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I’ve always been drawn to investing my time and energy into something meaningful, which will make a positive difference. At Schneider Electric, this is something that I’m able to do regularly through my Services role, where we work closely with customers to help them overcome their challenges and see their site(s) transform to become more digitised and sustainable. That’s why I’m grateful to develop my career at Schneider Electric, and share my journey on how I got here.
My Journey to Schneider
At University I studied Zoology, I must admit – I did have doubts about whether I should take a more practical choice with a more concrete career path such as marketing or business but I’m thankful I chose to pursue my passion. When it came to applying for jobs, I remember applying for over a hundred – as I’m sure was the same for many, a very stressful process trying to determine the best next step to start my career.
Schneider Electric showed me you don’t need to have a specific background or experiences to have a successful career. Schneider Electric believe great people make a great company. We value individuals from different walks of life, as it allows for diversity in teams to think differently, challenge the status quo and be truly innovative – this is something I really admire.
So, I started my career with Schneider joining their graduate programme back in 2019. My priority during the graduate programme was to make the most of the 12 months. Luckily for me, there were several platforms to accelerate my learning such as Schneider University, and Open Talent Market (OTM) which showcases mentoring and project opportunities from our global Schneider Network.
This is one aspect I love about being in an international company, the opportunities to learn are endless as there are experts across the globe, just one click away. I seized many opportunities through OTM. One example was working with a sustainability consultancy team in Budapest, where I was able to support customers to calculate their sustainability scores for accreditations such as CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project).
The one key thing I learnt during this time was to embrace all opportunities available, and if you don’t see the opportunities you’re looking for – create them, don’t wait for them to appear.
Life after the Graduate Programme
As my career developed after the graduate programme, I became a ‘Services Specialist’ – my first ‘official’ job! As you can imagine, I had to deal with the nerves and imposter syndrome, and just dive into the deep end to take on more responsibilities.
I re-vitalised key programs and invested time into finding new ways to support our customers through their key challenges. This is where, as a part of the Services Marketing team we developed a new go-to-market strategy known as ‘Smart Services’. It showcases how the future of the electrical industry is changing to becoming more digitised and sustainable and we have invested our time innovating our services offers to suit.
I’ve learnt a lot whilst being at Schneider, but the main thing is not letting the fear of failure hold you back – it took a while to acknowledge the fact that everyone makes mistakes, but the most important point is to learn from them.
Mid 2021 I transitioned to my current role as ‘Sustainability Services, Business Development Manager’. My responsibility is to transform our localised sustainability offering and expand the many ways we can make a positive difference to help our customers accelerate their journey to Net Zero. This is where I have a unique opportunity to develop new sustainability services and work with a range of stakeholders to build this business from scratch.
Reflecting on my career so far, I never thought there would be an opportunity to pursue my passion for sustainability like this, seeing the impact we can make in the services world. My main take away from this is that careers are not built over night, they’re built one step at a time and the best advice I’ve gotten so far, is career trajectory is never a straight line – you will take side steps, diagonal steps but each is a step in the right direction.
My advice to you
Whether you’re applying for jobs in preparation to finish university, looking to make a change in your career or interested in pursuing a career in sustainability – the best advice I could share is to consider joining Schneider Electric. I’ve had the pleasure to work alongside so many industry-leading experts who have helped accelerate my learning and get me to the point I’m at today.
There are so many opportunities available to join us at Schneider to take your first step, and like I mentioned at the start, great people are what makes Schneider a great company!
Hear from other employees at Schneider:
- Hands-on, the coolest job ever – Field Services Representative career
- Joining the Apprenticeship Programme as a Field Services Engineer started my career!
- Services is a People business!
- [Podcast] Accelerate your Career in Sustainability
Click here to find out more on how you can get started: se.com/uk/careers
Based in Coventry, Beth Price is the Sustainability Services Business Development Manager for UK & Ireland.
She is always finding new ways of integrating the value and importance of sustainability in all she does to drive positive change in her daily work.
Considered an animal person, she loves nature and passionate about all things sustainability and biodiversity related.
