Petri Paananen

Engineer at Distribution, Vattenfall Nordic in Stockholm, Sweden. Joined the International Trainee Programme in September 2008. Why did you choose Vattenfall and the International Trainee Programme?

I chose the trainee programme primarily, not Vattenfall. I did my degree work at Vattenfall where I got to know a former trainee who gave me his personal input on the programme. That was also a factor in my decision.

The trainee programme seems to be very prestigious. And it gives you a good understanding of the company even though it is a very large organisation.

What was your image of Vattenfall before you started the trainee programme?

Three years ago, probably a very dry image. My degree was basically in electrical engineering, which is a pretty common background at Vattenfall. But I have switched to viewing Vattenfall as a large and trustworthy company with sound ideas, such as its environment profiling for example.

What are you doing, workwise, right now (November 2008)?

Organisation wise, I work for Distribution where I am part of a business support unit called Development. At the moment I am involved in a project that is taking a closer look at a technology system. It is largely about how the system can save us money or even how we can make money from it.

I feel very privileged. I am treated like any other employee while at the same time I have the sort of freedom that goes with being a trainee; a bit more free rein to look more closely at things. For instance, I have more opportunities to take interesting courses that other employees maybe would not have time to do or that do not fall within their area of responsibility at the moment.

What do you expect to get out of the trainee programme?

What I have gained so far is a fundamental understanding of how Distribution Nordic works at local level. I have started to acquire contacts and procedures for how to obtain information.

And I have gradually started to get a reality-based picture of the job. As an engineering student you have a very idealised image of how problems are solved. It is different here there is also the human factor which is something I think is fantastic.

From now and for the next ten months I hope to learn about even more ways of communicating with people. I want to improve my language skills. I would like to think my professionalism has improved - that I can now see things from more of a commercial and business perspective than I did two months ago. I already see that I have a more realistic stance.

What do you think you will be doing immediately after completing the trainee programme?

In ten months time, if I have lived up to the expectations my employer has of me, I will carry on working here. And my basic thinking today is also that I will stay in the same organisation. There is no point in starting to learn something and barely gaining more than a superficial understanding without being able to go on to use this at a deeper level. So hopefully, I will stay more or less in the same organisation.