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Mélanie
HOLTEMOELLER
German citizen
General Secretariat (Marketing), Paris,
France. Template Europe Project. Logistics
Architect.
Earned her Chemical Engineering Degree at
the Technical University of Hamburg.
Has spent six years with the Group (five
in Berlin and one in France).
I graduated in 1999 and applied for an engineering
job with Elf in Berlin. Much to my surprise
(and delight), they interviewed me and offered
me an organisational management job. I took
it straight away and started working in
the Berlin Main Office, not in a refinery.
Berlin to Paris.
My integration involved a one-year traineeship
in Supply and Logistics. Then I was assigned
to a railway-logistics project as Project
Manager.
I had said I wanted to work abroad and put
France, the Group’s HQ, at the top
of my list of preferences. I had studied
French at school and the Group sent me on
some more courses and conversation lessons
to prepare me for expatriation. Thanks to
the Group’s mobility policy, I was
offered a one-year job in Paris. I took
it straight away, even if my husband, who
is less mobile, had so stay in Germany.
Just as a personal aside, I enjoy hiking;
it allows me to travel, too.
I’m working on the Template Project
now. My job involves streamlining and optimising
the trade flow through SAP to supply network
service stations in nine European countries.
There are people from each of those countries
on the team, so you can imagine the atmosphere
is very international.
Differences compounded.
It’s a fascinating task force. We
all pool the things that make us different,
our culture, and our way of working. At
the end of the day, we get the best from
each of our colleagues, which is really
enriching.
Countries are exchanging know-how more regularly
now, and the Group has really stepped up
its international breadth since the merger.
After my year in France, I will be going
back to Berlin to work on the project in
Germany. But I’m open to other opportunities
and, why not, to another experience abroad.
But that will also depend on my family situation
when the time comes. I know that it is the
Group’s policy to respect the individual.
A group on the go.
I’d tell candidates applying for a
job at Total that speaking several languages
will help them make the best of the international
opportunities they will find here. Total
is an open group, and it knows that the
variety of profiles it encompasses are a
source of wealth. I know that: I work in
a mixed team.
It’s also a group on the go, in the
sense that the organisation is adjusting
to evolving markets and environments all
the time. Which is exciting.
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