From Marketing to Customer Implementations: Julie’s career development
Eight years ago, Julie excitedly entered the office of Kuehne + Nagel to start a new chapter: her very first job. Our Marketing Manager was in need of an extra hand, and this fresh graduate with a degree in Event & Project Management seemed like the perfect fit. Three different positions, eight years, and a lot of inside jokes with colleagues later, Julie still feels as excited about her career at Kuehne + Nagel as on her first day.
“I started in the marketing department, but when there wasn’t enough work anymore for me I was able to step into the position of Excellence Manager”, Julie explains. “That’s one of the aspects about Kuehne + Nagel that I appreciate a lot: there are always opportunities to develop.”
As Marketing Assistant, Julie learned a lot about Kuehne + Nagel’s business and customers, but a certain distance with operations made it hard to grasp the workings of the operational departments. That changed during her time as Excellence Manager. “In that position I had to work closer together with operations and I also followed trainings to broaden my knowledge of freight forwarding”, she clarifies.
But Julie admits that she’s still learning more every day, especially when she took on another new role as Project & Implementation Lead. Within that position, her responsibilities focus on steering the implementation of new customers in our systems and operational processes. A role in which she serves as a bridge between the customer and operations. She explains how she goes about her business: “I always start with a kick-off meeting with the customer to understand their ways of working, and then we keep in touch on a weekly basis throughout the implementation phase. This usually takes a couple of months. In that time, I convey the customer’s wishes to my colleagues from operations until they’re all set and don’t need me anymore.”
For Julie, there are two amazing perks to her role. “I love the fact that I can get to the bottom of a customer’s business for several months, and then move on to the next customer”, she says, “But the best part is the contact with the operational colleagues.” And besides customer implementations on a national level, Julie sometimes even gets to manage regional customer implementations. “I’m currently working on the European implementation of an Israeli customer. The challenge lies in getting all countries aligned but it’s also a great experience to be connected with all these colleagues all over the world”, Julie adds.
Would you also like to work in a dynamic environment which offers continoues development opportunities? Check our open vacancies in our Career Portal: https://jobs.kuehne-nagel.com