Immediate boarding for your career abroad!
The V.I.E. program allows young citizens of the E.U. countries (28 countries), aged 18 to 28, to be sent abroad on a professional mission of 6 to 24 months, aged between 18 and 28. For Saint-Gobain, it is a Junior Mobility program that allows us to detect young talents.
The Group offers a wide range of professional assignments in support functions (Finance, Purchasing, HR) as well as at the operational level (sales development, Marketing, logistics, R&D or Production) located in the country teams, in factories or in our research centers.
We recruit our VIEs according to the needs of the countries, missions and the final decision on the candidates is therefore left to the countries. We are happy to have VIEs from several countries in the European area and we are targeting a 20% non-French participation.
As the objective of the V.I.E. is pre-hiring, each V.I.E. benefits from an individualized follow-up from before his departure, then upon his arrival on site, and until the end of his contract.
The contract is punctuated by two key moments: an integration survey after two months on site and a VIE assessment/definition of the professional project 5 months before the end of the mission. This follow-up allows us to identify positions that may correspond to the professional expectations of our V.I.Es.
Each VIE can define a career plan for Saint-Gobain in another job area, in another country (under a local contract) or in another sector than those in which he or she has completed the assignment.
His or her mentor, as well as the Corporate and French HR teams, will support the definition and implementation of this project.
Since 2018, Saint-Gobain has invited its active and recently graduated VIEs to participate in a Saint-Gobain Group VIE Grand Prix.
This is an opportunity for young Talents to present their assignments to the Group's managers and to create important links for their future steps in the Group.
Saint-Gobain participates every year in the V.I.E. Forum organized by Business France.
This is an opportunity for us to meet candidates who are interested in the Group and who have targeted the assignments we offer.
These meetings at our stand allow us to select profiles, sometimes atypical, that can meet the specific needs of our activities around the world.
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Business France is the national agency for the internationalization of the French economy, which manages and develops the V.I.E. program (Volontariat International en Entreprise) under the supervision of the Ministry of Foreign Trade.
MEET Maylis
We met Maylis at our headquarters in Malvern, USA.
Maylis started her V.I.E at Saint-Gobain in the spring of 2020, in the middle of the Covid crisis. In the events communication department, the agendas were quickly modified. Maylis then decided to use the free time she had during the confinement and in the evening thanks to her home-office to create her blog dedicated to V.I.E.
She tells us her story at Saint-Gobain.
How long have you been a V.I.E. student at Saint-Gobain? What are your missions?
I have been on V.I.E. since February 2020 and my missions consisted of organizing Saint-Gobain's presence at trade shows throughout the United States and Canada which, with Covid, quickly came to a halt. I had to adapt by organizing virtual trade shows and helping the teams on other marketing projects as needed. Despite this, we are still working on preparing for future events and hope to be able to go there.
To which Saint-Gobain brand and team are you part?
I am based in Saint-Gobain Malvern, which is the Group's headquarters in the United States, and I work in the marketing department for the CertainTeed brand.
Was it difficult for you to adapt your missions with the arrival of Covid?
Having to slightly modify my missions is an experience for me because going digital means training for another job. I really appreciate it but I miss the trade shows and the face-to-face events. The experience remains positive because I learned new things.
Precisely, to arrive at this V.I.E, what training did you follow before?
I have a BTS in communication, a professional degree in event management - Commercial Management of Events - with a one-year work-study program with a Parisian organizer of trade shows and seminars as a sales representative. Then, I did a 2-year Master's degree in Event Engineering and Management, again in a work-study program, but this time in a large banking group as an internal event communication manager.
So you could have taken a permanent contract at the end of your work-study program. What made you decide to continue with a V.I.E. experience?
I wanted to go abroad to add an international background to my experience. I also didn't necessarily see myself in a permanent contract, I thought I was too young and didn't necessarily find the job offers I saw adapted to my profile. I could not find anything that met my criteria.
And you were already fluent in English?
Yes, but rather in my personal hobbies (movies, series, books, ...) and my travels, but not at all in a professional way.
Can you tell us about the VIE at Saint-Gobain? How did you find it?
I found it on the Saint-Gobain career site. I saw it in July during one of my lunch breaks at work and I wanted to apply the next night but I couldn't find it anymore. I thought to myself, that's it, they found someone, too late. It was a dream job for me. I was so disappointed.
And I saw it reappear on September 2, the day of my birthday. So I quickly applied and a fortnight later, the US called me for an interview. First I had an interview with the HR director, then an interview with my current director, and finally everything went smoothly with HR France. But apparently, I had the process backwards because normally at Saint-Gobain, it is first the interview with France and then with the country of the V.I.E.
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Before our interview, you told me that you used the free time you had during confinement and in the evenings thanks to your home-office to create a blog dedicated to V.I.E. Can you tell us more about it? How did you get the idea for the blog? What do you talk about and why?
This goes back to my search for a V.I.E. When I was looking for information, I didn't find much except for institutional information from Business France. I found a few testimonials, but I lacked some substance and especially information on how to search.
Since it took me more than nine months to find my V.I.E., I had time to explore many leads that I compiled in order to help others. And at the very beginning of the confinement, when all the event activity stopped all of a sudden, I needed to think about something else and I naturally started writing, and my little notes became articles, and my blog was quickly born. I write about my research and give advice, my experience as a V.I.E. in the United States, but also my daily life experience as a student abroad.
In parallel, I propose a free downloadable ebook with lots of tips and examples of companies regularly offering V.I.E.
Maylis used the free time she had during confinement and in the evenings thanks to home-office to create her blog dedicated to V.I.E : www.travelwithmaylis.com.
On her blog, she not only gives advice on how to find a V.I.E. but also relates her experience as a V.I.E. in the United States at Saint-Gobain.
She has also created an ebook in which she gives examples of companies that regularly offer V.I.E.
DISCOVER IN vidEo,
OTHER TESTIMONIALS FROM V.I.E EMPLOYEES AT Saint-Gobain