I work at Schneider Electric as an IT Channel Manager, which is part of Secure Power: in practice, that means we sell our products –Data Centers products, solutions, and services– via IT distributors. I don’t have a background in Technology, so this journey has been very interesting and fulfilling for me, since I get to learn new things every day.
A balanced and varied career
After high school, I started studying Engineering, but I only completed one year, since I quickly realized it wasn’t my field of interest back then. I ended up turning my focus onto Marketing and Foreign Trade. I studied at SAMK Ammattikorkeakoulu in Pori.
Right after graduation I started at Nokia – I was there for over ten years. I started as an assistant but then I moved onto marketing, as an assistant as well, and then as a coordinator, organizing different kinds of events. At some point when I had my children, as they were little I decided to leave Nokia by myself and focus on family life. At Nokia, back then we had the opportunity to take a good package if we wanted to leave, so I did that and stayed home for a while with my children.
After that I went to Eilakaisla, a Human Resources firm. I worked there for over two years and again I realized that my three children were still very small and I wanted to enjoy them for a while. After much thought, and since I’ve always loved sports, ever since childhood, I studied at Suomen Urheiluopisto at Vierumäki and became a personal trainer and sports instructor! It might not have brought as much money as other jobs, but it was definitely worth it. For at least five years I focused on sports-related jobs, working at EasyFit, and LadyLine in Porvoo.
I remember this time with fondness; I liked it not only because I love sports, but also because it gave me so much freedom.
Merja Mäki, IT Channel Manager, Schneider Electric
In the search for new challenges
When my children grew up, I noticed I was missing something else. I was missing definitely more challenges: although I love sports, after five, six years I returned to business life; this was about four years ago.
I started with Human Resources again, working for a personal renting business – and after one year there, I changed to selling software, which was my first contact with IT. I actually loved it, so I decided to take a course on IT product selling, after which I came to Schneider.
A new path at Schneider
When I returned to work life after a six, seven-year break, the environment was completely different – so it was definitely a challenge on its own, but a good one! The most fundamental to me was to be curious and interested in new things – the fact is, the progress of technology is so wild, and fast, that it’s important to remain curious. Now I have been a Schneider for two years. I started as a Sales Representative and then at the beginning of this year I started in the position of IT Channel Manager. As a sales representative I was already working with different business units and digital sales, with small resellers in the IT business. In this position, what is different is that I take care of the distributors; we have four distributors and all IT Channel products are going through them, so I manage that. I truly love working at Schneider – the challenge and the most exciting part, at the same time, is the fact that I don’t have the technical education so I have to educate myself constantly on that. Our team is small and very nice; I am surrounded by bright people, and although it is a small team, I find it important to feel and be connected overall: to other teams in Nordic countries and Europe, and to other colleagues in Schneider – being a huge company you have the advantage of having other awesome salespeople who can also pitch your products.
Witnessing change in the field
When I worked for Nokia, almost 25 years ago, there were way fewer women in the field, but I can say that nowadays there are definitely more women in tech. So to those who are getting into tech, I say: absolutely go for it! If you can dream it, you can do it.
