Empowered as an Inside Sales Intern

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My first impression of Schneider Electric

As an economics student, Schneider Electric sounded so strange to me the first time I heard of it. At that time, I was more familiar with consumer goods companies and financial institutions. But back to almost one year ago, Schneider first came into my life.

I was the Content Manager of the Vietnam Social Innovation Challenge (VSIC) – a competition for Vietnamese university students to find out and develop bold ideas that can solve environmental issues, including energy management. At that time Schneider Electric Vietnam was looking for a partner to co-organize its annual student competition – Schneider Go Green 2019. The context of VSIC matched with Schneider Go Green, therefore to leverage all resources we decided to go forward with a partnership agreement. We combined both competitions into one and co-organized it together!

The competition was held successfully. The result was outstanding: Vietnam ranked 3rd worldwide in terms of the number of registrations, only after China and India, and came 1st in terms of registration growth rate. Thanks to this opportunity, I had the chance to meet and work with many #SEGreatPeople. I was not only impressed with the professionalism of the team but also the ambition for the younger generation of Schneider Electric employees. I admired the contribution of Schneider Electric toward the environment and society as it puts sustainability as a key component of the business strategy. Since then, my dream of being a part of Schneider Electric was gradually nurtured in me.

Life is On at Schneider Electric

I will never ever forget the moment I received confirmation from the HR department announcing that I had successfully passed the internship recruitment. As a third-year student, having the opportunity to work for a multinational company like Schneider Electric means a lot to me. What surprised me the most when I joined was the culture and internal well-being policies to develop, empower, and motivate employees to be their best selves at work. Schneider Electric truly embraces differences in nationalities, cultures, or even in the way we work to support diversity and inclusion for everyone at every level.

At Schneider, I enjoy the flexibility at work which allows me to manage my own time and work-life balance in my own way.  In addition, I see many meaningful activities held regularly for employees, including yoga after work, French class every Thursday afternoon, and more.

A day in the life of an Inside Sales intern

I work for the Business Development department. My main role is to work as an Inside Sales intern to support my colleagues in managing and issuing contracts, and short-term CSR projects. Inside Sales exists to sell products to end-users via phone calls and emails. In the beginning, I was nervous and felt a little bit stressed because it is an important role with ambitious KPIs which requires important sales skills. While I had no sales experience, I understood that this was a precious opportunity to build my confidence and experience in a new area. I got rid of fear and let myself explore and pursue the goal of being a successful Inside Sales representative.

Here is a glimpse of what my day looks like as an Inside Sales representative intern:

8 AM: I arrive at our office. The first thing I always do after arriving at the office is to get a cup of coffee in the pantry, then I get back to my seat and read my book.

8:30 AM: Get to work. Like many others, I start my day by checking emails, reviewing my to-do list, and the list of customers that I plan to contact. Okay, time to start dialing!

12:00 PM: It’s lunchtime. Today I have lunch with other interns in our pantry. We usually prepare a homemade lunch and bring it to the office. I love lunchtime, it’s when I can talk with many colleagues and share more personal stories about work, family, and more.

1:00 PM: Resume dialing.

3:30 PM: I usually finish calling at this time because it is almost out of office hours. This is when I review my performance of the day: how many calls I made, how many were successful or not, what I have to do to follow up, and what I need to improve tomorrow.

4:00 PM: I complete some administrative work related to the partnership contract for another team and start to learn more about products and sales skills to improve my sales competency.

5:15 PM: Today I have one class at my university starting from 6 PM, so it’s time to pack and end my working day.

That’s what one day at Schneider would look like for me. I have enjoyed my time here for almost 4 months and it has been a memorable learning journey. The most valuable gift Schneider Electric has given me is the value of empowerment. My team always encourages me to take ownership of everything I do by doing the job in my own way and being fully responsible for the result. This has helped me to improve every day and I highly appreciate this aspect of the culture at Schneider Electric. I still have 3 months to go before I complete my internship and in order to make the most of it, I would like to continue learning and developing myself.

About the author

Huy Nguyen Cong is a third-year student of Foreign Trade University in Vietnam, majoring in International Business Economics. He was a Content Manager for the Viet Nam Social Innovation Challenge (VSIC) – the official partner of Schneider Go Green Vietnam 2019.  He is now completing a six-month internship program at Schneider Electric Vietnam as an Inside Sales intern for the Business Development department.