My educational background is somewhat diverse. After 4 stimulating years of teacher training in Bodø and Tromsø, I decided to change direction. I therefore took my bachelor and master’s degree at The Norwegian School of Business and Economics (NHH) in Bergen. I graduated in June 2008 with a specialization in strategic leadership. On the master level I attended courses like change management, strategic analysis, project management, strategic crisis management, and negotiations to name a few. All very interesting! I did my master thesis on the downsizing and restructuring of one of the largest newspapers in Norway.
In October 2007 I found the dream job, and applied eagerly online. My mother still refers to the excited phone call she got after I found the advertisement. I really wanted this job! Thankfully, after a few weeks I got a phone call with the invitation to come to Oslo for an interview. There I met with our trainee coordinator, Svein, and HR-manager, Frank-Levi. The first session was quite traditional. I got the chance to show them who Cecilie was and why I would be a god candidate for the job. They got a chance to tell me a lot more about Elkem and their expectations. The next day I had to complete a personality test, and the following day I was back in Oslo for a second interview. This time it was much more challenging. I had to present the results of the test and use real life examples to support my statements, give a presentation in English on a given topic (without preparation), take a stand to various statements etc. Friday the same week I got the job, and 8 months after I started as a trainee in Elkem.
Me and my fellow Elkem trainees Borgny, Yun, Samuel, Maria, Johan, Johannes, Malin, me, Aslak and Mikael the first time we met.
Since then I have experienced so much! I’ve had the privilege to meet many talented and experienced people who are willing to share their knowledge. Since I graduated in economics and strategy, I had never been to a plant in my life. Needless to say, my first visit to a silicon plant was extremely useful in terms of understanding more of the highly complex production processes. Knowing the core of the business is crucial no matter what position you have in the company.
My first trainee period was in the HR department, and now I am involved with improvement work through an internal competence center in Elkem. Immediately after the Easter holiday break I went to Elkem’s plant on Iceland for course and training in root cause analysis, then to Rotterdam and the distribution center for value stream mapping, and back to Norway and Kristiansand for an audit. Time flies when having lots of interesting and challenging tasks and projects!
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When attending various career fares and company presentations as a student at NHH, we always wanted the company representatives to share with us what they actually did on a day to day basis. Therefore I’ll try to give you a snapshot of my “typical” week in the next post here on orklajobs.com.
So long, everyone! Hope to see you in here again soon!
Today’s word of wisdom: “Knowledge without practice makes but half an artist.”
