Every year Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology selects its most prominent women student for a tailored trainee program with one of their partner companies. Ericsson has been a partner since 2004, making it one of the companies that has participated the longest. Susanne Blanke won in 2005 and now works as a business analyst at Ericsson. Her colleague Pernilla Pettersson-Emenius was the 2006 winner and is now a strategic product manager. The 2007 winner, Josefine Omland, is at the end of her trainee program and now works at Ericsson Customer Logistics.

Josefine, what did it mean to you to be chosen as a female leader of the future?
“This has been a fantastic start to my career. Award recipients are able to design their own trainee programs. I had eight different companies to choose from but in the end chose Scania, Electrolux and Ericsson. I have almost finished my program and am doing my final trainee period as a supply project manager at Ericsson. The job is very challenging and provides insight into how a product goes from production via a network of administration and distribution to our customer sites around the world. My trainee program finishes in early 2009 and then I will need to choose a permanent place of employment.”

Pernilla, you stayed at Ericsson after your trainee program. Why?
“Ericsson is not an obvious choice for a mechanical engineer, but my background has not been a disadvantage. I chose to start at Ericsson because the telecoms industry is exciting and dynamic. The quickly changing market within multimedia, where I work, requires high levels of flexibility to stay competitive. My role as strategic product manager also means international contacts. I have a lot of contact with colleagues in our market units and development units around the world, which is both exciting and challenging.”

Susanne, why did you choose Ericsson?
“I was interested in all of the industries I worked with during the award program but in the end, when it was time to choose an employer, I wanted to get the most from my education within media technology and telecommunications. I also thought it was important to work internationally in the future, which I saw as a possibility with Ericsson. For the past year and a half I have been working for an internal management consulting department within Business Unit Global Services, which is exciting and varied since I get to see many different parts of Ericsson.”