryter just nu malm på 1365 m under 0 nivån och man vet att malmkroppen är minst 2000 m djup. På bilden nedan är Louise (som också bloggar här) och jag framför en hjullastare modell större.

Hela vistelsen var otroligt rolig och lärorik där vi i traineegänget äntligen fick träffas igen men också att se Kiruna och höra hur planen är att Kiruna ska bli. Sen gjorde det inget att vi missade kaoset som var i Stockholm förra veckan.

Här kommer lite mer bilder på bl.a Kiruna kyrka, stadshuset och gruvan.

Kiruna Kyrka.

Stadshuset. I bakgrunden skymtas delar av gruvområdet.

Gruvområdet.

From January 2016 until end of April 2016, I spent my second trainee placement at Scania-Bilar Sverige AB / Region Väst, which is a Scania dealer in West Sweden with the main office located in Gothenburg. The main office as well as the offices in Borås and Himle, which belong to Region West, are comprised of a sales office and a workshop. There is also an additional workshop without a sales office in Gothenburg.

Working at a dealer is often referred to as “working in the real world”. It is very different from working at the headquarters in Södertälje. When you work at the HQ, you can easily forget that the work is not done when the chassis rolls out of the production hall. A long process follows until the vehicle is finally delivered to the end customer. The hand-over to the end customer takes place at Scania dealers worldwide, thus, it is at the Scania dealers where Scania actually makes its money. Hence, it is of utmost importance, that every sales strategy and every marketing campaign, which is developed at the HQ in Södertälje, is being communicated all the way from the HQ to the respective distributor (Scania Sweden in this case) and from there to the dealers. So that even the workshop personal knows and understands our sales and marketing activities. It is at the workshops and sales offices that the end customers meet Scania. Thus, the way the customers are treated by the salesmen or met and assisted by the workshop personal has a huge impact on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. In summary, what happens at a Scania dealer is decisive for Scania’s overall performance.

During my placement at the dealer, I worked on mainly three projects. The first project was an analysis of the delivery process. When an order is placed at a Scania dealer, it often takes three to six months until the new vehicle is handed over to the end customer. First, the chassis is produced in Södertälje. Then, it is often delivered to a bodybuilder, where for, instance, a crane is built on the chassis. Afterwards, the chassis comes to the Scania workshop and it is delivered to the end customer. My task was to identify the individual steps and the responsible employees throughout this process and to find issues and methods of improvement. This project enabled me to meet everybody who is involved in the delivery chain. I met with salesmen, the delivery coordinator, bodybuilders, and the employees at the customer reception desk and in the workshops. Two highlights during this project were my study visits at the bodybuilders JOAB and SKAB.

The second project was an analysis of the used vehicle process. When a customer buys a new Scania, he or she can simultaneously trade in his or her used truck. Scania-Bilar Region West has a used truck center in Himle. One of the problems is that the value of a used truck is assessed when the customer orders his or her new truck. However, the new truck is delivered several months later. And when the used truck is finally traded in for the new truck, the used one is often in a worse condition than it was when its value was assessed. Thus, my task was to find a solution for this problem, since this has an impact on the financial performance of the used truck business at Region West.

Finally, I got to work on the third project together with the trainee in Sales &Marketing, who spent her second trainee placement at Scania-Bilar Sverige AB / Region Syd (Region South Sweden). The dealer in this region had recently undergone a reorganization, whereas Region West continued to maintain the former organizational structure. Our task was to compare the two organizational structures and to analyze which one of the organizational models we would recommend to apply in the future.

To summarize, working at a Scania dealer was a very instructive and broadening experience. It helped me understand the daily struggles at a Scania dealer and the processes and routines that follow after the chassis leave the production hall in Södertälje. Therefore, I recommend all future trainees to take the opportunity and work at or at least visit a Scania dealer during the trainee program. It is definitely worth getting an insight into “the real world”.

Hi, my name is Rachel Dee Thor and I’m one of the five new Fujitsu Sweden graduates. Originally from Toronto, I recently graduated with a MSc. General Management from the Stockholm School of Economics. I’m really happy to share my experiences with those of you looking for your own fantastic trainee position after graduation!

 
It’s been just two months since I started here at the Stockholm office and I’ve already learned so much. My position is within our Managed Infrastructure Services (MIS) area where I work with a large retail customer. My team manages a range of services for this retailer such as Service Desk, Technical and Maintenance, Data Center and Network and Communication services. The plan for me as a trainee is to experience all the different areas of this account throughout the program before deciding which role will be a good fit. Since my team is spread out across Europe, this also means I get to do some travelling.

 
To understand the ways of working at our Fujitsu Service Desks, I visited my colleagues up in Östersund last month and then made my way to Poland for a few days last week. Both visits were super valuable in understanding what services we’re managing from headquarters. For the remainder of this month I’ll be attending different trainings. First a three-day Lean course in Gothenburg, then back to the London for a couple days focusing on innovation before rounding off the month in Linköping doing the next module for the graduate program. On a normal day at the office in Stockholm I have a variety of projects and responsibilities. Several of these tasks involve implementing standardized processes at the team management or service delivery level, while I also have the chance to shadow and assist my manager in some day-to-day activities and customer relations.

I hope this gave you a little insight into what it can be like as a graduate within MIS, Fujitsu!

Visiting the Service Desk 🙂

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!

I spent my first three-month trainee placement at my home department: Marketing Communications. The main responsibility of this department is to develop global marketing communication strategies for trucks, buses, engines, services, and parts. The strategies are, then, transformed into tactical marketing activities and tools, such as web campaign sites, brochures, advertisements, direct marketing material, videos, promotional items and graphical guidelines for marketing communication material. A typical activity is the preparation for international trade fairs, such as the IAA in Hanover, the IFAT in Munich, the Dubai International Boat Show or Busworld in Kortrijk. Another main task at Marketing Communications is to continuously update the brochures of our products and services.

However, my very first marketing project was a little bit different: I was responsible for coordinating the production of the Scania 125 year campaign book. This year, Scania celebrates its 125th anniversary and many activities are planned throughout the year 2016 in order to celebrate this special occasion. The campaign book summarizes the background, marketing strategy, core message, and target groups for the Scania 125 year project. Furthermore, it provides an overview over the marketing material that is being produced for the anniversary, such as posters, roll-ups, videos, promotional items etc..

I realized very quickly, that the daily work at Scania is very cross-functional. This was no different with my project. In order to coordinate the project, I had to meet with various departments at Scania to collect all information necessary for the campaign book. Hence, I met with colleagues from the department of Corporate Relations, Event & Exhibition, Employer Branding, Parts & Services (Vehicle Accessories and Branding Products) and Business Support (Image Desk). We decided to develop a Scania 125 year logotype in different variations, which was then printed on different promotional items, such as flags, T-shirts, umbrellas, key rings, mouse pads, pins, pens, mugs, balloons, and chocolate. Furthermore, we designed posters, roll ups, wall banners, and produced a video together with an external advertising agency. Once the campaign book was written, it was published internally to all Scania distributors in the world. The distributors could, then, decide by themselves which marketing material they want to use locally in order to celebrate Scania’s 125th anniversary.

All of us trainees have spent a period abroad at a Scania distributor this year. I always got very excited when my trainee colleagues sent me pictures of Scania 125 year marketing material that is used at a Scania distributor, for instance, in Brazil or Holland. It is great to see that the marketing material, which I helped to design, is used all over the world to celebrate Scania’s 125^th anniversary!