Hey everyone!
My name is Tobias, and I am the Commercial Excellence Graduate from the 2021 batch of the Demant Graduate Programme. Currently, I am in midst of my second rotation, for which I have joined Oticon US as Business Analyst this May. In this blog post, I want to tell you a bit about some of my experiences and reflections after three of my six months here.
Great organization of the rotation
I was genuinely amazed how seamless the transfer and the organization of the rotation were. As I am not the fist Demant graduate to transfer to the US, there has already been a process in place for all the practicalities such as visa, flight, accommodation, and company car. A big thank you to Olga, our mobility specialist at Demant, who helped me at all the steps of the process and who was always on top of all the regulations and deadlines.
Demant’s US office is located in Somerset, New Jersey, which is approximately an hour outside of New York City. I am also staying in Somerset in a very cool furnished apartment which is part of a larger apartment complex (which even has a pool 😊). A lot of my neighbours are also expats and the other Demant graduates, which will go on rotation in the US, will also live there. And because I had to leave my beloved bike behind in Copenhagen, I fortunately got a car to get around! To be honest, I was a bit surprised how dependent you are on a car here in the US, if you live a bit outside of the city... On the bright side though, having a car makes it also very convenient to explore the region in my private time – from cities like New York and Philadelphia to the beautiful nature of Pennsylvania or New Jersey’s coast.
Responsibility from Day 1 and steep learning curve
At work, I am supporting the US Independent team, reporting to the VP of Sales Jim. My tasks mainly evolve around market and competitive analyses for the sales team as well as supporting the team with ad-hoc data analytics in the day-to-day business of a sales organization. I really appreciate the responsibility, visibility, and trust that I have received here from day one and the projects are interesting, diverse, but also challenging from times to times. One of the things I noticed is how warm the team has welcomed me, and the teamwork on the different projects to work through challenges. This really aligns with my experiences back in Denmark and the overall values of Demant that I got to know so far. I also really appreciate how the team, and especially Jim, are taking the time to nurture my professional and personal development, giving me feedback on what is going well, but also what on I can get better at, which should not be taken for granted. Overall, I can say that I have already learnt more about the US market and our customers than I expected. For example, one of my highlights was that I got the opportunity to travel to Colorado in May to visit customers at hearing aid clinics together with our Account Managers. Here, I got insights into the life of a salesperson, our customers (the hearing care professionals), our products, and some of the personal stories about how Oticon hearing aids can really change the lives of people to the better. Being in Colorado, I also had the chance to drive up to the Rocky Mountains, which was an unbelievable experience (see for yourself below! 😊).
NYC around the corner
Finally, one of my personal highlights is that I am living so close to both New York and Philadelphia. Therefore, traveling to the cities in the evenings after work or the weekends is very simple. I am amazed how diverse, exciting, and busy New York is. One of the things that I love the most is that there is such a diversity of cultures in the city. For example, you can find great local restaurants from all over the world in different parts of the city.
If you have any questions regarding the possibility to go on a rotation abroad as part of the Demant Graduate Programme – or the Demant programme in general – please feel free to reach out to me.
Tobias Drescher
todh@demant.com