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Corporate Profile

A real job?

Choosing the right job isn’t ever going to be easy. Sometimes, it can seem a bit unreal – what is a company really like, under the glossy publicity? How will I fit in? Will work be fun and stimulating, or a boring grind? Will I have the chance to develop my skills and add new ones? And will I get the chance to shine?

At Christian Salvesen we’ve successfully recruited the right graduates into the right jobs for many years. In this part of our website we aim to provide you with a realistic picture of what it is like to work for us. We want you to join us because of who we really are – not because of a glamorised image. And, during our recruitment process, you’ll have plenty of chances to meet our people and test the reality of our company.

One difference at Christian Salvesen is that as a graduate trainee you don’t start with the company hermetically sealed from day-to-day reality. You do join our training scheme, and you’ll learn a lot on it quickly. But you’ll be doing a real job, hands-on in a real team like the rest of us, with a real task of renewing Britain and continental Europe’s supplies every single day.

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Where are we going?

Our ambition is that over the next few years, by growing organically and through acquisition, we will become a fully integrated provider of supply chain solutions right across Europe, guaranteeing a consistent, outstanding service across our markets, delivered through state of the art IT systems.

To do that we need the right people: fully committed, highly motivated and innovative, their creative force liberated by development and performance linked incentives – because customers now expect us to offer intelligent ways to add value.

But it isn’t just unbridled ambition here. We want to deal fairly, with our customers, our people, and our environments. We are committed to adding value through innovation, to seeing the world through customers eyes, to recognising that all of us can make a difference, to meaning what we say, to respecting and valuing each other – and to working hard to reduce the impact on the environment.

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What kind of graduate is going to succeed?

Our successful managers have come from a variety of backgrounds. So we tend not to stick too rigidly to accepting applications from transport or supply chain graduates only. In fact if your studies have been more generally focussed around business or commence, perhaps with elements of logistics, transport or distribution included, then you will certainly have some of the requirements we are looking for. If you are a graduate from another discipline, then why not try to convince us?

What’s important is your feel for the business, and your will to apply yourself wholeheartedly to our business. You’ll need common sense and judgement combined with people management skills and a lot of energy.

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So what’s in it for me?

Hard work. Over a period of two years you will see every side of the business. But you will be working with real teams on real jobs. You’ll be able to show your mettle: in fact you’ll have to. But there are rewards: good salaries, good people to work with, and a good job to be done. And, for the right candidate good prospects for a company whose growth is accelerating.

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How will I be trained?

Your training will be individually tailored, to give you the maximum amount of challenge – you could be in charge of a group of employees one month or controlling a complex computer system the next. You’ll get professional accreditations. And you’ll attend a range of residential training courses to help you quickly develop the communication, influencing and people management skills you’ll need.

In addition you will be assigned your own individual mentor. Your mentor will not be your manager, but he or she will be a high calibre individual who will, within a protected relationship, act as a catalyst to your development by giving advice and guidance and access to a whole range of resources and knowledge

Around two years into your training, you’ll know which area of Christian Salvesen suits you best. Subject to the needs of the business we’ll try and assign you there –– though you’ll still need to be prepared to travel (and be flexible) to make the most of the other opportunities that are opening up all the time.

And your training will continue as you progress, to give you very relevant career development skills.

If you’re successfully building our business, then we’ll make sure you are well recognised and rewarded.

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Where will I work?

Christian Salvesen is based everywhere in the UK, and across a lot of mainland Europe. You could be too: because we want you to experience a lot of new and different working environments, in a lot of different roles. So for your first two or so years, you’ll need to be prepare to move every six or so months: of course we will help you with relocation. We cannot stress enough the geographical mobility required during your early years.

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Mainland Europe?

We continue to expand in mainland Europe by investment, acquisition and joint venture. Good knowledge of another European language in addition to English will give you a real advantage.

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When will I work?

We do business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. So you should be aware that you’ll have to do some shift work. But late nights and night shifts aren’t all bad: as one of our recent graduates said: “ You find the benefit of being able to make appointments and shop whilst most people are at work – and you never meet the rush hour!”

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Are you still eager to apply for our Management Training Programme?

You can e-mail a copy of your CV to us by clicking on the e-mail address below:

graduate.recruitment@salvesen.com

Or of you prefer you can send it to the following address:

Graduate Recruitment
Christian Salvesen PLC
500 Pavilion Drive,
Brackmills,
Northampton NN4 7YJ

Please ensure that your CV and covering letter/note clearly indicate the following:

• Your date and place of birth
• Your date of graduation
• Details of term time and permanent addresses, your availability at each and the relevant telephone numbers
• Details of any institute membership/special skills (e.g. foreign language proficiency etc.)
• What factors have influenced you in your choice of career?
• Which parts of your employment experience have been most useful and why?

Remember that during the recruitment process all successful applicants will be required to produce proof of employability eg. EU passport, UK birth certificate, current work permit etc.

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