Joanna Burcon

Senior Procurement Specialist, Vattenfall Distribution in Gliwice, Poland

What do you enjoy most in your work?

I work at the Procurement Department for Vattenfall Distribution Poland S.A. My adventure at Vattenfall started one year ago. To begin with, I was responsible for construction work. In the last few months I have started working with IT projects. What I enjoy the most is variety.

I do not work only at the office, I also get an opportunity to participate in international projects. I can observe how my colleagues in Sweden and Germany work and get new experience in an international environment.

Among other things at present, I take part in an international project concerning the supplier qualification system called Vattenfall Supplier Bank. The objective of the system is to provide a single supplier repository across Vattenfall in order to achieve better control of all existing and potential suppliers.

Procurement has been evolving over the past two decades, but since a couple of years the pace of change has accelerated rapidly. The role of Procurement has shifted from an administrative operation to a strategic function within the company.

The Procurement Department of Vattenfall has also taken very important steps in creating a future strategy for remaining a leading company in the energy industry. I am so glad that I can be a part of this process.

What do you think is the benefit of working at Vattenfall?

One of the benefits of working at Vattenfall is the opportunity to work in a number of different areas and countries. Moreover, Vattenfall provides employees with a number of internal and external training programmes. This year, I have taken part in the Vattenfall Purchaser Development Programme. This is one of the Vattenfall Functional Business Competence Development Programmes and has been designed for purchasers within Vattenfall Group. During the course I had a chance to improve my skills within the area of advanced negotiations, teams and communication. The most exciting thing was building an international network and sharing experiences.

I also had the opportunity to attend BGF training. BGF is the world leader in web based business tournaments where leading international companies compete for market shares and profits. Just like in flight simulators, but dealing with business. I had a chance to feel like a top manager for a while. The most exciting part of the game was the competition aspect.

What advice would you give someone considering applying to Vattenfall?

Vattenfall is a great place to develop your career, use your personal skills and potential, as well as for experiencing an international environment. You also get possibilities to work in different areas and other countries like Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. My best wishes and good luck to everyone applying.