A day as a trainee
Do you want to know how a day as a trainee is like? Keep your eyes open because it is not a simple answer!
Having been in the trainee journey for 3 months now, I can say a trainee day is different every day. During my second rotation as a trainee, I am working at Robotics R&D department, more specifically within Software Development. It is really interesting to see how we create value for the users of our robots and how passionate everyone is in this department. At this position I have the opportunity to get to know how the software teams work, but also to create my own tasks and contribute with opinions that can make a difference. The main task I am focused on currently is related to quality: how to have different options on how we analyze the quality on the products we provide. It is a complex task, but everyone at the office is happy to help and answer any questions I might have, as well as to show me what they do and offer tours or demos of their work.
But a day as a trainee is much more than just what the rotation’s assignment entails. As part of one of our visits to the ABB Ability Center in Västerås some weeks ago, the Trainee Group participated in a workshop about how ABB can be the very best employer for attracting, retaining and developing talents. The group had lots of opinions about this topic, and fortunately, the trainee voice is always heard! In this case, several managers were interested in the outcome of our workshop. Therefore, part of my agenda today is to prepare all the material we produced during the workshop and condense it into a shorter version in order to present the main points to the managers and engage in a fruitful discussion.
But it does not all end with the sunset. Last evening, we had “dinner with Robotics”. In this event, the robotics business invited the trainees for dinner in order to network, talk about possible rotation assignments and – most importantly – to explain how fun it is to be at robotics and how many different things you can do and try in this business. Most of the management team was there to share their career stories and experiences, and to discuss technology, markets and products with us. It was truly inspiring to discuss with the management team on a one-to-one level and feel how open they are to new ideas or approaches, and also to see how engaged everyone is in those discussions and how much knowledge trainees bring directly from universities. But it is not all about business… there was also a music quiz! And not any music quiz, but a live music quiz: two of the managers from robotics brought their guitars and played the songs for the rest to guess!
Overall, the days of trainees at ABB are full of diverse activities, many personal interactions and a lot of opportunities for new challenges. Days tend to be a combination of the rotation’s assignment work and any other activity you want to be part of. Aside from the specific assignment tasks, there is a lot the trainee program can offer that makes a trainee grow in knowledge, experience and connections. Remember that at the end of the day, your career is also about having fun!