I discovered Schneider Electric in a roundabout way whilst applying for engineering positions at the end of my university study. The application process involved submitting a resume and responding to criteria, followed by an interview, psychometric/skills testing and finally a face to face assessment centre day in Sydney. Although nerve-wrecking, the assessment centre was also good fun, and a good chance to meet other graduates from around Australia.
My program was run in three sections; an initial 8 months in my primary business unit, 8 months hosted by a secondary business unit of my choice, and then my final 8 months back with my original business unit. I was exposed to a variety of the different business sections and was assigned a formal mentor to be my coach, confidant and advisor for the full duration of my program. As I started working in a small office initially, duties included anything and everything from sales to engineering to maintenance to procurement. Some time was dedicated to formal classroom training and online seminars in order to learn the company software and hardware, but mostly my time involved exposure and experience as teaching methods. By the end of my two years, I felt as though I had a good set of skills to fulfill a full time project engineering position with the company.
As a company, Schneider Electric is trying to make more whilst using less, an aim that is of utmost importance in our current climate. I like that I am involved in making our society more efficient and feel like I can actually make a difference in my job. The work that I do is interesting, challenging and constantly evolving, and there are so many different areas of this company that it is possible to work in almost any field. The fact that Schneider Electric is a global company with almost 200 years of history means there are always exciting opportunities available.