Launchpad to a dynamic career

Every year, BDR Thermea welcomes a group of new young talent into its graduate programme. The programme allows graduates to learn, grow and develop in a dynamic culture that thrives on innovation. 

The graduate programme also enables valuable opportunities that can drive starter careers in new and exciting ways. This means participants gain valuable industry experience, and the company benefits from fresh perspectives.

Some 14 new graduates from eight different nationalities joined the 2022-2023 scheme, and set about developing solutions to real-life business challenges. The programme includes diverse individual project assignments that help candidates learn on the job and improve their skills. There is also a group assignment that develops teamwork and collaboration. 

Four of our graduates from different disciplines share some insights from the programme so far:

Marjorie Dorticos – Sustainability Engineer 

I’m based in the sustainability team as part of Group Quality, and am involved in several of our workstreams. My focus at the moment is on gaining insights into our environmental footprint. I deep dive into our waste streams per operating company (OpCo) to help develop our waste-reduction strategy. 

This is strongly linked to my group assignment which focuses on circularity – most specifically, on evaluating the circularity opportunities for BDR Thermea Group, and how these can be applied to reducing our environmental footprint in our value chain. This, and all the other projects I’ve been involved in, have been very interesting, challenging and motivating. 

The support team for the graduate programme is outstanding. Overall, the programme is a great opportunity for me to learn and continue to grow and develop as a professional. I can build on my strengths and take advantage of new opportunities. 

David Claasen – Graduate Product Management 

I work for the Commercial Solutions BDU, as part of the Product Management team. Like my graduate colleagues, I’m doing multiple personal assignments over the year, as well as our group assignment. My first personal assignment was about a division of sales and volumes for multiple commercial product categories.  

In terms of the group assignment, my teammates and I are working on a project that aims to increase the availability of printed circuit boards (PCBs) for BDR Thermea Group.

Through the programme, I’ve had the opportunity to work with many different departments within the organisation. I value the opportunity to learn from these employees – many from different cultural and organisational backgrounds.

Annabel Zhang – Graduate in Group Strategic Marketing

I have two roles in the programme: completing four personal assignments in Group Strategic Marketing and working with other graduates on the group assignment. The first one allows me to be part of the Strategic Marketing team, either through daily support or defined personal assignments. The second one is a real-life business project. I meet different stakeholders and understand how the company runs and is structured.

It feels like I’m part of a big family of graduates. We attend training sessions together, socialise, and solve business cases as one team. Given that we come from different academic backgrounds, we broaden our horizons by working together. 

Together with three graduates from IT, data science, and software engineering, I’m working on the group assignment to build a group-level sales and marketing dashboard. The goal is to track and improve efficiencies, and centralise sales and marketing reporting.

I think the graduate programme is a great way to understand and get used to a new company. When joining a new company, people can be easily overwhelmed by too much information and many stakeholders. The graduate programme helps smooth the discovery and learning phase. 

Florian Kincaid – Graduate Systems Engineer

My objective for the first graduate year is to design and implement a system configurator tool to help BDR Thermea Group size and sell entire heating and domestic hot-water systems for commercial purposes. 

Over the first three months of the graduate programme, we have all had an invaluable opportunity to learn about the future of renewable energy and heating technology in Europe and around the world. It’s clear to me that a sustainable future is a central value in all of BDR Thermea Group’s business activities, and I’m proud to have the opportunity to be part of building a better world. 

The most insightful aspect of the graduate programme so far has been the opportunity to travel and meet people from all over the company, to get different perspectives on similar aspects of BDR Thermea Group’s business, and see how certain elements are approached differently elsewhere – all to build a strong internal network.