Hallå alla glada, hoppas ni har haft en bra sommar!

Det är fredag och min första vecka som trainee på Jordbruksverkets IT är snart slut. Veckan har varit intensiv och intressant på många olika sätt. Jag har tänkt berätta lite om vad vi har gjort denna veckan, men först ska jag presentera mig själv lite kort.

Jag heter Martina Ronnysdotter, 26 år och bor i Jönköping. I juli tog jag examen från det 3 åriga programmet Webbutvecklare – programmering på Högskolan i Skövde. När ångesten om vad som skulle hända efter examen började smyga sig på var det dags att leta efter ett jobb som jag skulle ha tillräckliga kunskaper för. Som osäker nyexaminerad webbutvecklare där varenda jobbannons söker någon som kan allt var rubriken Trainee Jordbruksverkets IT något jag fastnade för.

Det var perfekt. Jag skulle få chansen att utbildas OCH få arbetslivserfarenhet inom min nya bransch. Jag söker!

Nu sitter jag här, på min nya arbetsplats, med mina nya medarbetare och ser fram emot att komma igång med programmet på riktigt.

Så vad gör vi här då?
Vi är sex stycken traineer som kommer turas om att blogga här ca en gång i veckan. Vi ska bli utvecklare och om 9 månader hoppas jag att vi alla har en fast anställning här och arbetar i ett team där vi trivs och vill stanna.

Det kommer hända mycket närmsta tiden men jag ska försöka fokusera på veckan som varit. Det är svårt att förstå hur det bara kan vara fem dagar sedan vi sex förväntansfulla, lite avvaktande och kanske lite smått nervösa personer satt i receptionen och väntade. Veckan har innehållit väldigt mycket information om organisationen i helhet, IT-avdelningen och olika projekt som pågår just nu. Det har därför inte varit så mycket praktiskt arbete denna veckan förutom lite övningar och för att bekantat oss med mejl, telefon och allt kontorsstöd som behövs.

Vi har även fem faddrar som förra året gick samma traineeprogram som oss. De tog i onsdags med oss ut på bowling och middag så att vi skulle få chans att lära känna varandra lite bättre. Eftersom vi alla är ödmjuka personer så var det egentligen ingen som riktigt vann, även om tävlingsmänniskan i mig blir lite arg då :). Vi hade en väldigt trevlig kväll tillsammans i alla fall, och det är ju såklart det som är det viktiga!

Efter all information denna veckan har bjudit på ska det bli skönt med helg och smälta allt. Jag är däremot väldigt spänd på nästa vecka då utbildningen börjar lite mer intensivt och agilt arbetssätt står på schemat.

Trevlig helg!

Last week was this year’s Trainee Day in Stockholm. 20 hopeful candidates for the corporate trainee program gathered for a day filled with information and exercises. The point of this day was both to evaluate the candidates to see which ones will fit the Trainee Program the best and also to give our top candidates the opportunity to get to know Octapharma better.

Me and my fellow Stockholm Trainee colleagues took part in this year’s Trainee Day to mingle with the candidates and to answer any questions they might have about the program. Since I was a candidate last year, and spent the day being really nervous about my performance, it was really nice to experience the day from another point of view. And I was really impressed with the candidates, they were interested and had thought through questions and made a really good impression.

What I thought was the best thing about the day, except of course for all the great candidates that I got to talk to, was the involvement in the day by the Octapharma staff. In addition to the corporate and local employees included in the different assessments employees from the different departments came by to talk to the new candidates and to answer questions. It shows that our staff is engaged in the program and thinks that it is important.

While still in the middle of the recruitment for this years trainee program we’re already looking forward and preparing for the next recruitment process. On October 2^nd we will attend Traineedagen in Stockholm and hopefully meet with a lot of great candidates for future trainee classes. Hope to see you there!

More info can be found at: http://www.traineedagen.se/2015/index.php

Jonathan Cabeza

It has been 47,304,000 seconds since I started working at Husqvarna Group, the world’s largest producer of outdoor power products like robotic lawn mowers, garden tractors, chainsaws and trimmers. I have had the pleasure of learning about engineering, product management and sales. In addition, I have learned to appreciate the value of workplace etiquette and being courteous to anyone I come across at work. By now, you probably grabbed your smartphone, opened the calculator or unit conversion app to convert the figure above into more familiar units like days, months or years. You might be asking yourself why would I go through all the trouble to provide a timeframe in such an unusual way as well. The reason is quite simple. Every second matters and once a second is gone you cannot get it back.

Let’s pretend it is Monday morning and you have a meeting at 9 AM in one of the meeting rooms at work. It is now 9:10 AM and you just finished setting up the meeting (PowerPoint presentation, conference call, etc.) and you are ready to start; the prior meeting ran over 8 extra minutes. But hold on, someone who is critical to this meeting just sent you an instant message to let you know that he will be there in 3 minutes because he was in another meeting than lasted longer than expected. Then, you remember that you only have the meeting room reserved until 9:30 AM and there is another meeting after that. Your presentation, without the Q&A session, was 20 minutes long last time you timed it. At this point you are probably freaking out and asking yourself “why me? I was on time.” This probably sounds unbelievable, but it happened to me and it certainly did not feel great.

If I only had a 1981 DeLorean DMC-12S, the car that was modified as a time machine in the Back to the Future film trilogy, to go back in time and plan ahead to prevent this “perfect storm.” Unfortunately, there wasn’t an easy way out of this situation. However, a few years after taking a management course heavily focused on emotional intelligence and recently suffering the aftermath of the previously mentioned chaotic chain of events, I was driven to further develop a series of guidelines I had been using in the past to avoid similar scenarios, which was obviously not good enough. This latest version has made sure, up to this day, that all my meetings start and end on time, and has decreased the impact that other people’s tardiness has on my team. I would like to pay it forward and share it with you.

1) Booking meeting rooms: This is my favorite. If you are booking a meeting room, make one reservation as you normally would with all participants and also make an additional booking just for yourself 10 to 15 minutes before the meeting starts. This will allow you to be prepared to start the meeting on time even if the previous meeting lasts longer than scheduled.

2) Provide a timed agenda: Provide a timed agenda at the beginning of your presentation and make sure to include the Q&A session on it. This will encourage your audience to leave the questions for the end.

3) Rehearse your presentation: The more you practice, the better your presentation will turn out. Practicing will also help you give the presentation quickly and effectively giving more time for the Q&A.

4) Q&A time warning: Once you are done presenting, keep track of time to make sure you stay within schedule. Let your audience know that time is running out and that you will be taking one or two more questions.

5) Follow-up meeting: Sometimes new topics and questions arise that you will not be able to answer during that meeting due to time constraints. Schedule a follow-up meeting if needed and encourage the audience to reach out to you in person, by phone or email with any additional questions.

6) Audience’s back-to-back meetings: If you are not the presenter and you have a meeting immediately after, let the presenter know in advance that you do.

7) Smart meeting scheduling: Avoid early morning meetings to make sure that everybody is in the office and have been able to catch up with time-sensitive matters. In addition, try scheduling your meetings when all attendants do not have to attend meetings before and after yours.

8) Suggesting a different meeting time: If you believe that there is a chance that you might not be able to make it to a meeting on time, be courteous and suggest a different meeting time; I tend to offer a brief explanation if I have to resort to this and do so, at least, one business day before the meeting.

However, you do not have to limit yourself to fighting tardiness merely at work. You can do the following at home to ensure you are always prompt:

1) Before the week starts: Adjust all your watches and clocks around your home with a different time between 10 to 15 minutes ahead of time; different times will prevent you from knowing how much of a safety cushion you have. Make sure you are getting at least seven hours of sleep (set an alarm to go to bed if needed). Try to prepare all your meals for the week.

2) The night before: Set one alarm and make sure your smartphone and/or alarm clock is several steps away to avoid snoozing (having one alarm and not being able to snooze means that you will wake up at the time you initially planned on waking up the night before). When you set the alarm, account for extra 15-30 minutes for unforeseen events like traffic, pumping gas, etc. Ensure that your smartphone has enough charge to last the whole night and that your alarm clock’s backup battery still works; this will protect you in the event of losing power during the night. Finally, choose your work outfit for the next day and prepare your gym bag if you work out or perform any activity immediately after work.

It definitely takes some effort adding every step mentioned above to your life. However, by doing so, you will be modeling the way, and you will be taking an important step towards improving yourself as a professional while you are positively impacting your company’s culture; all your peers will appreciate the effort you are putting in and will likely follow your example. I realize my list is not perfect and, thankfully, I still have decades to keep improving it. Surely, I am not alone in this fight. So, what do you do to make every second count?

Jonathan Cabeza
Global Trainee
Product Management & Development – Consumer Brands
Charlotte, USA

More posts by Jonathan

Resistance to change and emotional intelligence

Everything has gone global

Something I’ve really come to appreciate during my time as a trainee is the importance of good colleagues. Sometime after a stay in a department when I think back on what made this department especially nice it often comes down to the people working there. Whether you found that the assignments and tasks at the department were of interest to you or not it is the people that will make you want to come back.

What it means to have good colleagues is of course depending on who you are and what people you are comfortable with. But as a trainee I think it has a lot to do with how you are welcomed into a new department, if people take the time to make you feel included. Since you don’t have a lot of time to get to know everyone, the first impression becomes very important.

Some people that have really made me feel welcome and included are my trainee colleagues here in Vienna. They have a really nice group of trainees here consisting not only of people from my trainee class but also former Corporate and local trainees. Already on my first day arriving here I was invited to come out to dinner with some of them, and since we’ve met for lunches and other trainee activities. It’s really been a great support to have them here, both in Octapharma related questions and as local guides. And even though I really like Vienna and the Octapharma site here it will be the other trainees that I will miss when I go home.

Octapharma Trainees with guests at dinner to celebrate last years trainne cless finishing their time as trainees

Right after my vacation I packed my bags and moved to Vienna for my first placement at another site than Stockholm. I will be based in Vienna for almost four weeks and during this time I will visit the production department here.

I have arrived in the middle of the summer shutdown when maintenance work is done to large parts of the production area. So yesterday I got the chance to move around in what is usually the cleanest area of the company, the filling of the products, but which is now a construction site. Everywhere people are painting, drilling, doing electrical work and replacing parts and the work has been thoroughly planned to be done in the short weeks that the production is closed.

I have also spent some time this week in the part of the production which is still running. The Stockholm and the Vienna site are more or less producing the same products but even though the production steps are the same it is very different here. I try to focus on learning how routines and organization differ between the sites so that maybe we could learn from each other in some aspects. Even though I don’t speak German and my colleagues here in production doesn’t speak a lot of English everyone is really helpful and trying to explain the best they can.  And I’m sure that even though everything is really new and a bit confusing now in the beginning I will soon know everything there is to know about the Vienna production plant. And I might learn some German on the way as well.

Auf Wiedersehen

Hanna

My current assignment in Malaysia has been really exciting because I have had the opportunity to travel a lot in Asia to meet with end-customers and see for myself how they use our products, such as chainsaws, trimmers and lawn mowers. Working in product management as a trainee is similar to being an old-school apprentice, because many of the most important things about being a product manager can only be learnt by being out in the field visiting customers and getting to know them. There is no academic course that can teach you why certain countries prefer one type of product over another, which is why you need to create your own opinion by talking with customers and senior colleagues.

Customer in Guangzhou, China

Luckily for me, meeting the customers is one of my favorite tasks since they are the ones that will buy and use the product and I think it is an interesting challenge to think about how to create better products for them. Further, in order to stay ahead of competition one must also think about how our products compare to others and what can be done differently to ensure that our products create more value for the customer. Many times this means to not only think about how they are operating the machine but also to think about the context in which it is used. For example how much training does an operator get before using a machine, an operator with more training can be expected to know how to properly adjust a harness and can therefore have a more advanced one than a user with no training.

Furthermore, I have realized that we might design a product to be used in a certain way but in reality the needs of the customers are different and they will make adjustments to the product for it to better fit their workstyle. When you see examples like that you need to reflect and decide if the adjustments are something that needs to be made in our own factories or if you should focus more on customer training. I think that this is what makes the product management role so interesting, it is a broad role in which I get the opportunity to think both big and small. Big in the sense that you need to find a balance in the product range between the different products to create a profitable and futureproof range. Small in the sense that when you write a product specification it can be the small details that decides if a product will be a success or not and you have to be aware of what is important to include and what can be left out.

Alexander Fornell, travelling in Thailand

This is what makes the Husqvarna Group’s global trainee program so great, because when I was doing my final year at university I had no idea of what I wanted to do after graduation. Now I know that I enjoy working with products and customers since it allows me to contemplate how I can solve customer problems and bring new ideas to the market. But with the global trainee program I will also get to work in other functions and who knows, there might be another area that I enjoy even more!

Alexander Fornell
Global Trainee
Product Management & Development

Earlier blog post
Gaining valuable work experience while travelling the world

Då var det dags. Mina nästan tre månader i Tyskland har nått sitt slut och nu sitter jag här och har fyra veckors ledighet framför mig. Inte något alla har och inget jag vill ta för givet. Efter alla sommarlov, julov och påsklov som jag har jobbat under studietiden känns det helt magiskt att inte bara få vara långledig – utan att också få betalt samtidigt. Betald ledighet. Wow!

Min tid i Tyskland kommer jag minnas som en tid av förvirring,  aha-upplevelser och Excel-knackande. Förvirringen i att arbeta på ett språk jag inte helt behärskar har bitvis varit total. Den utmaningen har varit stor men på något sätt gick det och det känns riktigt roligt att åka hem med ett tredje språk i bagaget. Aha-upplevelserna är en effekt av hur jag trodde att det fungerade på marknadssidan innan jag kom hit. Att komma ner och se hur det faktiskt går till har gett mig insikten att hur säker jag än känner mig på något så är sannolikheten stor att jag har helt fel. Facts first alltså. Sen var det ju det här med Excel. Ni har säkert också sett bilder från 9gag där en high school graduate tackar Wikipedia och Google för trogen tjänst. Jag tackar Excel (Google Translate får ett hedersomnämnande!).

När jag kommer tillbaka efter Semestern i Augusti påbörjar jag min fjärde och sista traineeperiod. Den kommer jag spendera på Scanias projektkontor som ansvarar för projektledning inom nyutveckling, vilket kanske framförallt berör R&D, inköp och produktion. Hur balanserar vi egentligen utvecklingsprojekten och skapar en bra projektportfölj? Hur gör vi för att kontrollera att det R&D utvecklar går att köpa in i tid och att leverantörerna lever upp till kvalitetskraven? Och hur lyckas vi fasa in allt nytt i produktion utan att onödiga kvalitetsavvikelser och  förseningar drabbar våra kunder? Framförallt – hur gör vi för att dessa tre väldigt olika avdelningar tillsammans ska arbeta mot ett gemensamt mål? Det ska jag försöka ta reda på i höst.

Fram  till dess önskar jag er alla en riktigt fin sommar 🙂

In June, four trainees from the Global Trainee Program attended Husqvarna Group’s Top Management Meeting, together with 120 of the Group’s managers.

The meeting provided deeper understanding of Group and division strategy, company culture and sustainability ambitions.

Alexander Fornell, Ulrike Nagel, Johan Sandström and Katja Ivanova

“It was interesting to hear how top management take part in the strategic discussion and help shape the outcome through workshops and discussions, rather than using external management consultants,” says Alexander Fornell, who has just finished his first year.

“Working in Construction, I am always very interested to get to know more about the Forest and Garden side of our business. This was also an excellent networking opportunity and I took several self-improvement lessons from the presentations,” says Katja Ivanova, who soon has finished her 2nd year in the Global Trainee Program.

“What a great experience,” says Ulrike Nagel, who is closing her 2nd year of the program. “All four divisions presented structured and straight forward business plans that gave insights and revealing information. With the culture and sustainability part that was undertaken, I certainly believe that the Group goes into the absolute right direction. If we all ask the right questions like “What can I do to improve behaviors and results”, we can metaphorically spoke move mountains.”

“During the culture workshop, it was clear that many culture issues are similar no matter if one is top management or a trainee. However, reflections regarding culture was shaped by the fact that they manage teams,” says Alexander.

“Under the headline ‘Respecting nature, caring for people’, nine specific sustainability areas have been identified that need additional focus. Knowing the facts, combined with a yes-we-can-attitude, will lead to being the responsible, sustainable company we desire to be. I’m sure – and it starts with me!” says Ulrike.

“Apart from getting a deeper understanding of the interesting and relevant focus areas, I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet and mingle with both new and familiar faces of our top management. I think everyone left the meeting feeling energized and motivated to start executing our ambitious plans,” comments Johan Sandström, who soon has finished his 2nd year of the trainee program.

Snart är det dags för semester, och den får också markera halvtid för mina 18 månader som trainee. Jag tänkte passa på att dela med mig av lite reflektioner från den första halvan av programmet; varför jag sökte och hur jag tycker att mina förväntningar blivit mötta.

När jag började söka jobb förra våren så visste jag inte vad jag ville göra. Jag har en bakgrund som Civilingenjör i Molekylär Bioteknik, men har även läst en del affärsutveckling och det enda jag verkligen var säker på var att jag inte ville forska. Däremot ville jag gärna arbeta på ett företag där jag på något sätt fick användning av mina studier i bioteknik.

Som Uppsalastudent hade jag inte hört så mycket om Octapharma innan jag sökte mig hit, men jag tyckte att produkterna verkade intressanta, jag gillade den internationella prägeln på företaget och tyckte att att upplägget på traineeprogrammet verkade riktigt spännande, så jag sökte.

Jag försöker dra mig till minnes vilka förväntningar jag hade på programmet för att kunna jämföra dem med hur det faktiskt har varit, men jag tror att jag helt enkelt hade för lite kunskap om hur ett läkemedelsföretag faktiskt fungerar för att kunna ha några riktiga förväntningar. Men jag vet att jag trodde att det skulle vara lite som att vara på ett långt studiebesök, att jag liksom skulle se varje avdelning i organisationen utifrån. Men så har det inte varit, utan jag har verkligen fått lära mig organisationen innifrån och ut genom att delta i och se alla aktiviteter som utförs. Och på det sättet har jag också lärt känna människorna i organisationen.

När jag föreställde mig upplägget trodde jag nog att min tid skulle vara väldigt styrd under hela programmet så när jag fick höra att det ”bara” fanns en vecka planerad till valfri aktivitet tyckte jag att det lät väldigt lite. Och visst, det finns ett schema för vilka avdelningar jag ska vara på, och ja det är bara en vecka som är inplanerad för en annan valfri avdelning, men det finns väldigt stora möjligheter att påverka sin tid. Dels genom att påverka innehållet i de olika placeringarna om det är något man är särskilt intresserad av att lära sig och sen finns det alltid möjlighet att starta egna sidoprojekt om man vill och har tid.

En sak jag inte hade kunnat föreställa mig är i alla fall hur snabb inlärningskurvan är som trainee, hur fort alla ord och begrepp som jag inte förstod i början har blivit en del av min egen vokabulär och hur stor övergripande förståelse jag redan har fått för organisationen, även om det såklart fortfarande finns massor kvar att lära. Och titeln trainne öppnar dörrar till nästan allt som kan vara en del i inlärningen, i form av till exempel möten och internutbildningar. För att inte tala om allt man lär sig på fikarasterna av personer som varit länge i organisationen.

Men nu ska jag ta semester och vila hjärnan från alla nya intryck de senaste månaderna.

Trevlig sommar!

Hanna

Octapharmas fabrik och kontor på Kungsholmen i Stockholm

Under mina hittills cirka 10 månader som trainee har jag fått prova på saker jag för bara ett par år sedan aldrig hade gissat att jag skulle göra. Jag har tagit lastbilskörkort, jobbat på linan med att montera både motorer och lastbilar och till och med lånat med en lastbil hem till familjen över påsk. I helgen gick jag med fyra traineekollegor på lastbilsrace och gjorde därmed listan på saker-jag-inte-trott-jag-skulle-göra ännu lite längre.

Fem glada traineer på lastbilsrace

Line-up precis före start

Truck Grand Prix är ett återkommande event som hålls vid Nürburgring. Vanligtvis är det sportbilar som dundrar runt på banan men för åtminstone en helg om året tar lastbilarna plats i startfållorna. Vid sidan av racet som är huvudmomentet pågår utställningar, parader, spelningar och framförallt kryllar det av truckers. Det är roligt att se vilket intresse det finns för våra produkter även om Scania av naturliga skäl inte syns mest eftersom det finns två inhemska tillverkare i Tyskland.

Trots att Scania inte har den största fan-skaran i Tyskland kanske vi ändå har de mest dedikerade. Vid Scanias utställningsområde fanns en tatuerare som enbart tatuerade Scania-motiv – oftast Gripen som ni hittar på loggan. Det fanns inte en ledig tid på hela helgen. Alla tider var förbokade. Vilka kunder!

Scanias alldeles egna tatueringsstudio