OMG, did a whole month just pass by?

By Lasse Kronback Arildslund on 21 October, 2009

Categories: Norway, Telenor Norway

– Apparently it did, but I’ve just been too busy to notice! At this moment I have been working at djuice for a month, and fortunately I’m starting to get a good grip on things. I now know a lot more about the projects I’m going to be involved in for the first six months in the trainee programme, and what my responsibilities are. Therefore I’m thinking that it would be a good idea to tell about these things. After that, I’ll tell a few things about how living in Norway works out for me.

First days at work
All I knew about my position at djuice before I started was a very brief description of what I was going to work with, and that I was going to meet my boss, Kjetil at 9. He would introduce me to my new colleagues, and tell me more about my position.

I met my colleagues, and a lot of other employees working in the consumer department, which djuice is a part of. Needless to say, it wasn’t easy to remember all the new names, faces and positions of everyone, but still it was a good experience, as people were quite curious to hear about my position at djuice, and about the trainee programme. The first day I was given some presentations and materials about djuice in order for me to get a basic understanding of the company. Also, I was invited to some meetings where I would just have to pick up and understand as much information as possible. For me this was a challenge as I did not know any background information, and even more as I still wasn’t very accommodated to understanding Norwegian. This language is fairly similar to Danish, yet very difficult to understand if the context isn’t known. Therefore I REALLY had to concentrate to understand my colleagues at the beginning, but fortunately I’ve picked it up quite well by now. All in all, the first days were mostly about getting to know djuice and the people working there. Just the same as the first days at school, pretty much!

The djuice team: (from left) Terje, Elisabeth, Emilie, Cecilie, Nils-Petter, Ingvild, Lasse (me) and Kjetil

First tasks
By taking part in meetings, talking to a lot of different people, and reading a lot I soon got a grasp of the processes taking place, and the reason why they took place. Therefore I could start helping out in the preparations for the rebranding of djuice, which my colleagues had been working on for several months. The brand launch was just round the corner, and therefore it was the sole priority for the first couple of weeks, so I tried my best to help out where I could. It was an interesting and valuable experience to become involved at such a turbulent phase of the rebranding process, as people were very dedicated and excited to see the results of their efforts, while I could just ask all the questions I could think up in order to get an understanding of everything taking place.

Future responsibilities
In the last two weeks I have been given time to focus on the projects that I’m going to be responsible for throughout my six months at djuice. First and foremost, I am going to find ways to improve customer service, while reducing costs. This will imply identifying and taking advantage of unused potential of the customer service webpage. Of course all opportunities must be considered and evaluated, and the influence of stakeholders must be thought through as well. Therefore I guess I’m facing a big research task, which will hopefully result in successful initiatives to improve the customer service of djuice. Apart from this, I’ll also be involved in strategy formulation for the djuice brand and products, so I don’t think filling up my work schedule will be a challenge at all!

Living and working in Oslo
I have now stayed here for one-and-a-half months, and I suppose I’m already well accommodated to living and working here. After all, it is not too different from Denmark, and since I have my car here, I can relatively easy go home for a weekend when I miss Copenhagen. Also, it feels nice to get used to having a routine for work and spare time, so that I can coordinate the two, and almost come to pretend that I have an off-work life during weekdays

All in all, I guess it is fair to say that I have settled in quite well here in Oslo. However, it is difficult to fully accept the fact that I now live here, as I’m already looking ahead to my stationing abroad in just five months. But that’s really the most exciting aspect for me in the trainee programme: To reach goals, and achieve accomplishments in different areas and countries, while facing the challenge of living in, and working with cultures different from my own. – And that is why I still feel lucky to be in the programme!

Well, I guess I’ll have to get back to work now, as there are numerous things waiting to be taken care of. In my next blog post I hope to be able to tell about my customer service project in detail, and something about my impressions about working for Telenor.

Tags: Djuice, Norway, Oslo, telenor, Trainee

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