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