The exciting journey of an ECP graduate: From Karlskrona, Sweden to Plano, Texas

People at Ericsson are curious, competent, and devoted to creating limitless connectivity. Walking through the doors of an organization with a century-long history of enabling communication is a matter of great pride and an honorable legacy we should continue to build upon.

Another important reason for choosing Ericsson was, of course, the offer to participate in the flagship graduate program – Early Career Program (ECP). The program promised my growth as a leader through experiential learning, broadened my knowledge and expertise across different business areas, and helped me connect with super talented colleagues around the world, many of whom are now friends for life!

My life with the Ericsson Early Career Program (ECP)

Speaking of friends, through ECP I met a group of 34 fantastic people with unique charisma and admirable spirit. My fellow colleagues in the program came from around the world, each of them bringing experience and knowledge that I could learn from and grow. But that’s not all. Networking is only a small part of ECP. The program arranges numerous fireside chats and panel discussions with leaders from different organizations at Ericsson and executives from our customers to interact on our purpose, vision, and strategy alongside having fun conversations that open new career opportunities.

My fellow ECP colleagues during the Ideation challenge presentation in Plano, Texas

A central part of the Early Career Program (ECP) experience is 3 distinct job rotations. Each of my rotations was unique from one another and amplified my understanding of our business. They clarified my role as a future leader to enable success and contribute to the company’s growth.

For my first rotation in the ECP track, I was a Software Developer in the Product Development Unit (PDU) in Ericsson Karlskrona, where I would use my technical abilities to work on improving the quality and speed at which we develop and deliver our products. Being part of a central team allowed me to experience enterprise-grade software development and understand the software flow from a simple change in the codebase to production at the customer site. I enjoyed working close to the product code for the first six months and then was required to move to my new position as a Software Architect.

I love solving problems, building solutions, and productizing ideas. Therefore, I chose to be in the PDU for the next rotation. As a Software Architect, I saw the end-to-end complexity of our products and solution. It gave me a broader perspective of our practices and paradigms. I was assigned to solve an observability problem from scratch and build a solution compatible with our software flow. It tested my understanding of our software flow and my technical caliber to #imaginepossible.

My last rotation was as a junior Project Manager with a Customer Unit (CU) in Plano, Texas, USA. It was a complete 180 degrees shift from my educational background and experience. I was meeting members across different teams, discussing the project overview, delivery plan, costs, budget, and timelines. It was a great learning to understand the effort it takes to manage a project, identify and remove blockages, and foster cooperation and collaboration to ensure timely deliveries and regular cash inflow.

In addition to all these on-the-job learning, the Early Career Program enabled me to focus on my personal development plans together with well-planned and structured leadership interventions. I have never felt more self-aware before. The different personality training and leadership modules have helped me identify my IKIGAI (a Japanese concept referring to something that gives a person a sense of purpose, a reason for living) to empower people around me, and the workshops have done wonders in overcoming my fears and building self-confidence to achieve individual and team goals.

Getting to know different Ericsson markets

The experiential market modules within ECP are both virtual and on-site workshops which provided me with an opportunity to closely observe and understand the reality of our business and people in different market areas. I had the opportunity to interact and learn from South-East Asia, Oceania, India, and North American markets. It was fascinating to see the diversity of requirements from our partners and customers, complex business and talent scenarios, and sales dynamics in different geographical regions while giving us a vision and strategy to maintain our leadership in the market.

Ericsson is not only about ECP

Being part of a company like Ericsson allows you to experience numerous events, training, and activities that are outside of ECP but just as exciting and enriching. For example, the Hackathons that the company organizes at the site and global level to fuel the zeal of learning in employees. The Developer Conference is a similar experience – a full-day event filled with keynotes, live demos, pair programming, networking, pizza, and a lot of fun!

I participated in a hackathon at the site level recently. I remember we made our changes minutes before the final presentation and walked onto the stage with zero clue or testing if our code would work. But voila, the crowd was joyous when our code worked live on stage. They applauded like we won the hackathon. In the end, we did not win, but the experience of those five hours made us realize our capabilities – to persevere to realize ideas, learn from each other, and work together to #ImaginePossible.

That, to me, is all about being a part of Ericsson, where you not only get to fulfill your own #ImaginePossible, but also make it a reality for your team, the people around you, and society at large.

Want to meet a few of my ECP friends for inspiration? Check out their stories here.