Category: career

One of our current management trainees is Vilde from Skjetten, a curious 27-year-old. For her, the trainee program is about much more than professional development; it’s also about developing personally, having fun, making memories and relationships along the way. 

After graduating with a master’s degree in Economics and Business Administration from NHH, Vilde wanted to become a trainee, and her eyes were set on Schibsted; she had always been fascinated by how we empower people in their daily lives through our 60 + digital brands.

“Schibsted is a big, but still, highly innovative company that fosters positive synergies across its digital brands, which I found really exciting. I wanted to learn more about how Schibsted adapts to changes in external environments such as new technologies and increased competition from global actors. As a trainee, you are able to gain a broader understanding of this, and you get the opportunity to challenge yourself by taking on diverse roles across different industries. I was sold and I still am!” she says

The phone call
It’s no secret that the competition to land a trainee position at Schibsted is tough, so when the trainee manager called Vilde to let her know if she had gotten the position she was super excited.

“ I was out hiking in the mountains when I got the call and to be honest, the whole conversation was a bit blurry since my mind exploded in euphoria after hearing I got the job! I was so excited and full of energy, so the rest of the hike was a piece of cake,” she says

Four different placements across our Nordic brands
Vilde has so far been in two of four different placements. By being given different responsibilities and tasks across industries she has become better at solving complex problems and leading larger projects, she has no doubt that she has developed not only professionally but also personally.

“For my first position I got assigned to Schibsted Kyst in Stavanger as a project manager. Here, I completed a market research report and led a project in the ad market related to real estate. Currently in my second placement, I am in the strategy department of VG, working with a growth strategy and a project aimed at the young audience of VG,” she says

“I have experienced what it is like to lead an agile project with many project flows and stakeholders – both a lot of fun and challenging! The trainee program also contributes to personal development as you get useful insight about yourself. For instance, you learn about which tasks you are particularly passionate about, as well as how it is to be thrown into unfamiliar environments and new job tasks. This is exactly what makes it so great to be a management trainee here at Schibsted! You acquire a set of new skills and experiences that you can benefit from later in your career,” she says

Having fun and creating network is part of the journey
Professional development is not the only goal for our trainees. Having fun, making memories and friends along the way is also a big part of being a Schibsted trainee, and the cohesion among the Schibsted trainees is strong.

“We are a close group of friends that organizes many social activities outside work, such as different sports activities and “afterwork”. The trainees are also useful sparring partners where we share work experiences and learn from each other. This way, we gain an even greater understanding of Schibsted and all the activities that take place in different business areas,”

“I have had many fun experiences as a trainee, such as attending the Nordic Media Days in Bergen. Here, I met many interesting people from the Media industry and listened to several exciting lectures. For example, sports laundry in Qatar and the New York Times’ coverage of the Pegasus case. As a trainee, you meet many committed and inspiring people during the program. The inclusive Schibsted culture makes the threshold low for creating a network and reaching out to colleagues – either for a “coffee chat” or a game of table tennis,”she says 

A unique opportunity to kickstart your career
After her experience so far, Vilde is eager to recommend others to apply for the Schibsted trainee program.

“The Schibsted Management Trainee program is a unique opportunity to work with the most known brands in the Nordic countries. Through the different placements, you get to take on a variety of challenging and interesting opportunities, where you can learn and practice your academic skills in an open culture that is both inclusive and fun!”

 With placements across the Nordic countries, you also learn how business opportunities can be realized in foreign countries, cultures and markets. You get to be a part of a highly energized and a fun “trainee crew” that organizes many social activities and is eager to exchange knowledge.”, she says!

Learn more about our trainee program here

 

Besides being the editor of SvD Perfect Guide and one of Sweden’s most entertaining columnists, Hugo is also the host of our beloved Schibsted Talks podcast. With a curious mind, he always makes sure to get the answers we are all looking for. 

Hugo – you have been the host and doing the interviews in Schibsted Talks from the start – in January 2020. How did it all start?
– I hosted one of Svenska Dagbladet’s earlier podcasts, Min helg-podden, which had laid back, personal interviews with celebrities. Employer Branding reached out to me to discuss if we could transform the live event Schibsted talks into a podcast. The content would be more serious and important but have a similar listener-friendly and informal manner. 

How would you describe these two years and the development of the podcast?
–  Lustful. To me, learning new stuff is one of the great joys in life. And interviewing all these smart individuals from a broad range of Schibsted companies has taught me a lot. Needless to say, the pandemic made it harder to conduct the interviews, but I think we managed alright. And the last couple of months, we upped the number of interviews per episode, narrowed the angles and speeded up the tempo. I believe that improved the podcast a lot. 

Can you describe how the process behind an episode works?
-I meet the Employer Branding team on a-regular-basis to discuss potential topics and guests. Then, I try to come up with angles that could be interesting for the listeners. 

For someone who hasn’t listened to Schibsted Talks – how would you describe?
– 15 minutes of easy listening that hopefully give you some new learnings and insights – about Schibsted and the world as a whole. 

If you have to pick three favourite episodes – which ones would that be and why?
– I found the latest episode about the metaverse really interesting. Anders Grimstad does a great job explaining what the future might look like. Episode 43, where engineering manager Ioana Havsfrid talks about artificial stupidity, was fascinating. And episode 76, where Dan Ouchterony describes the deeper purpose of Schibsted’s investment, is great if you want to understand the soul of Schibsted. 

Tune in and listen to Schibsted Talks here

After finishing his law degree in Argentina, Mauro Avellaneda moved to Sweden to spend some time in a country where people don’t talk on public transportation. The move ended up reigniting his passion for tech, and after landing a job as a developer for Schibsted – he’s staying indefinitely.

Mauro’s plan was to stay for a year and then go back to Argentina to pursue a career in law, but after working at the electric scooter company Voi, his long neglected passion for tech was reignited. 

– I was always fond of computer games, but never considered studying programming or anything else in that field. When I started working for Voi, that passion returned with full force.

Developing as a developer and landing a job at Schibsted
After a year of studying with friends, Mauro started doing internships, because he wanted to check if what he had learned was actually useful, and to see how it felt working in the tech field. 

One day Mauro spoke to a friend who was working at the Schibsted-owned company Lendo. His friend asked Mauro if he could have a look at his repository, his projects, and the code he had written. After he had seen the code, he told Mauro that Lendo was looking for a developer at his level.

– That’s how I got in touch with the people at Lendo and Schibsted. I knew about Blocket, Aftonbladet and so on, but I had no idea how huge Schibsted actually is. Now I’m very interested in Schibsted as a whole – how it’s growing and developing. I’m also looking to collaborate with other companies in Schibsted, to offer my services and keep growing as a developer by trying my hand at new challenges, he says.

– One of the reasons I like working for Schibsted revealed itself to me on my very first day. When I walked into the office and became aware of the scope of the company – just how many different aspects of society the companies in Schibsted are involved in, was very exciting to see. It made me feel like I was part of something bigger.

Developing a branch from the ground up
Mauro was hired as front-end developer at Lendo. When he started, the Portugal branch was being built, and hadn’t gone live yet. The work had begun, but there was still a lot of ground to cover before the launch. Mauro was glad to be given the opportunity to focus his attention on that project, as it allowed him to be part of building something from the ground up.

– Being a part of building the new Portuguese branch of Lendo gave me the opportunity to understand the company as a whole. Now it’s live, and it’s a project I’m really proud of. Like a lot of Schibsted’s tech ventures, Lendo makes life easier for people. We enable people to make better and more effective decisions. Using Lendo can be compared to how you search for plane tickets these days, he says and elaborates: 

– You don’t search for tickets through a single airline, you use a comparison site. It’s similar to Prisjakt, another Schibsted company, in how it gives you the opportunity to compare your alternatives and make the best decision in terms of price. Only that with Lendo, you’re comparing loans, not prices for, say, robot vacuum cleaners. 

 

 

Finland’s largest online marketplace wasn’t built in a day: 

Hang Do Minh moved from Hungary to Finland to do her masters and ended up staying. Now, as Senior Android Developer at Schibsted, she is developing the app for Finland’s largest online marketplace, Tori. A task that has proven to be both challenging and rewarding.

Cold but gold
It’s mid march, and spring has yet to arrive in Finland. The ground outside Hang Do Minh’s home office window is still covered in snow. That doesn’t seem to bother the Schibsted developer much, though. 

– I’ve been living in Finland for the past eight years, and I really like it. After my masters I landed a job as an Android developer at Nordea, and in November I got a similar position at Schibsted. Now I’m working on developing the Android app for Tori. So I’m pretty new to Schibsted, but my experience of the company so far has been very promising. 

A warm Schibsted welcome
Hang got off to a good start at Schibsted. Her first week was filled to the brim with employee events, so she was quickly integrated into her team and got to know colleagues that she’s become good friends with. 

– I find the Finnish people to be very honest – I really appreciate that quality in them. And my colleagues at Schibsted are no exceptions.

– I really like the people I work with, the environment, and the ambience in the office overall. My team and my colleagues are all very nice. So my first impression that this would be a nice place to work, has been proven right. 

Getting the message across
Tori has become a big player in Finnish society, as the country’s biggest online marketplace. If you’re looking to buy something second hand, it’s the default choice for most people – and Tori has no plans to halt the growth. These days you can find pretty much anything there; from second hand jackets to rental cars and job advertisements. 

The past month Hang has been working to improve the Tori app, specifically the messaging function. That’s been an exciting challenge for her. 

– Back when Schibsted and Adevinta were a unit we used a different system. After the split, we had to develop our own. 

– This month I’ve been working a lot on the messaging feature, which is a really big and important part of the application, because of our plans to add transactionality. Messaging is the foundation for that, so it’s an important project.

The original system was developed by Blocket, the Swedish equivalent to Tori. Tori has kept some of the old features up until now, but the plan is to completely renew the app. It’s a huge task that inevitably involves what Hang calls small cosmetic issues. 

– We are troubleshooting and collaborating with our external partners to fix them. Soon enough the app will be functioning smoothly! The thing with troubleshooting, though, is that it also offers a lot of opportunities for learning. I’ve already learnt quite a lot through this job, and in the future I think there will be a lot of exciting opportunities as Tori continues to develop and expand. 

The product managers at Schibsted set the bar high, benchmark themselves against the best in the world, and are never done learning new things. And they most certainly inspire and support each other.

“A decade ago product wasn’t very well-understood and only a few teams were empowered to own business results and their roadmap. Schibsted has come a long way in this area, seeing the fantastic work being done in product teams across the company.”, says David Gill, CPO for the Recommerce vertical in Schibsted Nordic Marketplaces). 

He describes the product culture at Schibsted as both ambitious and curious. “When I meet product managers across the company, they inspire me with the high bar they set for themselves. They compare themselves with the best product managers and teams in the world.”

“The difficulty of both identifying the right problem to solve, and solving it in an excellent way, is a great way to grow.”

Great responsibility, great rewards
In his role as CPO in the Recommerce vertical in Schibsted Nordic Marketplaces, David has varied working days where he meets teams across Schibsted. The teams are responsible for loved marketplaces, and all the work associated with these. The fact that the company puts such high trust in the product development teams is important, he thinks. “Schibsted has strong leadership principles that favor employee autonomy and entrepreneurship, generous learning and development budgets, and an ambitious growth framework.”

Allowing teams to work across brands – and across countries – at Schibsted, gives the company an advantage, says the Finnish CPO. “Each brand tends to be a mix of local brand-specific technology and UX, combined with shared solutions. This is great because it allows both brands to be fast and experimental while creating a strong need to share both learnings and tech with colleagues in other parts of Schibsted.”

Having worked at Schibsted his entire career, David Gill can’t recommend the company enough to potential candidates. “I’ve had 10+ job roles, lived in 5 countries, and I am continuously being given the trust and support to grow with the company. We are a company with a rich history with a disruptive eye to the future, full of humble, smart and nice people. If that sounds like you, I cannot think of any reason not to come to work with us.”

Want to hear more from David? He recently guested the Schibsted Talks podcast – listen to the episode here!

See all jobs within product here.