Maxime Callet is a second-year student at École des Mines de Saint-Étienne, one of the most prestigious engineering schools in France. He completed a 6-month internship within the BOC France team, in the Vienna office of BOC Group Austria. In this interview, Maxime shares with us his experience as a trainee at BOC Group and his experience discovering a new work environment and culture in Vienna, the capital of Austria.
You study and live in France, why did you decide to do an internship at BOC Group in Austria?
I was looking for an internship abroad to discover a new culture, work in a multicultural environment and improve my English and German.
BOC Group in Vienna offered this diversity and the internship was particularly interesting as it included customer relations, as well as commercial and technical aspects. In addition, BOC Group is particularly supportive of its trainees by offering them a salary and accommodation for the duration of the placement. This is undeniably facilitating and motivating. The positive feedback from former trainees was enough to convince me.
How were your first steps during this internship and how did you experience working abroad?
I had a great time at BOC Group in Vienna and in Austria in general. My team welcomed me straight away and I quickly felt at ease. From a professional point of view, I had a very good onboarding which facilitated my integration and allowed me to be operational quickly. Everyone was friendly and very open.
On a more personal note, I really enjoyed the quality of life in Vienna and my colleagues were able to recommend good places to visit and eat.
What were your tasks and objectives during your internship?
The goal of my internship was to help the consultant and sales teams in three main areas:
- Sales analysis: the aim was to improve the use of the CRM by creating numerous dashboards, standardizing the processes and listing the best practices to adopt.
- Creating sales and marketing content, including developing an ADOIT ROI calculator, but also producing ADONIS presentation videos and questionnaires/survey results.
- BPM: this involved modelling processes on ADONIS to facilitate the integration of ADONIS by the client.
What were the main challenges you faced during these three months? How did you manage them?
I faced three main challenges:
- The first was to be quickly operational: this internship lasted only three months, so it was crucial to train and adapt very quickly to the heterogeneity of my tasks. BOC Group has developed a very rich onboarding process which allows this efficiency and I also appreciate the great availability of my colleagues throughout the internship.
- The second challenge was to meet the trust of my manager in the follow-up of an important client. My knowledge of BPM and consulting, acquired through my training and reinforced by my experience in companies, but also the daily exchanges with my colleagues, enabled me to manage this client as a professional.
- Finally, the last challenge was the practice of English. I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about working with foreign colleagues in a language other than my own, French. But “practice makes perfect” and I finally gained a lot of fluency in English thanks to this internship.
How did you benefit from your studies during your internship?
I have a rather atypical background as I have a double degree, both scientific from the Ecole des Mines de Saint-Etienne, and commercial from the EM Lyon Business School. I have therefore developed both technical and strategic skills which I consider complementary.
My training in Business Process Management and Enterprise Architecture Management at the Ecole des Mines de St-Etienne was the most useful. I knew the theory and the key concepts necessary for my exchanges with clients.
Regarding the CRM improvement part, it is rather the knowledge acquired at EM Lyon in sales strategies and data visualization that was valuable.
Which skills and qualifications helped you most during your time abroad?
The first was obviously English; knowing how to communicate with colleagues is essential. The second skill was BPM. This skill is necessary to understand the products we sell and the environment in which we work and, of course to advise our clients. Finally, all my skills in data analysis and modelling, such as Excel and VBA or PowerBI, have enabled me to carry out useful analyses for the company.
What would you tell your friends and colleagues about your time at BOC Group?
I would tell them that I had a rich experience with a very professional and welcoming team that gave me a lot of autonomy and responsibility. I developed and consolidated operational knowledge and skills in a healthy environment and an incredible living environment.
