Graduate Profiles

Anas Matine
Executive, Control Systems Implementation

 

 

About Me

I am originally from Paris and my desire was always to work in an English-speaking country after my graduation.
I studied International Business and Languages (English, Spanish and Arabic) during 4 years at the University of Paris which allowed me to gain some work experience with internships in Spain and in the UK. After graduation from INSEEC-Paris Business School in International Business and Management the following year, I never thought that I will be working for a company like CHEP. Like most of the graduates I had never heard of CHEP before they got in touch with me. It was during the recruitment process that I began to learn and understand CHEP and I have to say that I was quite impressed by the business in itself. Before joining the company in October 2007 I had never thought that the pallet business could be so successful and profitable.

What attracted me was the opportunity to work for an international company. Indeed working in a multilingual environment and the fact that the company has business in many countries across the world, were some of the main reasons why I joined CHEP last year.

Working Life

I can still remember my first days in CHEP a year ago. The business is so complex, there are a lot of acronyms, new terms, new concepts... it was a real challenge. I have spoken to many people within the company (some of whom have been working for the company for over 25 years) and they all told me that they still learn everyday! And that, I believe, is something important if you want to enjoy your work on a daily basis and evolve in your professional career.

My first placement was in the Control Team in the European Head Office in Weybridge. My role involved many different tasks like implementing Portfolio CAT.  This is an online pallet control system provided to the major distribution centres in the UK. This role required a lot of interpersonal and communication skills along with a strong customer focus, in order to deal with people from different backgrounds and resolve outstanding issues. I enjoyed that aspect of my role because developing those skills and working with customers was quite challenging. I am convinced that it will help me in the future. What I also enjoyed was the fact that the company gives you a lot of responsibilities from day one.  You really feel that you are part of the company.

Other aspects of my role included supporting customers and training them to use the systems; producing reports and improving the processes.  My team was very diverse with members from the UK, France, Spain, Germany and Italy.

Whilst I was office based, the fact that I had to perform analysis on the field, involving some customer visits, meant I was provided with a company car. I also had the opportunity to undertake numerous development and training sessions in 7 months! We really have the opportunity in CHEP to work on the skills we want to develop and are allowed to express our needs.

CHEP is a company who really look after their employees; they listen to us and regularly ask for our feedback.