{"id":16220,"date":"2019-09-03T11:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T19:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2019\/09\/03\/news-9962\/"},"modified":"2019-09-03T11:00:03","modified_gmt":"2019-09-03T19:00:03","slug":"news-9962","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2019\/09\/03\/news-9962\/","title":{"rendered":"Janine feels empowered and supported in her technical career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Employee Voices| Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2019 13:00:20 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

Janine is a great role model and mentor at Schneider Electric. Working here, Janine feels empowered and supported by the company in terms of career progression as a woman in a technical field. She explains how she wants to be a STEM ambassador for young people and women in technical roles. Take a look into Janine’s day to day through these questions and answers.<\/p>\n

What interests you in your role, and how has your role\u00a0developed in Schneider?<\/h3>\n

Although I have been in my role for a few years now, it has constantly changed and evolved over time. The role is quite different now to when I first stepped into it. It is now a much more diverse role with several layers to it. I love that it now spans across various business units, meaning I get to interact with more people from different areas and levels within the business, from sales, marketing and commercial, through to customer services and finance.<\/p>\n

What’s a big challenge for you right now?<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s a great privilege to be a manager of a team, and I have a really great team! I love helping people to develop their\u00a0careers. I get a real buzz from seeing them grow and feel proud that I was able to play some small part in their\u00a0progression. Unfortunately, the side effect is that I am quite often having to recruit to back-fill the space created by\u00a0people moving on from my team, and it is getting increasingly difficult to find the right people.\u00a0My challenge, therefore, is how do I encourage a more\u00a0diverse range of talent<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0into our business? For that reason, I\u00a0am looking to become a STEM ambassador. I would like to encourage\u00a0young people<\/a>\u00a0who are maybe just considering\u00a0their exam and career options to look at engineering, and in particular, the exciting opportunities that a career\u00a0within Schneider can bring.<\/p>\n

How would you explain your job to people not from our industry?<\/h3>\n

I manage a team of 15 people who are split into two quite different areas.\u00a0One area is Sales Engineer Support:\u00a0a telephone service operated by a team of 5 people who support the sales teams out in the field. They provide our sales teams with information regarding quotation\/order progression, and\u00a0help to connect them to other areas of the business.<\/p>\n

The other area is a team of highly skilled technical engineers who provide quotations to customers interpreted from\u00a0drawings and specifications. This brings me into contact with several aspects of the business, and constantly\u00a0challenges me to improve our processes and the way we interact with customers and sales engineers.<\/p>\n

\"teamwork <\/p>\n

How has Schneider Electric supported you?<\/h3>\n

Over the years in Schneider, I have received a substantial amount of professional training which has helped me to\u00a0work more effectively and shape the approach I take to my role.<\/p>\n

I have also been given the opportunity to get involved in projects which have given me exposure to other areas of\u00a0the business, thereby broadening my experience beyond my \u2018day job\u2019 and opening up different networking\u00a0opportunities.<\/p>\n

Who has supported you, been a guide or role model?<\/h3>\n

It was Paul Canning who gave me my first management opportunity when I progressed from Tendering Team Leader\u00a0to Tendering Manager.\u00a0I was extremely grateful of the opportunity and worked hard to justify his faith in my ability.<\/p>\n

More recently, Spencer Pope has been a great inspiration in the way he has formed the TBO and brought it together\u00a0from across the business units to shape it into collaborative and supportive team it is today.\u00a0I am continuing to learn a great deal from him regarding strategy, planning and organisation. Every day is a learning\u00a0day in TBO as it interfaces with so many other teams and departments. It\u2019s a great team to be a part of.<\/p>\n

Of course, it also helps to have the unwavering support of my husband, who always seems to say the right things to\u00a0get me through tough days and put things back into perspective if I start to feel a little overwhelmed.<\/p>\n

What’s impressive to you about Schneider Electric?<\/h3>\n

One of the most impressive things about Schneider is its\u00a0culture<\/a><\/strong>. The more I talk to others about the companies they\u00a0work for, the more I realise that Schneider is way ahead of the game when it comes to its culture.<\/a><\/p>\n

In my experience, the company values, empowers, supports and encourages you to be the best version of yourself, and opportunities for development and progression are infinite. What impressed me when I first joined Schneider, (and still today) is that there is no predetermined line of progression. You can take your career in any direction that interests you, be that upwards, across different departments, or even different countries.<\/p>\n

How can Schneider Electric empower and support female career progression?<\/h3>\n

In order for women to feel empowered and supported in their careers, I would like to see greater active involvement from senior management in Diversity activities\/forums<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0etc, particularly\u00a0if they are from areas where females have been traditionally under-represented. Let\u2019s not just talk the talk, let\u2019s walk\u00a0the walk!<\/p>\n

If we are to make the most of the diverse range of talent that we have within the business, we cannot take a one-dimensional view, as this tends to restrict people to the traditional career silos. For example, women’s\u00a0careers are generally in\u00a0HR, Finance or Customer Services, but not so often in Technical roles.<\/p>\n

The driver needs to come from the top, and sometimes managers need to take a risk, and look outside the traditional pool of talent. What is lacking in experience in a particular field, might be more than made up for by other skills, as well as enthusiasm and fresh perspective.<\/p>\n

What advice would you give to your younger self?<\/h3>\n

I would say believe in yourself – aim higher \u2013 face the fear and do it anyway. Have a go, give it a try. The worst that\u00a0can happen is that you learn how not to do it!<\/p>\n

How would you describe yourself in three words?<\/h3>\n

Supportive, enthusiastic and professional.<\/p>\n

What’s the one best piece of career advice you’ve been given, and why is it relevant at\u00a0Schneider Electric?<\/h3>\n

When you are reading a job description, don\u2019t feel you have to tick all the boxes before you apply. If you tick all the boxes, you have nowhere left to develop, so you\u2019re not aiming high enough. I am the manager of a team of technical engineers, but I’m not technically trained and I don\u2019t have the \u2018required HNC in Electrical Engineering\u2019. What I do have is, leadership and management skills. I feel empowered and supported to recruit the right people; I can build strong, high performing teams, I can formulate processes and resolve issues, I can collaborate and negotiate at all levels. Over the years I have picked up on the technical knowledge, but I bring much more to the team than just that.<\/p>\n

How do you ensure upon your great well-being and do\u00a0you have any activities outside of\u00a0work?<\/h3>\n

With a flexible work<\/a> environment, I go to the gym 3 times a week to Body Combat classes which I really enjoy, although it\u2019s quite a high intensity workout, so I feel absolutely shattered afterwards. We also just got a new puppy who is very energetic and gets us up at ridiculous hours of the morning to go out walking and playing frisbee.<\/p>\n

Apart from that, I love to travel and visit new places on holiday. We have a trip to South Africa booked for later in\u00a0the year where we are looking forward to a safari, as well as travelling the garden route to Cape Town, to experience\u00a0the changing landscapes of this beautiful country.<\/p>\n

I am also lucky enough to have a great circle of close family and friends who I can relax and enjoy a couple of cheeky\u00a0G&Ts with at the weekends.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/h3>\n

\"best <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Janine Griffin\u00a0is the Transactional Tender Manager at\u00a0Schneider Electric<\/a><\/strong> in the United Kingdom. and says she gets a real “buzz” out of helping other people develop their careers. Janine is enjoying a varied and exciting workload with Schneider and is sharing insight into her career journey as she has worked here for 20 years.<\/p>\n

\"\" Connect with Janine on LinkedIn<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Great People make Schneider Electric a Great Company.<\/strong>
Join Us<\/a>\u00a0where you have a meaningful purpose in an inclusive and empowering environment.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The post Janine feels empowered and supported in her technical career<\/a> appeared first on Schneider Electric Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/blog.schneider-electric.com\/feed\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Credit to Author: Employee Voices| Date: Tue, 03 Sep 2019 13:00:20 +0000<\/strong><\/p>\n

Janine is a great role model and mentor at Schneider Electric. Working here, Janine feels empowered and supported by the company in terms of career progression as a woman in… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n

The post Janine feels empowered and supported in her technical career<\/a> appeared first on Schneider Electric Blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[12389,12388],"tags":[20550,12824,10433,4815,17022],"class_list":["post-16220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-scadaics","category-schneider","tag-empowered","tag-life-schneider-blog","tag-support","tag-women","tag-women-engineers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16220\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}