Intro to the Graduate Program Manager
My name is Sofie, and I am the Global Graduate Program Manager at Novozymes. Working with the cool young talented people entering our global graduate program, and supporting their two-year development journey, is an absolute dream job for me.
I hold a MSc in Business Administration and Psychology from Copenhagen Business School and have been working in Novozymes since 2020, in our People & Organization department.
What is the story of the graduate program?
We have a long history of having graduate programs in Novozymes as we have had several local programs which have been running individually throughout the years. Especially our Finance graduate program goes way back. In the recent years, we have been developing a global graduate program that can hold all future Novozymes graduates across the whole organization. Purpose is to enable cross-organizational collaboration and to benefit from all the knowledge and competencies represented by the different areas of the business. We believe that being a global company, it just makes sense to have a global graduate program.
What changes have you made to the program to make it fit into a global context?
With the new global setup, we have partnered up with Harvard Business School Online, providing three different strategy courses, which gives the graduates a certificate of specialization in strategy. This is to support our aim of building strong strategy execution skills across the organization. On top, we have introduced several other new elements to the program, including global onboarding, a tailor-made mentoring program, coaching sessions, and cross-organizational peer-groups. Another key element in the program is the concept of co-creation as the graduates get to co-create their own learning journey in collaboration with their manager. This is to have space for individual preferences and aspirations, and make sure that our global program design still makes sense in a local context.
Why is it exciting to be a global graduate in Novozymes?
Being part of the global graduate program is exciting for many reasons. First, you get the flexibility of tailoring your own learning journey instead of having a pre-fixed rotation plan. The only pre-determined requirement is that your rotation plan includes at least one rotation outside your own organizational area, and one international rotation. That means you get to travel to one of our sites in another country (e.g., US, India, or Turkey) and work there for 6 months. This will give you a unique understanding of Novozymes’ business and organizational structure, as well as a strong network in the company. Furthermore, the offering of global peer-groups, mentoring, coaching, development dialogues, and the strategy training from Harvard Business School Online will strengthen your personal and professional development. Finally, you get to contribute to Novozymes’ purpose of finding biological answers for better lives in a growing world; a unique opportunity of working for a cause, not just a company.
With the new global setup, we have partnered up with Harvard Business School Online, providing three different strategy courses, which gives the graduates a certificate of specialization in strategy
What kind of attributes do you look for in the graduates that you hire?
As a graduate in Novozymes, it is important that you can adapt and rapidly learn in new environments. It’s also key that you have great people skills and can build and maintain networks and relations. As the world is everchanging, being able to deal with ambiguity and making positive use of the opportunities it presents, is also important. And finally, we are looking for people who accept and tackle demanding goals with enthusiasm combined with a curious, creative growth mindset.
