Swisscom Job
Selina recently celebrated her sixteenth anniversary at Swisscom. Today as Senior Product Manager Cloud Services. But her journey started somewhere else entirely.
Dear Selina, why don't you tell us how you ended up in your role as Product Manager at Swisscom?
After my compulsory schooling, I started my IT apprenticeship at Suva after a brief detour to French-speaking Switzerland and England. It wasn't just the apprenticeship itself that I enjoyed, the employer was also absolutely great for me. Unfortunately, there was no permanent position in sight after the apprenticeship. A vocational school colleague then told me about her apprenticeship at Swisscom by chance, which triggered my decision to apply for an advertised position in the call centre. And from there the ball started rolling: I progressed from providing telephone support to our IT partners to Application Manager at IT Services. This stopover was a stepping stone for me into resource management, which I enjoyed for a while, but at some point a routine settled into my day-to-day work that no longer gave me any peace. I needed something new, something different. So I looked around for internal job advertisements, and there was one that was theoretically unattainable for me: Product Manager Cloud Services, academic requirement: university or university of applied sciences degree. I applied anyway, knowing I had nothing to lose - and won.
What a difference a little courage can sometimes make - thanks for sharing. What do you think was the deciding factor in you getting the job despite not having the desired training?
Each of my previous roles has contributed a little something here: I was already familiar with the complexity of our portfolio, got to know the many facets of customer service and learnt to juggle the requirements of various stakeholders. But in my opinion, the most important criterion was that I worked directly on the customer front and did a lot of operational work and therefore very consciously put the customer at the centre of my way of thinking. As I can confirm today, that is effectively the be-all and end-all in this job.
This leads me straight to my next question: What do you do day in, day out as Product Manager Cloud at Swisscom?
I can follow on seamlessly from the answer above: I put our customers at the centre of my activities every day. As a product manager, it is particularly important to recognise the needs of our customers and meet them accordingly. As a customer, I want to be convinced at all times that Swisscom is doing everything it can to ensure that the products and services we use function smoothly. In principle, as PM I am the CEO of my product. Conversely, this means that I am responsible for the entire supply chain: from further development, processes and delivery to the correct invoice that ends up on the customer's desk. It also means teamwork, because only together with the developers and architects can we turn the right screws.
All in all, that sounds very demanding and complex. What motivates you to get up for work every morning?
*laughs* Well, my children are early risers, but that probably doesn't answer your question. I love to inspire people. Whether it's to get a project off the ground, to drive implementation forward or to convince a customer of our solution: when I realise that people are getting into my boat and we're pulling in the same direction, it gives me a good feeling. And I'm happy to stand up for that.
So that means that this could also be the case in a different role and in a different industry. Or how important is the factor of the industry you work in? In other words, what initially brought you into IT?
That triggers funny memories. I was fifteen when I finished secondary school. Fifteen and clueless about what to do with my life. So I went to French-speaking Switzerland for a few months to improve my French and then did the same in England to improve my English. Well, afterwards I wasn't much smarter than before, but I decided to give the teacher training seminar a chance. At that time, you still had to take an entrance exam. However, I failed it and was back to Square 1, so to speak, when my father said in an aside, "Oh, a profile with a future would probably be something in IT. Why don't you do an IT apprenticeship? I had nothing to lose and was able to complete a taster apprenticeship with Suva at short notice. And you know the rest. I haven't changed my line of work to this day, my father was probably right (smiles).
Your father really had the right instinct - cool story! Although it was probably rather stressful for you when you were in the thick of it. Why don't you tell us about one of your customer projects?
One of my last projects focused on process optimisation. This may sound very theoretical at first glance, but in fact it is not. In this context, it is also important to mention that I recently completed further training in lean management with the backing of my organisation and am now tackling projects accordingly. The aim of the project was to achieve a clear improvement in terms of processes and throughput times for one of our products, so that our customers would gain back valuable time and resources in future. So we started by researching the system: who is involved, where do we have nodes that need to be resolved, what are the causes, etc., etc.? In other words, we created a value stream analysis of the entire process cycle and carried out a root cause analysis according to Ishikawa. The result: in practice, we were able to reduce processes by over 60% and lead times by around 50% - a huge gain for our customers and, secondly, a great added value for us internally.
The figures speak volumes. Can you give me an example of an improvement measure that you implemented based on your analysis?
Yes, of course. We operate in a very dynamic and fast-growing environment. In the past, many things were still done manually, including certain price calculations, for example. We have now transferred these extensive Excel calculations to an online tool and automated them at the same time.
If you could give future potential colleagues something to think about before they start working at Swisscom, what would it be?
I think it's extremely important to have a broad back. As I mentioned earlier, the environment in which we operate is very dynamic and changes quickly. This requires a certain degree of flexibility. IT is also complex and it's very easy to get lost in the details. So my tip is not to lose sight of the big picture. The best way for me to do this is to always put the customer at the centre. And last but not least: don't always want to build the Ferrari straight away, but start small, keep at it and work towards it slowly.
Dear Selina, thank you very much for your time and valuable insights into your job as Product Manager Cloud!
Would you like to find out more or even join us? Then take a look at our vacancies. We look forward to hearing from you.
Product & Technical Communication Manager
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