Insights
In this article, we introduce you to our apprentice Leonardo Meroni. He is completing his commercial sports apprenticeship with us and plays football for FC Thun U21. In this interview, he talks about how Swisscom is supporting him in his apprenticeship, what his most exciting project was and what he particularly likes about working at Swisscom.
I am completing a commercial sports apprenticeship in the E-profile at Swisscom. In one week I work 70% (28 hours) at the company and school and the remaining 30% (12 hours) I spend in high-performance sport (football with FC Thun U21).
I also complete the sports apprenticeship in 4 years instead of 3. This gives me enough time to develop my skills at school and at work despite the high level of physical exertion.
Swisscom offers me the opportunity to be very mobile. It's possible to work in several locations and departments to get to know lots of people and gain different experiences.
In my first year of my apprenticeship, I worked in HR at various Swisscom subsidiaries at different locations, such as Datasport and Broadcast. In HR, I recorded and conducted interviews, assessed applications, checked contracts and ultimately hired the candidates. So not only was I travelling a lot, I was also able to gain a lot of new experience in different companies.
Swisscom gives me much more time for my passion than if I had a full-time position of 100%. This also enabled me to plan my day perfectly in HR at the various locations.
I spend around 15.5 hours travelling in a week, which takes up a lot of time and effort. I want to plan my week as well and as easily as possible. My training supervisor (LB) at Swisscom supports me completely and gives me a lot of confidence and personal responsibility.
During training at Swisscom, you normally have to apply for new projects on the Marketplace (internal platform) every 6 months. This allows you to move around the various areas of Swisscom. In addition, I learn each time how to prepare a letter of motivation, a CV and a job interview and, in the best case, how to conduct them.
This also gave me the opportunity to spend around 6 months in a Swisscom shop. I was involved in administrative work in the back office as well as F2F (face to face) with customers on the sales floor. During this time, I learnt a lot about Swisscom products. But what was a far greater experience was the customer experience, of which I was allowed to be an important part. This allowed my personality to grow enormously and I was able to take away a lot of experience and knowledge for life!
It wasn't just in the shop that I learnt a lot. It was the same in every other project. The learning that can be utilised from every day of working life at Swisscom is gigantic and I could never have imagined this at the beginning of my apprenticeship.
One project that has stayed with me in addition to the shop was when I worked as a billing manager in the finance department. At first, it was an extremely stressful and time-consuming time that I had to get through. There were numerous processes, terms, procedures and especially a lot of responsibilities that I had to take on. But I had great support from my PA (project provider). I quickly found my feet and was able to learn an amazing amount of new things. I worked with major customers and helped to drive forward the switch to electronic invoicing. I also dealt with a considerable number of problems and error messages from invoices from major customers. At my own request, I was in charge of accounts receivable and accounts payable in my project and was able to read, process and correct international invoices (from all over the world).
Such experiences are worth their weight in gold, because I was given the responsibility of getting to know all the processes, talking to customers and finding the best solution with them.
What I am particularly proud of is that I decided to do a sports apprenticeship as a business administrator three years ago. The support I have received from all sides over the years is enormous and should not be taken for granted. Not only was I helped everywhere and offered constant support, but I was also given a lot of responsibility. As a result, I was able to develop quickly and set myself big goals that I was able to pursue and achieve.
The most valuable components of my teaching are trust and development.
As I mentioned at the beginning, Swisscom's trust is very high. Swisscom's trustworthiness is something I encounter again and again every day. I notice it particularly because I don't have the same presence as all the other apprentices and employees. Nevertheless, I am looked after very well and I am not neglected. I have the opportunity to carry out and experience the same work/assignments as the other employees, just in a reduced quantity of course.
What I also particularly appreciate about Swisscom is that there is a big focus on our individual development. Every six months, each learner prepares a so-called education report, which reflects on the last semester of school and work (including the reflection of the PA and LB). The main part of the educational report relates to the three Swisscom values: Trustworthy, Committed and Curious. In addition, I set new goals for the next semester myself and with my LB.
This report is discussed with the LB and the apprentice when it is completed. After this discussion, or after reflecting on yourself and the people around you in general, you realise what and how much you have learned in just 6 months.
From the very first day, I felt that Swisscom employees had a great deal of respect for the apprentices. I was given a lot of responsibility right from the start and I was able to have my say on every topic and contribute my ideas, suggestions for improvement, etc. I am very proud that apprentices are so valued at Swisscom. I am very proud that apprentices are so valued at Swisscom.
Sport is extremely important to me and I would like to devote even more attention to my passion once I have completed my apprenticeship. But just doing competitive sport will probably not be the plan. Swisscom offers a very attractive opportunity to work as a young professional after completing an apprenticeship.
Would you like to find out more about the apprenticeship model and the various opportunities to start an apprenticeship at Swisscom? Then visit our careers page:
https://www.swisscom.ch/de/about/karriere/berufsausbildung-studium.html
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