Category: career

54 hours of code later and the 6th edition of Kids Coding Camp is over. Twice a year Schibsted arranges a camp that is open for everyone between 9- 12 years old, who wants to learn more about coding and programming.

The reason why we arrange Kids Coding Camp is quite simple – because the future is here and digitalization is a given. If you don’t know the language of tomorrow, you will not be able to change nor make an impact on your digital environment. The ones who learn the language of tomorrow will be able to make improvements, both for themselves and others. That is why it is important for kids to learn the basics of coding. 

This time we invited employees’ kids to our offices in Stockholm, Norway, and Krakow. The purpose was to inspire and teach them about tech and coding – and the response has been fantastic from both the kids, parents and our employees. For three days, the kids have learned how to code their own computer games, with help from our fantastic coding teachers. Apart from coding, the kids visited some of our companies, played games, danced, and ate a lot of popcorn and candy. The camp ended with an exhibition for the parents and the kids proudly presented what they had made.

We can now count the total number of educated kids through Kids Coding Camp to 1295 children, and many of the kids have actually participated in several coding camps. Let’s hear some of them out:

“I didn’t like coding that much before I participated in Kids Coding Camp, but now I love it! I like to code together with friends and to get help from teachers who are experts in coding.” – Smilla, age 12, participant in Sweden. 

“Kids Coding Camp is great! Although I know that this entire program is designed for us to join Schibsted.” Taras, age 10, participant in Poland.

“My best memory from Kids Coding Camp will be everything and everyone.” – Leah, age 8, participant in Norway.

Read more about Kids Coding Camp here.

By letting your inner drive and ambition take over, you can find yourself ending up anywhere you want. For Director of Sales, Michael Hili, that place happens to be the same one as where his journey started – Schibsted. After almost 15 years he still sees opportunities for future growth.

One and a half decades ago, Michael Hili started his journey at Schibsted, and the sales team for the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. As for all underlying companies within the large concern, Svenska Dagbladet was fending for themselves, and competing with other Schibsted brands such as Aftonbladet in Sweden. As the hungry salesman Michael Hili was, it did not take too long for him to start looking for ways to develop within his team. And when Schibsted started to lean towards becoming a streamlined concern with one common sales strategy, Michael Hili saw his chance. 

“I like change, and pretty soon after I started I knew I wanted to develop towards leadership and strategic development within sales. I entered the Nordic talent development program which helped me grow in those two areas. Soon I became part of the organisational development team as well as the workgroup where the goal was to digitalise and streamline how we worked cross-sales,” Michael Hili says. 

During the years, Michael Hili has had many different positions, before becoming Director of Sales three years ago. One of the most challenging, but also rewarding tasks was to implement a new work culture cross-concern in Schibsted Marketing Services (SMS). Something that is very relevant till this day.

“Changing the culture of an entire organisation is challenging. But it is clear that Schibsted is focusing on an open and driven culture, which we can see every day. Our SMS coworkers are all ambitious people that want to help each other succeed and develop, and that is also what we are looking for when recruiting new talents,” he says. 

Schibsted is constantly developing the sales team. With a new sales model, all employees get to attend several courses where each and every attendee get to decide in what way they want to develop further – just like Michael Hili himself has done. 

“Working in the SMS sales team is full of opportunities. The role itself contains sales, project management and business development – all at once. The team contains spearhead commercial understanding and we are backed up by our creative resources and strong brands. How you want to develop in your sales career is fully up to you and your own ambition. I like to describe Schibsted as a gym with the best personal trainers in the world. They will hand you the weights, but you are the one who has to do the lifting,” he says. 

The ambition is for all employees to stay at Schibsted for a long time, no matter how and when they develop and change their positions. After 15 years aboard, Michael Hili still sees no end of his internal career. 

“I want to keep on developing, I just need to figure out where to aim next, because I know it will be possible. But until then, continuing to build this open culture and being surrounded by this level of competencies, is astounding enough,” he says.

My name is Sven Størmer Thaulow and according to my long title I work as the Chief Data and Technology Officer at Schibsted. I would like to take 5 minutes of your time to tell you about the product & tech community at Schibsted and how we work to keep it strong and competent for years to come.

For 10 years our biggest tech hub in Poland – Schibsted Tech Polska – has paved the way for better collaboration across brands and units in Schibsted. Today around 1300 people work with product, tech, data and UX in Schibsted. It’s a huge and unique pool of talents by any count – and an indispensable force for building Schibsted and our brands. 

Who are these people? Some work for individual brands, like FINN in Norway, Blocket in Sweden, VG, Aftonbladet, and Prisjakt. Some are in country-based multi-brand setups like Schibsted Finland or Schibsted Denmark. Then you have multi-brand cross-country teams like Media Product & Tech. Others work for joint units like Schibsted Data & Tech. They are all teams of software engineers, product managers, data scientists, analytics, UX designers, and much more. 

A strong product & tech community

One of our ambitions is to create an even stronger joint product & tech community in Schibsted. We have a lot to gain by learning from each other and building professional networks across the brands and units in Schibsted. 

A unique culture of collaboration

Schibsted Tech Polska is one-of-a-kind in Schibsted. Since it was started in 2011, it has been a meeting place for product & tech teams from all over Schibsted. Over the years a unique culture of collaboration has developed in Krakow and Gdansk. Teams from different brands sit next to each other – 280 employees in total. There is extensive knowledge-sharing. If a software engineer is stuck with a problem, he/she can easily reach out to a colleague from another team to get help.

That is the type of product & tech culture we would like to have in all of Schibsted. And I think we are progressing well in that direction. There are positive initiatives happening all over Schibsted – and there is a strong will to learn from each other. 

Learning from each other

There are many benefits from having a joint product & tech culture:

We learn from each other. By active knowledge sharing, Schibsted as a group will be more able to adapt quickly to the rapid changes in technology and user needs.

• It’s easier to help each other to solve the same type of problems
• Schibsted is a more attractive employer for top talents
• It is easier to move between units and we have a large internal job market

We have a lot of activities that encourage people to get to know each other across brands and units. Let me mention some of them. All have the objective to bring us closer to each other.

Events

Schibsted Product, Tech & UX Festival was organised for the fifth time in early May. More than 800 colleagues from all over Schibsted took part in either the Inspiration Day, with world-class speakers, or the Schibsted Hackday. This year we could finally meet physically in the different cities for the festival. The festival aims to bring colleagues from different brands and units together.

• Cyber Security Day is another event which has just been organized with lots of interesting topics and speakers. 
• Data Days
• AI Days and more.

Dominic Stengård and Lisa Marie Løvoll hosted the fifth Schibsted Product, Tech & UX Festival in May.

Forums and meeting places

We also build culture through a number of different forums across Schibsted. For instance we have a CTO Forum (Chief Technology Officers), a CPO Forum (Chief Product Officers) and a Data Security Forum. These forums are important meeting places for product & tech managers across Schibsted – and help us implement initiatives that will strengthen our joint culture. We also have an ambition to create internal communities of experts in different areas. So far we have established an AI community – and more are under way.

These are just a few examples of what is going on. We have many strong and very competent product & tech teams all across Schibsted. Interacting even more and sharing our knowledge with each other will make both each team and Schibsted as a whole a more attractive workplace for talents.

Thank you for your time.

Sven Størmer Thaulow
Chief Data and Technology Officer at Schibsted

Schibsted Connect is a mutual mentorship program where students are connected with Schibsted employees during a 7 month-long program. For the students, it’s a great opportunity to have a mentor who has a few years of experience in the work-life and for the employees at Schibsted, it allows for reflection and inspiration from a young talent.

Schibsted Connect 2021-2022 has just come to an end, and we have met one of the 65 Schibsted Connect couples.

Meet Michelle, the mentor buddy
Michelle Raye has worked in the Finance Transformation department in Schibsted for two years, where she works as a Business Process Analyst.

My main task is to analyze different processes within Finance and make any recommendations to improve the process and then implement the changes in our IT systems and functional processes within the business.

How did you hear about the program Schibsted Connect?
I joined the program because I wanted to explore more of what Schibsted has to offer to its employees and be more active in the Schibsted community. My workplace is important to me and I want to contribute where I am able. When I heard about the program through our intranet I was immediately intrigued and thought it would be fun to connect with young adults who are planning their next steps in their careers.

Can you describe some of the topics you and your student buddy have discussed?
My student buddy and I have talked about so many things and covered many topics. I feel we never had a dull moment during our Connect dates. A few of the topics we always circled back to was, I think, how you are always allowed to change your mind and that nothing is ‘written in stone’, the importance of being honest and humble at your workplace, and creating good relationships with those you work with is key because, at the end of the day, you are working with human beings with feelings. 

What kind of lessons learned and inspiration have you experienced during the program?
One of the greatest things I have learned through this program is to reflect on my past choices I have made throughout my career, and see where it has brought me today. I have never really thought that my experience would be helpful to anyone else but myself, but my student buddy reminded me how it is to be at a cross-road and trying to figure out these big questions about your career. It was really inspiring to hear about her progress and the choices she made. The program was a very humble and grounding experience.

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Meet Victoria, the student buddy
Michelle’s student buddy was Victoria Anthonsen, a 22-year-old Norwegian who currently lives in Copenhagen and has just handed in her Bachelor’s thesis at Copenhagen Business School.

Besides my studies, I work as a portfolio analyst for a company and I play football at CBS Sport. After this summer, I will start on my Master’s at CBS as well.

How come you joined Schibsted Connect?
It was last semester, when I exchanged to Hawaii, that I first saw the announcement for this program. I was at the university in a lecture scrolling on my computer, and then the Schibsted Connect program just came up. I had never heard of it before, but it seemed interesting, so I just applied imminently. Before that lecture was over, I had already sent my application!

Can you describe some of the areas you and your mentor buddy at Schibsted have discussed?
We have talked a lot about what opportunities I have as a student, apart from the typical “bachelor to master to job” path that is natural for many. I have also faced a number of choices in my early career, and my buddy has been an incredibly good mentor to have here, talking about her own experience from the past and giving helpful guidance.

Would you recommend other students to join the program and why?
Yes! It is very nice to have a buddy/mentor who has gone through the same thing as you as an insecure student! Tips and advice from a buddy can be beneficial and not to mention, you will expand your network as well. Apply today!?

A new application round opens at the beginning of September. Read more about Schibsted Connect

One of our current management trainees is Vilde from Skjetten, a curious 27-year-old. For her, the trainee program is about much more than professional development; it’s also about developing personally, having fun, making memories and relationships along the way. 

After graduating with a master’s degree in Economics and Business Administration from NHH, Vilde wanted to become a trainee, and her eyes were set on Schibsted; she had always been fascinated by how we empower people in their daily lives through our 60 + digital brands.

“Schibsted is a big, but still, highly innovative company that fosters positive synergies across its digital brands, which I found really exciting. I wanted to learn more about how Schibsted adapts to changes in external environments such as new technologies and increased competition from global actors. As a trainee, you are able to gain a broader understanding of this, and you get the opportunity to challenge yourself by taking on diverse roles across different industries. I was sold and I still am!” she says

The phone call
It’s no secret that the competition to land a trainee position at Schibsted is tough, so when the trainee manager called Vilde to let her know if she had gotten the position she was super excited.

“ I was out hiking in the mountains when I got the call and to be honest, the whole conversation was a bit blurry since my mind exploded in euphoria after hearing I got the job! I was so excited and full of energy, so the rest of the hike was a piece of cake,” she says

Four different placements across our Nordic brands
Vilde has so far been in two of four different placements. By being given different responsibilities and tasks across industries she has become better at solving complex problems and leading larger projects, she has no doubt that she has developed not only professionally but also personally.

“For my first position I got assigned to Schibsted Kyst in Stavanger as a project manager. Here, I completed a market research report and led a project in the ad market related to real estate. Currently in my second placement, I am in the strategy department of VG, working with a growth strategy and a project aimed at the young audience of VG,” she says

“I have experienced what it is like to lead an agile project with many project flows and stakeholders – both a lot of fun and challenging! The trainee program also contributes to personal development as you get useful insight about yourself. For instance, you learn about which tasks you are particularly passionate about, as well as how it is to be thrown into unfamiliar environments and new job tasks. This is exactly what makes it so great to be a management trainee here at Schibsted! You acquire a set of new skills and experiences that you can benefit from later in your career,” she says

Having fun and creating network is part of the journey
Professional development is not the only goal for our trainees. Having fun, making memories and friends along the way is also a big part of being a Schibsted trainee, and the cohesion among the Schibsted trainees is strong.

“We are a close group of friends that organizes many social activities outside work, such as different sports activities and “afterwork”. The trainees are also useful sparring partners where we share work experiences and learn from each other. This way, we gain an even greater understanding of Schibsted and all the activities that take place in different business areas,”

“I have had many fun experiences as a trainee, such as attending the Nordic Media Days in Bergen. Here, I met many interesting people from the Media industry and listened to several exciting lectures. For example, sports laundry in Qatar and the New York Times’ coverage of the Pegasus case. As a trainee, you meet many committed and inspiring people during the program. The inclusive Schibsted culture makes the threshold low for creating a network and reaching out to colleagues – either for a “coffee chat” or a game of table tennis,”she says 

A unique opportunity to kickstart your career
After her experience so far, Vilde is eager to recommend others to apply for the Schibsted trainee program.

“The Schibsted Management Trainee program is a unique opportunity to work with the most known brands in the Nordic countries. Through the different placements, you get to take on a variety of challenging and interesting opportunities, where you can learn and practice your academic skills in an open culture that is both inclusive and fun!”

 With placements across the Nordic countries, you also learn how business opportunities can be realized in foreign countries, cultures and markets. You get to be a part of a highly energized and a fun “trainee crew” that organizes many social activities and is eager to exchange knowledge.”, she says!

Learn more about our trainee program here

 

Besides being the editor of SvD Perfect Guide and one of Sweden’s most entertaining columnists, Hugo is also the host of our beloved Schibsted Talks podcast. With a curious mind, he always makes sure to get the answers we are all looking for. 

Hugo – you have been the host and doing the interviews in Schibsted Talks from the start – in January 2020. How did it all start?
– I hosted one of Svenska Dagbladet’s earlier podcasts, Min helg-podden, which had laid back, personal interviews with celebrities. Employer Branding reached out to me to discuss if we could transform the live event Schibsted talks into a podcast. The content would be more serious and important but have a similar listener-friendly and informal manner. 

How would you describe these two years and the development of the podcast?
–  Lustful. To me, learning new stuff is one of the great joys in life. And interviewing all these smart individuals from a broad range of Schibsted companies has taught me a lot. Needless to say, the pandemic made it harder to conduct the interviews, but I think we managed alright. And the last couple of months, we upped the number of interviews per episode, narrowed the angles and speeded up the tempo. I believe that improved the podcast a lot. 

Can you describe how the process behind an episode works?
-I meet the Employer Branding team on a-regular-basis to discuss potential topics and guests. Then, I try to come up with angles that could be interesting for the listeners. 

For someone who hasn’t listened to Schibsted Talks – how would you describe?
– 15 minutes of easy listening that hopefully give you some new learnings and insights – about Schibsted and the world as a whole. 

If you have to pick three favourite episodes – which ones would that be and why?
– I found the latest episode about the metaverse really interesting. Anders Grimstad does a great job explaining what the future might look like. Episode 43, where engineering manager Ioana Havsfrid talks about artificial stupidity, was fascinating. And episode 76, where Dan Ouchterony describes the deeper purpose of Schibsted’s investment, is great if you want to understand the soul of Schibsted. 

Tune in and listen to Schibsted Talks here

After finishing his law degree in Argentina, Mauro Avellaneda moved to Sweden to spend some time in a country where people don’t talk on public transportation. The move ended up reigniting his passion for tech, and after landing a job as a developer for Schibsted – he’s staying indefinitely.

Mauro’s plan was to stay for a year and then go back to Argentina to pursue a career in law, but after working at the electric scooter company Voi, his long neglected passion for tech was reignited. 

– I was always fond of computer games, but never considered studying programming or anything else in that field. When I started working for Voi, that passion returned with full force.

Developing as a developer and landing a job at Schibsted
After a year of studying with friends, Mauro started doing internships, because he wanted to check if what he had learned was actually useful, and to see how it felt working in the tech field. 

One day Mauro spoke to a friend who was working at the Schibsted-owned company Lendo. His friend asked Mauro if he could have a look at his repository, his projects, and the code he had written. After he had seen the code, he told Mauro that Lendo was looking for a developer at his level.

– That’s how I got in touch with the people at Lendo and Schibsted. I knew about Blocket, Aftonbladet and so on, but I had no idea how huge Schibsted actually is. Now I’m very interested in Schibsted as a whole – how it’s growing and developing. I’m also looking to collaborate with other companies in Schibsted, to offer my services and keep growing as a developer by trying my hand at new challenges, he says.

– One of the reasons I like working for Schibsted revealed itself to me on my very first day. When I walked into the office and became aware of the scope of the company – just how many different aspects of society the companies in Schibsted are involved in, was very exciting to see. It made me feel like I was part of something bigger.

Developing a branch from the ground up
Mauro was hired as front-end developer at Lendo. When he started, the Portugal branch was being built, and hadn’t gone live yet. The work had begun, but there was still a lot of ground to cover before the launch. Mauro was glad to be given the opportunity to focus his attention on that project, as it allowed him to be part of building something from the ground up.

– Being a part of building the new Portuguese branch of Lendo gave me the opportunity to understand the company as a whole. Now it’s live, and it’s a project I’m really proud of. Like a lot of Schibsted’s tech ventures, Lendo makes life easier for people. We enable people to make better and more effective decisions. Using Lendo can be compared to how you search for plane tickets these days, he says and elaborates: 

– You don’t search for tickets through a single airline, you use a comparison site. It’s similar to Prisjakt, another Schibsted company, in how it gives you the opportunity to compare your alternatives and make the best decision in terms of price. Only that with Lendo, you’re comparing loans, not prices for, say, robot vacuum cleaners. 

 

 

Finland’s largest online marketplace wasn’t built in a day: 

Hang Do Minh moved from Hungary to Finland to do her masters and ended up staying. Now, as Senior Android Developer at Schibsted, she is developing the app for Finland’s largest online marketplace, Tori. A task that has proven to be both challenging and rewarding.

Cold but gold
It’s mid march, and spring has yet to arrive in Finland. The ground outside Hang Do Minh’s home office window is still covered in snow. That doesn’t seem to bother the Schibsted developer much, though. 

– I’ve been living in Finland for the past eight years, and I really like it. After my masters I landed a job as an Android developer at Nordea, and in November I got a similar position at Schibsted. Now I’m working on developing the Android app for Tori. So I’m pretty new to Schibsted, but my experience of the company so far has been very promising. 

A warm Schibsted welcome
Hang got off to a good start at Schibsted. Her first week was filled to the brim with employee events, so she was quickly integrated into her team and got to know colleagues that she’s become good friends with. 

– I find the Finnish people to be very honest – I really appreciate that quality in them. And my colleagues at Schibsted are no exceptions.

– I really like the people I work with, the environment, and the ambience in the office overall. My team and my colleagues are all very nice. So my first impression that this would be a nice place to work, has been proven right. 

Getting the message across
Tori has become a big player in Finnish society, as the country’s biggest online marketplace. If you’re looking to buy something second hand, it’s the default choice for most people – and Tori has no plans to halt the growth. These days you can find pretty much anything there; from second hand jackets to rental cars and job advertisements. 

The past month Hang has been working to improve the Tori app, specifically the messaging function. That’s been an exciting challenge for her. 

– Back when Schibsted and Adevinta were a unit we used a different system. After the split, we had to develop our own. 

– This month I’ve been working a lot on the messaging feature, which is a really big and important part of the application, because of our plans to add transactionality. Messaging is the foundation for that, so it’s an important project.

The original system was developed by Blocket, the Swedish equivalent to Tori. Tori has kept some of the old features up until now, but the plan is to completely renew the app. It’s a huge task that inevitably involves what Hang calls small cosmetic issues. 

– We are troubleshooting and collaborating with our external partners to fix them. Soon enough the app will be functioning smoothly! The thing with troubleshooting, though, is that it also offers a lot of opportunities for learning. I’ve already learnt quite a lot through this job, and in the future I think there will be a lot of exciting opportunities as Tori continues to develop and expand.