This blog has been adapted from a recent article in Where Women Work
In her graduate trainee role as Sales Operations Business Partner at Schneider Electric, Marion L’Huillier has felt fully supported and encouraged as a woman entering an industry where women are currently in the minority. With so many fantastic opportunities to work on innovative projects, collaborating with an inspiring and diverse team and opportunities for travel – Marion is excited by where her graduate trainee role will lead.
Gaining knowledge
“I am currently part of the graduate development programme which consists of 3 rotations of 5 months each going to different business units, to different teams, roles and locations. It gives an overview of whole enterprise, where you get to understand how it is all articulated, how strategy is deployed across businesses and the different challenges that face the organisation. You gain organisational, businesses and technical knowledge all at once so it is very enriching.” comments Marion.
Marion’s career journey so far
“I completed the last year of my Master degree in marketing at Schneider Electric France where I was half-time a business intelligence analyst and half-time studying at university. Eager to work abroad to discover a new culture and new way of working, Schneider Electric supported me and transferred me to the UK to look after a marketing product launch. With an interest to know our different business units, positions and progress at Schneider Electric, I quickly joined the Graduate Development Programme.”
Exciting projects and their impact
“As part of the Energy Marketing team I had the opportunity to manage the budget for a product launch. In this project I created and developed a 3D product App in collaboration with our developers, designers and the product manager to improve customer experience. Instead of reading a specification on a catalogue, the App allows visualisation of the product in 3D, where you can use virtual reality to test the product features.”
An enjoyable role and a great fit
“What I like about the graduate programme is that it is structured but also flexible. You gain experience and knowledge across various business units, roles and teams by rotating every five months. You also have the chance to work on different projects, discover our different factories and sites to learn from others and network. Throughout the Graduate programme I was able to go on customer’s sites and this is where I learned the most. Listening to customers’ needs, expectations and challenges was really fruitful for me.
“I used every one of these occasion to think about “What and how could Schneider Electric do better?” – Post visit I would provide feedback and build an action plan proposal to the organisation about my vision in terms of process improvement, improvement of tools, methods and approaches. Some of them have been put forward and I have had the chance to present it to the top management and deploy the Action Plan.”
Schneider Electric’s a great organisation to work for
“What I like about Schneider Electric and what really pushes and energises me are endless possibilities in terms of businesses, roles and technologies. You get such a wide exposure that you feel that everything is possible. We are present over more than 100 countries so if you are mobile, there are great opportunities to move internationally.
“One of the best thing about Schneider Electric is its diversity. Working in a multicultural environment is a chance for us to learn every day from others, we have a wide variety of people with different backgrounds, experiences from different part of the world. It is extremely enriching to share a cross-cultural point of view, it promotes new ideas and develop people.”
Insight for women working in the sector
“I came from a Marketing background with absolutely no technical or engineering knowledge, Schneider Electric gave me my chance to join the company without judging my lack of technicity. I felt immediately trusted and confident to do the most to gain technical knowledge and progress in the company. I really believe gender equity is essential in an organisation, it is such great opportunity as a woman to be able to make a difference in your team by bringing a new vision and fresh impetus!”
Making a difference
“I’m very open and communicative. I like to socialise with my colleagues to share our different cultures and stories. I like the idea of being able to make a difference in the team or in the environment I work. This is why as a straightforward person, I challenge things to try to make improvement and simplify processes in order to be more efficient. Eager to know and learn something new, I sometimes ask too much questions. I like listening to people and I am enriched from them. It is probably for all these reasons that I spend all my weekends discovering new places in the UK and traveling around the world during my holiday.”
Sound inspiring!? Why not take a look at the current roles available at Schneider Electric.
