POCLAIN APPRENTICESHIP EXPERIENCE – MARTIN PAU, IT VERBERIE, FRANCE
CESI is located in the North of France, a ways away from Verberie, so the decision to accept this apprenticeship, meant a move to a new city and meeting many new people. After interviewing with Jean-Christophe Longuet, Poclain Group IT Domain Leader, and learning about the project possibilities available with the IT team at Poclain, Martin thought it was a jump worth making.
Poclain talked to Martin to get an apprentice’s perspective on apprenticeship at Poclain.
What set you up for success at Poclain?
At the beginning of my apprenticeship, I had the opportunity to work with each of the different IT services, to learn their processes, their current challenges, and create an internal network. The integration program at Poclain was really effective.
What projects have you worked on at Poclain?
In my first year, I worked on Nexthink implementation, a tool that allows IT to harvest information from employee workstations such as PC health or memory size vs. PC workload. With a score between 0 and 10, it helps identify which PCs need to be upgraded to proactively deliver a better employee user experience. This project helped to reduce IT workload and increase productivity.
In my second year, I worked on a mobile phone application to secure, encrypt, and limit the sharing of Poclain data on personal or professional devices.
Currently, I’m working on my graduation project. It’s a PC provisioning program, developing a PC configuration test bench to automate the employee PC programming process. The goal is to reduce time spent configuring the operating system and basic software bricks necessary for employee PCs. I’m still working on it, but so far it has allowed the team to increase productivity.
What do you like most about the culture at Poclain - From People, independence, innovation to international?
The ambiance here at Poclain is completely different from anywhere else that I have known. In the past, I worked in a very structured environment. We went to work, we did our job quietly, and went home. Here, I share an office with my sponsor, Jean-Christophe. If I need to talk through something, he is there, and we get through it. I feel like he’s invested in my success, and it’s really motivating.
Another positive is the relationships between departments at Poclain. In IT, I need to help a lot of different services, and it’s easier when I know and understand the needs of the people I’m helping. It also gives me an opportunity to check in with people from various departments to get an external view on my projects. That way I can ensure my project is advancing in the right direction
I felt Poclain’s independence and innovation values throughout my projects. I picked my projects and had a say in the strategic choices made during them. I was able to help envision future use of the results and evaluate the potential return. It is more rewarding when you have a certain level of independence for design and implementation. For each project I worked on here, I was able to work freely within the parameters set out by my sponsor. I researched and benchmarked the solutions myself and then implemented them with the team, while paying attention to costs and measuring results.
What about work-life balance?
I am still very involved with clay shooting (Compak Sporting), and the championships in France. Right now, we are in the final rush before vacation. Poclain has been supportive, allowing me time to pursue this. I am grateful to have a good balance between personal, professional and even academic life.
What are your plans for the future?
I have signed on with Poclain for a full time position starting in October. I don’t think I could really hope for anything better – coming out of a three year apprenticeship and signing a contract. It’s proof that the work that I did during my apprenticeship was quality, and I think it’s a great place to start out my career.
