Sourcing & SCM, Vestas Central Europe, Germany
My Choice
The international work experience I would obtain through the Graduate Programme first caught my eyes when I finished my master's. I also found that the graduate program could offer me a very good platform for the transition from student to professional, from entry level to management level, while gaining multicultural working experience and communication skills. Plus, Vestas is a thriving company in a thriving industry, which is very attractive for me; being an environmental engineering student and a mild environmentalist.
Also, I anticipated getting to know a lot of other talents through the program, which turned out to be true. The 36 people in my team come from 15 different countries, not to mention the other graduate teams and former graduates in Vestas. In this global environment, people provide different views and mindsets based on their own cultures, which has helped me to ease the tension when facing people from an unfamiliar culture and made me think differently when I’m in a new country.
My role
I'm working as a sourcing specialist in my current rotation. My responsibility is to help define sourcing process and develop tools to improve process quality. The most exciting project so far was in my last rotation, doing inventory reduction in Vestas Mediterranean (MED). The project gave me a broad overview of current supply chain management in Vestas, and a detailed picture of the inventory in the BU.
The coolest thing was that we successfully applied the inventory model in six different countries and identified surplus that could potentially be turned into cash flow. The most challenging project for me so far was my own six sigma project that I initiated and managed all by myself. It was a hard-won experience but I learned a lot from it.
My everyday work life
There are some common features in Vestas offices, like open discussions and a relaxed working environment, but the everyday life actually varies in the different offices, depending on office culture. For example in China, for me, it was more intense and rushing and full of surprises. In Denmark, on the other hand, it was calm and very orderly for most of the time. So of course you need to learn about the new environment you’re exposed to and try your utmost to merge into it.
Your starting point as a graduate depends on how much experience you have before joining Vestas and then the work will become progressively more “heavy”. You can ask for more challenging work to fit the learning curve you aim for. To me a challenging working environment is the only way to really learn things, and coming out of my comfort zone is the only path to personal growth.
My opportunities
The general trends for the development of the wind energy industry in the near future are promising and Vestas will definitely play a very important role in it. Knowing that I'm doing something for the earth and acquiring new knowledge motivates me every day. I've taken several training programs in Vestas and am very happy with the knowledge I’ve gained and the people I now know. Vestas is developing employees through the talent pipeline and always gives people who want to learn a chance. Combine trainings with challenging work, I think I'm growing fast and soon will be making greater contributions to this company.
My life
I was born and raised in the capital city of China, Beijing. So I'm 100% Chinese, which means I'm into traditional Chinese opera and other art forms. But I also have a broad band of interests, like doing all kinds of sports, classical music, digital arts and reading. I do pretty much all of the above in my spare time.
