Eszter is an example of the many career opportunities and personal development potential at Nalco. She speaks multiple languages fluently, she is customer focussed, enthusiastic and talented and has grown from a representative to manager over the past 5 years. Nalco is full of opportunity. Read on to see why!

What have you been doing before joining Nalco?

I have a degree in economics and graduated at the Budapest Business School at the faculty of tourism and hotel management, German being my special language. I started my career at an information technology and telecommunications firm in Budapest as an IT Helpdesk specialist supporting German clients. I accepted an offer to work for Nalco in early 2006.

Why did you choose Nalco, how did your Nalco-journey start?

At my former workplace I had the opportunity to work together with Nalco employees, through whom I got the impression that Nalco values and highly regards people who work for them, always keeping in mind that the company's success depends on the satisfaction and motivation of their employees. It came to my attention, that Nalco Europe is establishing a new Shared Service Centre in Budapest, therefore I applied and joined the company as a Key Account Support Representative for the German market. A few months after I had the opportunity to take a Team Leader role in the same group, and within a year I became Supervisor of the Key Account Support Team, managing a group of 10 Customer Service Representatives.

What were your responsibilities at this point? Did it have any influence on the team and yourself that you were "one of them"?

I spent three years in that role, being responsible for the smooth daily operation of the team, and ensuring the highest level of order support for Nalco strategic customers throughout the EMEA region. After two years I had my responsibility expanded to a further area which was a group being in charge of keeping daily contact with Nalco suppliers and ensuring successful deliveries directly from supplier companies to Nalco end customers. As I grew in my career from representative to a member of the leadership team, my technical experience and knowledge of the daily work helped me becoming an efficient and trustable leader, who always approaches employees and colleagues as partners in achieving success.

How would you summarise a typical day of yours in your current role?

I have been managing the Order Support Group of Nalco Europe since July 2009. I would say there are no real typical days. Even if sometimes I think one of the days starts as a usual one, there is something coming into it that makes it challenging, sometimes hard, but other times fun, or exhausting and finally successful. My days are formed by the things happening at Nalco manufacturing plants, during transportation of products, at customer sites, or by decisions, questions, suggestions and ideas raised by my colleagues. There is never a day to be bored at, the Centre continuously needs to be aligned with the current business situation, which in todays world can be sometimes tough but also brings plenty of opportunities and success stories.

Why would you suggest Nalco to others?

Although being one of the numerous Shared Service Centres operating in Budapest, deriving from its size this company managed to remain one where everyone knows the others by name, not losing the personal side of interactions. People do not tend to only focus on their own area, but always try to work as a team towards common aims. Newly joining colleagues can expect various opportunities for starting roles with professional tailor-made training, continuous coaching, development opportunities in other areas based on skills and results shown.

Diana has started her career at Nalco when the center was opened in 2006. Starting work as an agent, she has progressively advanced to a manager position.

Can you tell us your story?

When Nalco opened its BSC in Budapest I was among the first ones to join this new organization. With my marketing degree and my travel agency background this was an exciting new world for me. I was working in the logistics team organizing/coordinating problematic deliveries for our customers, which meant that I had to be in contact with many departments. A year later I was promoted to Team Leader and another year later to Supervisor. Being a supervisor was quite a challenge as you are no longer ''just an expert'' but you need to develop your people management skills as well and that is not as easy as dealing with SAP.

Nalco is a company that is constantly changing, often ahead of its time, the BSC is always continuing to develop itself in order to remain a world class center. In early 2010, I was promoted to Manager of the logistics team and the contract administration team. It was quite challenging as the latter team had to be managed remotely. In late 2010, another change occurred in my life - as I said Nalco is always looking for opportunities to develop - I got involved in insourcing and building up 2 procurement teams in Budapest. During my years at Nalco I got real opportunities to develop both professionally and personally. The final touch to my development was getting involved in procurement/invoicing, as if you know procurement you understand how a multinational company, like Nalco works.

It sounds like at Nalco you got a lot of opportunities, what is the next step?

Yes, at Nalco if you work hard and you have the right skills you get recognized. The company always paid attention on giving people career opportunities let it be vertical or horizontal, which is equally valuable. My next movement is a horizontal one as from January I will be taking over the Customer Services group. Another exciting challenge.

Györgyi has started her career at the company also as it was newly opened, and next to continue steps forward, she also had the chance to work abroad, in Barcelona.

Why did you choose Nalco and what is your story?

After my graduation I was looking for a company which offers an international environment to its employees, gives opportunities to learn both about the business, SAP system and the multinational environment itself. I have learnt international relations and speak English and Spanish. Nalco seemed to be a perfect place and the first impression during my interviews was very positive as well. I started at Nalco at the very beginning of 2007 when operations moved to Budapest. In my role I became a process expert in SAP.

In April 2008, I was promoted to be the Team Leader of the Customer Setup Group, specialized on Master Data related issues. As a Team Leader, I had the chance to learn about leadership and to improve my trainer/coach qualities and was involved in several process improvements, global projects. After working 2 years in the same role, I indicated my interest for the management of trying myself in a different area within Nalco.

In May 2009, I had the opportunity to join the Business Operations Team. I started to work as a Business Support Analyst for the Spanish and Italian market in Barcelona. I worked almost 2,5 years closely with local sales, finance and business operations and get the chance to be close to the "fire". In May, 2011 I have been promoted to lead the Business Support Analyst team and process the transition of the activities to Budapest. This role will give me the chance to learn a lot about people and project management, the areas I am interested in. In summary, Nalco offered me the opportunities and challenges I was looking for and my superiors have always supported me with continuous coaching to grow and improve.