In the following article, which is a continuation of the series Women of Arla ,we would like to introduce Senior Manager in O2C Department, Marta Brzezińska, who has started her journey with Arla almost 10 years ago.
We hope you find this story inspiring for your own career path.
1. How did your adventure with Arla has started?
My adventure with Arla has started in September 2012 so it will be 10 years soon😊. In 2012 GSS in Gdansk was growing and looking for many new employees for various positions, from Junior Accountant to Senior Accountant. I applied for a junior one , but thanks to my previous accounting experience , Arla offered me a senior position.
2. Tell us about your professional path.
I started as a Senior Accountant in Account to Report department on UK market. Soon I was asked to take a new opportunity and started a task transition from DK head office to GSS. In first years of my career in Arla, I focused on building the financial specialist competencies and took the position of Financial Controller shortly. After 5 years, I decided to change my professional path and commenced a people manager’s journey first as a Team Leader in A2R, and then as a Manger of O2C department.
3. What you value most about working at Arla in terms of development / work culture?
I truly appreciate the dynamic and changing environment at Arla, especially in GSS. Every year we have new challenges, opportunities and interesting business objectives, and this requires from us to search for new solutions, improvements, new ways of working and to think out of the box. These develop us as an organization and develop each person individually.
4. What obstacles have you faced in your career at Arla?
I didn’t faced any obstacles in my career, just have courage and try various development opportunities which many of them Arla may offer you.
5. What organizational values do you identify with?
In Poland Arla is known as a “Scandinavian organization” and this is not due to the fact where our head office is located, but what kind of organization we are, what values we believe in, and what work culture we create. I highly appreciate that Arla takes care of employees’ well-being and work life balance, these create healthy organization, where, I believe, we all feel comfortable.
6. What would you advise other women whose goal is to get to where you are?
The answer is very simple: believe in yourself, have faith in your capabilities and remember that you and only you are the driver of your own success. It’s easy to say, but the hardest part is to achieve it, as believing in yourself is not uninterrupted success. You need to overcome self-doubt and to be able to move on failure quickly, have confidence to take actions and get things done. I’m also still on this learning path but I’m optimistic about the future.
