Work and play

I have now been in Sweden for five months. In the last few months I have been enjoying my work in Telenor Sweden, basking in the swedish sun and watching Mamma Mia LIVE! and R.E.M’s concert in Globen.

My work so far
During the past three months I have been working mostly with SOX in Telenor Sweden. One of the most challenging task I have is to conduct “mini” training sessions. This is one of the action points as a result from my first assignment in Karlskrona.

The mini training session is to educate the SOX control owners about how to navigate through the site that stores all the SOX documentations. Control owners come from all over the organisation, from Finance to HR to Operations. They are responsible for maintaining the documentations for these controls, hence the purpose of this mini training session.

Why I mention it is a “mini” training session is because this session only covers one part of their responsibilities. Control owners have a larger role to play in ensuring that an internal control meets the key risks and is performed as required. Part of this assignment is also to prepare a mini training package as a reference material for the participants. I have to admit this assignment is a bit daunting at first, since I myself am new to the site and how SOX is exercised in Telenor. But with the trusty SOX Handbook a.k.a. the “Bible” and some studying, I guess it turned out pretty well. I also have a small role in managing users in the site so that helped me to better understand how the site works.

During the summer I also worked on a rather big assignment. For this one I looked through almost all the SOX documentations for Telenor Sweden to find inconsistencies, corrections and rooms for improvement. After some weeks I ended up with a report and satisfied with the work I have done. Hopefully I will be able to follow up on my findings before the end of my traineeship here in Sweden.

After that assignment, I worked on a GAP analysis whereby I identified the best practices laid out by the Group Internal Control Office in Norway for some of the functions in Telenor Sweden. I will also travel to Karlskrona next week  to conduct some mini training sessions with SOX control owners and to discuss the GAP Analysis report with my SOX team. Apart from SOX, I will also work with forecasting during the remaining weeks of my stay in Telenor Sweden.

Taking a break
Work aside, summer has been absolutely lovely here in Stockholm! There is always plenty to do during the evenings and weekends. Some of the best times I’ve had was watching Mamma Mia LIVE! and R.E.M’s concert at Globen. On one occassion I was invited to a traditional crayfish (or better known in Sweden as kräftor) party, complete with crisp bread, cheese and of course the unforgettable swedish schnapps. There was an endless serving of kräftor and we literally ate all night long, only taking breaks to play some games and karaoke

What I also love so much about Stockholm is its archipelago. I can even take a boat to go home from where the office lies. Sailing outwards of Stockholm into the archipelago is a very beautiful sight. Speaking of which, here are some photos from one boat trip of mine to Sandhamn, best known as a place for swimming and international sailing.

Trevlig vecka!
(The swedish saying for “have a nice week” )