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“Schibsted has found the balance between work and having fun”

I am Eleonora, and I am currently finishing my master’s thesis in Computer Science at KTH in Stockholm while working at Schibsted as a Data Engineer. During my first year of the master’s, I enjoyed taking classes focusing on the backend. Hence, I found the summer internship at Schibsted to be the perfect opportunity to explore further and gain more valuable experience.

During the summer of 2021 I worked as a Data Engineering Intern at Schibsted. It has not only been insightful and challenging but also fun! Our team project revolved around data aggregation and the presentation of insightful statistics. We got to play around with both the backend and the frontend, which made the internship even more interesting. Our fantastic four mentors helped us and guided us in the right direction. We could be transparent with them about our failures but also our successes.

What I have learned from my internship
This internship has helped me become a better programmer. I worked with languages (Scala and TypeScript), tools and libraries that I had no or little knowledge about. However, with teamwork and the right mindset, anything can be achieved. I worked with two other interns, so I have learned how to share tasks and communicate ideas with others. Our mentors pushed us to take ownership of our product and become more independent! They also held small workshops, taught us the basics of programming languages, and provided us with constructive feedback on our work, which I find invaluable when trying to get better at something.

The culture at Schibsted
I found the people and culture at Schibsted to be open, professional, and open-minded. There were many events scheduled during the weeks, one of my favourites was the music quiz! One can say that Schibsted has found the balance between work and having fun. The colleagues I interacted with were very passionate about their projects and were more than happy to share their knowledge!

A piece of advice
Before an internship, I would suggest finding out what you will be working on and what tools or libraries you will use, and do some research beforehand. This can make the first weeks go smoother and less stressful!

? Apply for a summer internship at Schibsted ?

From Bahrain to Oslo – “I applied and gave it a shot”

From Bahrain to India, to Singapore, and finally Oslo – Clayton Don Corda has found his place. He works as a Talent Acquisition Partner at Schibsted and has been working with recruitment, employer branding and HR for the last 14 years.

He is a valued and appreciated colleague among his peers and has had a quite unique journey to where he is now. But why Oslo? What’s the biggest cultural difference? And what are his secret tips for building your personal brand on LinkedIn?

Hi Clayton, please tell us about your background
I am an Indian who was born in Bahrain in the Middle East, then grew up and did my schooling in Mumbai, India. I moved to Singapore for my master’s, and worked there for 14 years before making my move to Oslo, Norway earlier this year.

How did you end up in Norway and in Schibsted specifically? Working for a German company for the last 7 years, I have had multiple opportunities to visit and work in Germany and that grew my interest in working in Europe.

As my Sister has been living in Norway for 4 years, it was one of the options I considered to be close to family and I happened to reconnect with a friend working at Schibsted and saw that they were hiring for a TA Partner, so I applied and gave it a shot.

What’s the biggest cultural difference from your previous residence?
For me, the biggest cultural difference was the work-life balance. People are focused when it comes to working but after work hours people don’t message or email you as compared to my previous residence.

From a personal perspective, I think learning the language would help to integrate a lot easier although English is widely spoken here, and learning the language will help you understand the nuance and culture better as compared to where I lived previously.

Clayton and some of his team members in the Talent Acquisition Team.

So you work as a Talent Acquisition Partner – can you describe your role and scope?
As a Talent Acquisition Partner, we partner with business leaders to attract the best talent out there in the market.

In my case, I support the Data & Tech area. We engage and advise hiring managers on their application and together we try to identify the best talent for their teams.

You work a lot with personal branding, especially on LinkedIn. Why is that important?
People follow People. I think I have overused this sentence now, but I think it’s really important to put yourself out there from a personal branding perspective, as people like to follow personal journeys and take inspiration from that. It could probably both help you land a new job and from a company perspective, it also allows people and talents to see the culture the company has.

Can you share your best tips when it comes to starting, and build, your presence on LinkedIn?

Make sure you have a complete and updated LinkedIn profile, whether it is a basic or premium one.
Post consistently. Don’t care too much about the likes on your posts, while it is important for engagement, you will create an audience sooner or later.
Talk about your area of expertise, share your experiences and personal journey that people can relate to.
Connect and engage by commenting or liking posts that you feel are relevant to you and help build your network.

Strong and agile leadership is the backbone of Schibsted

What makes a great leader? Depending on who you are asking, the answer might differ. According to Christoffer Bjäreborn, Director of Leadership Development at Schibsted, there is no universal mould for leadership. To reach success, a leader must simply be equally aware of their team’s specific needs, as of the bigger company vision forward.

With great leadership comes great responsibility. The difference between a good and a great leader can make an astounding difference for personal and professional development within a team and for the company as a whole. That is why Christoffer Bjäreborn, Director of Leadership Development, and his team works continuously to develop and strengthen Schibsted leaders in their work.

“We have a wide spectrum of companies and company cultures within Schibsted. Similar for all is that we believe in and want to develop all the talents that work here. We will reach that with the help of great leaders,” he says.

The four pillars

Since 2016, the Leadership Development team has worked along the lines of a model called ‘Pace’. The model consists of four pillars; people driven, agile, collaboration and entrepreneurship, which are all qualities that help define a Schibsted leader. These four are further broken down into subcategories and behaviours that concretize how different leaders can work successfully within their own teams and on an individual employee level.

“We went out and asked several leaders within the organisation two questions. What does the current leadership look like, and what should it look like in the future? The answers we gathered helped put ‘Pace’ together. We are also currently investigating how we can collect and align results from our employee surveys with the development of our leadership courses,” Christoffer says.

A shift in demands and an exciting future

With a younger generation entering the job market, and with a pandemic behind us, the needs from and values of a leader have shifted in some teams. Employees drift more towards an everyday work life with more freedom under responsibility, which also demands the leadership shifting to follow.

“Depending on the employee and the team, different leadership styles are necessary. What our talents expect is individual, which puts demands on the leaders. Great leaders do not work from a generic point of view, they see each individual,” Christoffer says.

What the future holds for Schibsted leadership development is yet to be determined. But for Christoffer Bjäreborn, the journey and work he puts in together with his team is both exciting and foundational.

“I have been at Schibsted for 24 years, working at different positions within different teams. Where I am now, I feel that I truly make a difference. The people working here are great, and to help them develop and be the best they can is truly inspiring and motivating,” he says.

“We give the diverse voices of Schibsted a platform”

At Schibsted, we believe in empowering all kinds of people, leaving no human behind. That includes making sure all of our employees are comfortable bringing their whole selves to work.

In an effort to be the best workplace to be you, we have employee resource groups (ERG) to contribute to our culture of belonging. The first group is one for the LGBTQ+ community and allies, who can help to amplify unheard voices, call out barriers and biases that can inhibit progress and act as role models in their commitment to diversity, inclusion and belonging. This very important group is spearheaded by Aaron Kroon, who will help make sure everyone working at Schibsted can express their individuality and share experiences while contributing to an inclusive work environment.

Can you describe the LGBTQ+ community at Schibsted?
We are a group of people from different parts of the organisation who will help ensure everyone working at Schibsted can express their individuality and share experiences while contributing to an inclusive work environment.

We invite our organisation to conversations about what diversity means for them, meaning we’ll make sure to give the diverse voices of Schibsted a platform. Also, as a group, we are diverse and thereby hope to act as role models for the rest of the organisation when it comes to showing the power of diversity in business.

Why are you engaged in the LGBTQ+ community?
To me, it’s about common sense. The main reason why I love to be a leader is that I know I have the opportunity to create change, and I don’t take that lightly. The LGBTQ+ community stands for tolerance, bravery and kindness; to me, those are the cornerstones of a superb work environment.

Looking ahead, what are the most important things for the ERG group for the LGBTQ+ community at Schibsted?
Since we are Schibsteds’ first ERG group we need to set some ground rules and establish how an ERG should ideally function. For this we should have activities and events planned round the year so that our engagement and investment do not feel like a one-off to people, because it’s not. The activities can be as simple as an article, internal and external, or the ones that are a bit more complex like a panel discussion. Schibsted did for example different initiatives this summer, one was local Pride parades in Cracow, Gdańsk, Helsinki, Stockholm, Copenhagen and more.

Another priority task is the engagement of allies. An ally is someone who uses their own privilege and position to push progress for those who don’t share the same privilege. Including allies will be critical and really important in supporting the ERG. By communicating that the ERG is open to allies, we’ll expand the reach of the group, and the more people we’ll get onboard, the more power we’ll have to accomplish change.

What is your advice for a new job seeker who wants to ensure that the company they are applying for works with inclusion and diversity?
Be brave and turn the recruitment process around. Scrutinise the organisational culture. Interview your potential new boss the same way they interview you. Research as much as you can about the DIB strategy and what it means to them on a personal and professional level and look up the mission, vision, and culture statement. Review the company’s website and LinkedIn. Ask around – they will ask for your references so you should ask for theirs.

Grow with us

Regardless of how you prefer to learn, we strive to be enablers in our employee’s growth aspirations. The reward of carefully tending to, nurturing and cultivating this growth is making sure everyone at Schibsted is in full bloom. We believe that our employees take the biggest development leaps when learning is integrated into their day-to-day work tasks.

Trainings and programs

As an employee at Schibsted, you are the owner and driver of your development, but we of course support you with training and programs to improve your professional skills and personal development. A selection of learning opportunities:

Choose a training from a variety of topics such as productivity, communication and facilitation
As a Schibsted employee, you can apply for the Schibsted Future Advisory Board and form our future together with the Executive Management team.
Grow personally and professionally by participating in Schibsted Mentoring Program

Possibilities across Schibsted

Apart from developing on the job, a career in Schibsted means possibilities to move across our different brands. We have a variety of professions and nationalities, spread in many different countries – you decide how far you want to go!

Develop through feedback

Who doesn’t like a thumbs up, a few words of encouragement and some recognition of their effort? Give Kudos to a colleague for great collaboration and ask for feedback after a project – we encourage a healthy feedback culture that creates an open mindset and a will to keep developing.

“We need to put learning at the top of the agenda”

Anna Zlatkovic works as Head of Learning & Development at Schibsted and for her, there is no doubt that learning needs to be at the top of the agenda for a company to stay competitive.

Why do you think it’s important for a company like Schibsted to have a learning culture?
The ever changing world demands that we constantly improve our products and services faster than our competitors. Can an organization improve without first learning something new? I don’t think so. Continuous improvement requires a commitment to learning, whether it’s about solving a problem, introducing a new or improved product, or reengineering a process. In the absence of learning, companies and people simply repeat old ways. Historically we have focused mainly on upskilling, helping employees build skills and perform well in their existing roles. Today we see that a large number of people will need to learn new skills to remain employable, so called reskilling, as the market changes so rapidly.

In order for Schibsted to attract and retain talents, we need to give our employees the possibilities to learn and grow. We believe that our ability to learn, and translate the learning into action rapidly, is an ultimate competitive advantage. Becoming a learning organisation is a strategic choice to create a company that fosters knowledge sharing, growth mindset, resilience and innovation. To make this happen we need to put learning at the top of the agenda.

Click here to read the full interview with Anna.

Celebrating pride in Schibsted!

Diversity, inclusion and belonging are central to Schibsted’s growth, purpose and impact. In a company with over 5000 employees, we have all kinds of people and each and everyone has a unique background, experience and knowledge in their suitcase. By making sure everyone feels included, proud and safe enough to be themselves at work, we ensure that we as a company continue to find new ways of thinking, learning and becoming better.

No matter what pronouns you prefer or who you love, we want to be a company that cheers you on to be yourself. Therefore, we believe that celebrating Pride Month is a good way to promote awareness and inclusion in the company – we want no humans to be left behind.

“We want to ensure everyone feels welcome, that diverse perspectives and ideas are embraced, and that we deliver the products and services that empower ALL kinds of stakeholders in their daily lives. By focusing on Pride and LGBTQ+ in Schibsted, we build knowledge, allyship and we aim to say, we SEE you. And we see beyond what our eyes see. We truly see you! And we love and embrace what we see, in our products and organization,” says Sumeet Singh Patpatia, Head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at Schibsted.

Schibsted Pride celebrations
This year, we created a Pride project group consisting of members with different perspectives, from our different geographies in Schibsted. Together we are inviting all colleagues to a collective pride celebration during June. We will decorate our offices with colors, discuss and learn. And all our colleagues are invited to participate during the pride parades where our offices are located, an invitation to walk and celebrate together.

On June 21, all of Schibsted is invited to a common Pride celebration. We meet in our pride decorated offices where our monthly All Hands is dedicated to explore the beauty and importance of diversity, inclusion and belonging. It will be led by our head of Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging and Schibsted employees are invited to present their perspectives and stories.

“These events are not only an inspiring celebration of difference but also a declaration of true support. Even more, because our goal is to empower LGBTQ+ individuals to reclaim the rights and freedoms they are denied, and the public space they are often excluded from. We stand for the values we truly believe in. Be proud of who you are, ’Cause you were born this way, baby!” says Paweł Szonecki, Project Manager at Pride Project Group from Schibsted Tech Polska.

In every city where our offices are located you will see us march and wave our schibsted pride flags proudly! We hope that you also take the opportunity to participate in this unique celebration of love, friendship, and mutual support!

If you want to know more about how we work with diversity and belonging read more here.

From trainee to Product Manager – a boomerang saga

In a world where you are free to choose your own path, some find themselves circling back to the same place over and over. Senior Product Manager Kristin Juland Møller is back at Schibsted a third time, and the reason why is crystal clear:

– The opportunities to develop here are endless if you want them to be, she says.
It all started in Bergen, Norway back in the early 00’s. After graduating from business school, Kristin Juland Møller was unsure about where her future was going to take her. Until she crossed paths with another student who told her about his experiences at the Schibsted Trainee Program.

“I knew from then on that Schibsted was the place for me. I only sent out one application after my degree, and that was for the Schibsted Trainee Program. It just had to happen, and it did!” she says.

Opened up many doors
A handful of students made the cut for the two year long program that started in 2001, and though they all came from different backgrounds, they had one strong trait in common: they were all very social and outgoing people. During the two years that followed, the trainees all spent six months working at four different companies within Schibsted. For Kristin Juland Møller that included Scandinavian Online (sol.no), the mobile company Inpoc and two different placements at Aftenposten.

“The Trainee Program opened up so many doors for me. It was crucial for the rest of my career. By getting to work closely with the top management not only in the daughter companies we worked for, but also being exposed for the group management during the programme, I got to know Schibsted as a whole. As an entity. In addition, we got to build an amazing network of contacts. You can say I was raised within Schibsted and saw how all underlying companies were connected,” she says.

New initiatives formed an exciting future
When the program ended, Kristin Juland Møller decided to explore the world by travelling and moving abroad. She met the love of her life and left Schibsted for London in 2003, but returned to Aftenposten after a few years as Vice President of Product and Marketing. Hungry for development, and wanting to be more operational, she got the responsibility to build the new area “Schibsted Way of Customer Sales”. The following year she added LEAN to her toolbox before moving abroad again in 2013 to work for a startup while living in the U.S. Heading back to Norway in 2016, the door was open for her in Schibsted, and she happily returned to VG, working with user payment.

Back where it all began
Before returning to Schibsted for the third time last year, Kristin Juland Møller seized an opportunity in the public sector in 2017, where a small team was building a new initiative to digitalize the Municipality of Oslo. But when another new initiative was in the making, the reason to come back to Schibsted was better than ever. According to Kristin Juland Møller, this is the most exciting journey so far: The Schibsted Ecom team’s mandate is to accelerate the green shift in ecommerce.

“I have kept coming back for the culture. The people at Schibsted are talented, nimble yay-sayers and the possibilities to grow and develop within the group are endless if you show interest and lean in. I am very happy I applied for the Trainee Program. It got me into working with driven people who want to empower each other and make an impact,” she says.

Meet the Hackday winners: “AARGH!#$11” & “The Sustainable Shopper”

We are so excited that we could connect the product, tech and UX family in Schibsted across five different countries for three magical festival days last week.

During the PTX festival we have one full day of inspiration injection from both internal and external speakers, and then we get into nerd mode and work on dream projects, solve specific problems and come up with many new ideas in our legendary Hackday!

There are hundreds of Hackdayians, all with brilliant ideas and creative minds, unique talents and skills. And, we take a lot of pride in forming teams and collaborations across Schibsted. This time we had over 60 teams participating in what is actually the 28th edition of Hackday! The festival ends with an entertaining demo session, where the hacks and products are presented – and we are all blown away by the amazing projects. The audience get to cast their votes on their favourite hacks in these categories:

– Most useful hack
– Most creative hack
– Most entertaining presentation

All teams are encouraged to step out of their comfort zone, be fearless, and unleash their creativity. Let’s meet two of the teams that certainly managed to do so!

Team “The Sustainable Shopper” with Jesper Lund, Vincente Klehr, Christina Lock Fuglsang, Martin Plok Svenningsen

Congratulations on winning the most useful hack! Can you tell us briefly what your idea “The Sustainable Shopper” is all about?
Our idea for The Sustainable Shopper is to show people second-hand options when shopping online: helping them make a more sustainable choice, save them money and generate more traffic towards our Nordic marketplaces.

Can we expect the hack to be realised in the near future?-
Time will tell. We have a lot of exciting stuff going on in Schibsted and DBA.dk (our Danish marketplace) right now, but this concept fits well in line with our strategic plans and ideas for the future.

What can we expect from your team next time?
All the positive feedback we received for this project has sparked fires and generated new ideas for the next Schibsted PTX festival. We won’t reveal much now, but we’ll see you there!

What did you think of the PTX festival?
The Schibsted PTX festival has been great! It’s a great way to get inspired and creative in ways that might be outside of your daily work life and plans. Being in a company of 1400 tech people across five different countries, it’s a nice way to meet new colleagues and network.

What is the best thing about Hackday?
In our post-covid world, getting together physically, networking, being creative, and having fun is the best thing about Hackday. We’ll be there again next time, for sure!

Tune in to our podcast Schibsted talks to learn more about our PTX festival

Well, that was the team who had the most useful hack! Let’s move on to the next team, who managed to win not only one but two prizes for being creative and entertaining, meet AARGH!#$11!

Team “AARGH!#$11” with Erik Fryklund, Henrik Engström and Karthik Narla

Congratulations on winning both the most creative hack and the most entertaining presentation, wow! Tell us, what is the “AARGH!#$11” project all about?
Because we did not get the money needed to build our own space shuttle, we had to come up with a new plan for Hackday. That did not go our way. We tried to get inspiration by sharing high res videos of cats from our computer to the conference screen. It was so laggy! So we decided to fix the screen sharing. We figured that we could build our own screen-sharing service with high-resolution quality without lag and latency issues.

Can we expect the hack to be realised in the near future?
We’ve started discussions with the video conference team to see if and how the hack could fit into the technical landscape that exists. Most likely, there are more challenges that have to be solved, but we hope to find some time during the summer to continue fiddling.

What can we expect from your team next time?
We had a really great and expensive idea that required a bit more budget than we managed to find two weeks before Hackday. Hopefully, we can manage to get the funds till next time!

What did you think of the PTX festival?
It’s so important with events that encourage team building. We are thankful that Schibsted invests in events like these!

What is the best thing about Hackday?
Hackday – is definitely the best thing since sliced bread!

If you want to participate in our next festival, why don’t you check out our career opportunities here. Join the Schibsted Product, Tech & UX family!

Unexpected opportunity became sustainable success story

There are many ways to grow in Schibsted and sometimes an unexpected opportunity can lead to a career change. This is what happened for Kari Eline Strandjord, Sustainability Manager at Schibsted.

Coming from a broad background filled with both music, programming, product development and building a start-up, Kari Eline Strandjord joined Schibsted back in 2019 as a software engineer. For many years prior, sustainability had become a passion of hers and through the large impact Schibsted as a Nordic family of digital consumer brands has, Kari Eline Strandjord saw her new position as a way forward in making an important impact on both society and the environment.

– I wanted to work with something that has an impact. News media is a very important part of society and I wanted to help develop our digital products in-house, delivering world class journalism, she says.

Unexpected opportunity
Two years down the road, in January 2022, a vacancy opened up in the Sustainability team due to a colleague going on parental leave. Kari Eline Strandjord had just taken part of the yearly Sustainability Changemaker Program in Schibsted and was offered the position as Sustainability Manager at the end of the program.

– I have for a long time wanted to work in the interface of tech and sustainability, and when this role was offered to me I was very excited. To have an environmental perspective is fundamental, and combating the climate crisis is one of the largest challenges of humanity. Schibsted with our digital products and services really has the opportunity to empower people in this transition, Kari Eline Strandjord says.

Creating a strong foundation
Since then Kari Eline Strandjord and the sustainability team have been looking into many different ways for Schibsted to become more sustainable. One of the most important tasks is to see where the different products and services can have the highest impact on society and the environment.

– There are still a lot of unknowns in the field of quantifying societal and environmental impact. In Schibsted we try to take a data-driven and collaborative approach to create more insightful actions. A simple example can be that using a laptop to read our newspapers takes up far more energy than using our smartphone apps, which means that a mobile first methodology is also better for the environment. To build our actions on data is key to knowing if we make a real impact, Kari Eline Strandjord says.

Full disclosure for a better future
To help both end users and co-workers understand Schibsted’s environmental impact, transparency is key. A yearly sustainability report is released, showing hard numbers and clear facts on what is being done for the environment and society and what the ambitions and targets are going forward.

– During the four months I have worked in the Sustainability team I have learned a lot about what we already do and where we want to go. I was lucky to have the opportunity to contribute to this year’s sustainability report. This work really makes me proud of how transparent we are on our impact on society and the environment, making it easily accessible for everyone. I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with these topics, Kari Eline Strandjord says.

The key to corporate success lies in diversity and belonging

Diversity. A powerful word with a lot of impact behind it – if used correctly. Schibsted is now redefining what diversity really means in the corporate world. And on the frontline to find new talents and take out the full potential in existing talents stands Head of Diversity, Inclusive and Belonging Sumeet Singh Patpatia.

For Schibsted, working with diversity started with the insight that a change in mindset needed to happen from the top. The first goal on the diversity journey was to even out the gender distribution within top management. By reaching that goal, and creating a strong internal ambition to become leading in diversity work, the change is now trickling down from top three management levels to all underlying companies.

“Schibsted is ambitious regarding diversity, inclusion and belonging. It is rationally anchored throughout the organisation, which is quite uncommon. We aim to put a lot of effort in being both inclusive and making people feel they belong. To include means inviting someone to sit by the table, but to make them belong means actually hearing what they have to say. That is how we aim to unlock that valuable potential in all talents and make all thrive,” Sumeet says.

More than the CV
Schibsted aims to be a company where every employee can be themself and see their unique story as a strength. Norwegian newspaper VG opened up a recruitment process for a journalist where it was not a requirement to have editorial background. VGs need is to build diversity competence. Thus, finding someone with this competence is valuable. The journalistic background was less important because how to write an article can be taught.

“The CV only says that much about a person. To find the greatest talents we have to go beyond that and see strengths that come from other experiences than work. It is important to extend the span in each team with perspectives, backgrounds, languages – verbal and non-verbal, abilities, generations etc. By mirroring what society looks like, we create strong teams and make our products more relevant because we understand the customer needs better,” Sumeet says.

Diversity is default
To make sure Schibsted is keeping up on the diversity work, Sumeet Singh Patpatia and his team run studies and evaluations cross-company.

“We have to understand our maturity and what we already have done to be able to take action forward. We want diversity to be the default, and Schibsted is the right place for exactly that,” Sumeet says.

Sumeet’s three simple tips to a more inclusive workplace:
1. Hack the pipeline: if you can´t find the talents, see the potential and develop the talents.
2. Be curious and learn more from other perspectives.
3. Rewire processes to have as little room as possible for people biases