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Campus interviews, virtual welcomes and digital projects: Our experience as fresh university grads
Arusha, Arya, and Shantanu started at Schneider Electric as fresh university grads. This blog shares the collective experience of all 3 of them as they navigated campus interviews, virtual welcomes, digital projects, and more.
Our experience so far at Schneider Electric has been a thrilling one, from being onboarded virtually in the middle of a pandemic to getting to know our team members through their Microsoft Teams display pictures! Our journey began when we were in our final year of university with exams just finishing and companies pouring in for recruitment.
Recounting the interview process days!
We remember when Schneider first came to our colleges for recruitment, they had huge posters put up with the words Life is On written on them. We had a pre-placement talk before the recruitment process began and we knew that we wanted to apply for this company. The selection process began when we had the preliminary test round, and we were tested on aptitude and psychometric strengths through gamified rounds. That was when we knew Schneider was something different. Schneider’s recruitment process stood apart from the other companies; a reflection on how the company and its legacy stands apart from the rest. After the results came in, a few of us were selected for the interviews and after a long day of discussions, a handful of us were called to a room where the HR panel uttered the golden words; “Welcome to the Schneider family!“.
Those words resounded in our heads and created a sense of excitement about forthcoming experiences as well as apprehensions of what lay ahead and the challenges we would face.
To sum up our initial feelings in one word, it would be excitement. After our recruitment phase, time went by quickly and before we knew it, it was the first day of our internship. On the first day, after almost an hour spent in the unforgiving Bangalore traffic – we finally reached the office. The three of us met during our first day, and we went from strangers to close friends and colleagues.
The internship – getting a feel of Life @ Schneider
Soon after, we all were welcomed into the Digital Sales & Support (DSS) team and given a brief overview of the team. It is unlikely for a company as large as Schneider Electric to be able to logistically take into account every individual preference, however, Schneider truly lives up to being synonymous with creating a meaningful, empowering, and inclusive work environment for all its employees. Our manager, Vikram, took into account our areas of interest and assigned us into teams accordingly. Our team members took time out of their busy schedules to explain their daily tasks and the technologies they made use of and through our projects we were introduced to the extensive world of Salesforce, Einstein Analytics, Genesys, and Sailpoint.
6 weeks into our internship, the world was rocked by the pandemic. During this time, our internships were immediately transitioned to virtual ones. Once the travel restrictions eased a bit, we returned to our respective hometowns. Schneider prioritized the safety and wellbeing of their employees and we were soon working from the comfort of our homes. We entered a standby phase; going to the office and working inside cubicles was itself a very foreign concept for us and now working remotely disrupted that. However, Schneider considers itself and its employees to always be in beta mode, to constantly adapt and learn from difficulties, and along with our team members, we quickly adjusted to the unprecedented change in work. Our projects wrapped up virtually and we completed our university formalities before entering the workforce as full-time employees.
Welcoming University Grads aboard in an unusual time:
We received our much-awaited offer letters and on August 17th we were virtually onboarded into Schneider Electric from our own homes. While we were quite apprehensive about the virtual onboarding process initially, the entire team from Schneider did an absolutely incredible job. Every day was meticulously planned out, filled with information sessions from various department heads, policies, and team building activities. Whether it was expanding our knowledge about the smart factory in Hyderabad, strengthening our soft skills, or clicking fun pictures as part of team building games; the Human Resources team kept us engaged for 7 days and it was a great learning experience. The interaction with department heads, professionals, and our peers made us feel like we were having the induction in person except from the comfort of our own homes. We learned more about the company and the great people that work here before being introduced to the team we were placed in.
While we belong to different teams now, we all unanimously agree that every member of our team was very welcoming and excited to have us. Our managers went the extra mile to make sure we feel a part of the team whether it was through morning scrum calls or monthly team activities. After a few logistical arrangements we started our training where we are learning Salesforce, Apex, JavaScript, DevOps, and being armed with any other technology we will require to derive the most value for DSS. We are fortunate to be part of a company that values its people and to be part of the DSS team, where every member is eager to extend a helping hand and inspire us to give our best in whatever we do. We are excited to kickstart our careers here at Schneider Electric and look forward to collaborating and achieving excellence in everything we do.
You can kickstart your career with Schneider Electric, too! Check out opportunities and learn more about what it’s like to work at Schneider on our careers website: www.se.com/careers
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About the Authors
Shantanu Priyadarshi is Graduate Engineer Trainee in Schneider Electric. He has completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and computer science from Vellore Institute of Technology, Chennai campus. Currently, he is part of bFS (Bridge Field Services) team of Digital Sales and Support (DSS) Department located in Bangalore, India.
Arusha Ellias is a Graduate Engineer Trainee at Schneider Electric. She has completed her Bachelor of Technology in Computer Science & Engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology. Currently, she is part of the Knowledge, Digital Sales & Support team located in Bangalore, India.
Arya Mohan is a Graduate Engineer Trainee at Schneider Electric. A graduate in Electronics & Communication from PES University, Arya is currently associated with our Digital Innovation & Technology team.
