Building a global career, one opportunity at a time

When opportunity came knocking, Adèle was getting ready to graduate from her master’s degree at ECAM Strasbourg-Europe, a specialised engineering school based in Strasbourg, France. By this point, she’d spent the better part of 12 months as an engineering apprentice with the mining remanufacturing department at our production facility in Colmar, France, as part of her final year of study.

‘I wanted to do a work-study program to complement my studies with long-term, hands-on experience. Liebherr was the natural choice. I was looking for an international environment with a diverse range of products and a culture that encourages initiative,’ Adèle says.

Shortly before graduation, Adèle’s line manager took the time to find out how she envisioned her career in the years to come. When she advised that it was her goal to work overseas but to stay within the Liebherr Group, her manager offered her the chance to travel to Australia on a VIE (Volontariat International en Entreprise) placement. These placements allow citizens within the European Economic Area between the ages of 18 and 28 to gain international work experience with a French company. For Adèle, this meant 12 months working in Adelaide, South Australia, as part of a repair validation project that was run in conjunction with her Colmar colleagues.

‘Australia represented an ideal opportunity to gain a better understanding of how a major remanufacturing market operates. I also saw this experience as an important step towards gaining greater independence, a broader outlook and a fresh perspective on my way of working, whilst remaining at Liebherr – a group where I feel at home,’ she says. ‘And being based in Adelaide was a happy coincidence, given my first name!’

Adèle’s time in the land Down Under

As soon as Adèle touched down in Adelaide in January 2025, she knew she was in for a good time.

‘When I arrived in Australia – on my own and on the other side of the world – a member of the local team came to pick me up themselves! That sort of thoughtfulness really made an impression on me. Even far from home, I felt supported, looked after and surrounded by people who genuinely wanted to welcome me and help me throughout my stay,’ Adèle recalls.

Her main task while in Australia? Cataloguing the range of repairs designed by the Australian team so that these innovative solutions could be shared with our sales and service companies, factories and suppliers around the world. As part of this process, Adèle visited a number of our repair suppliers in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth – and also had a hand in identifying new ones.

‘Working so closely with our Australian team taught me to better put myself in the shoes of our internal customers – our sales and service companies – by giving me a very practical understanding of their challenges and operational needs. This experience helps me to communicate more effectively with our international team, taking their operational realities into account,’ she says.

Heading back home

Towards the end of her time in Adelaide, Adèle applied for a process engineer role within the remanufacturing and component production department back home, in Colmar. Which she secured and has been excelling at ever since.

‘Today, my role is primarily to act as a link between our mining machinery factories (here in Colmar as well as in the USA and Austria) as well as our remanufacturing sites and external suppliers to improve our processes, our tools and the competitiveness of our remanufacturing offerings,’ Adèle explains.

In practical terms, this involves providing day-to-day support to our sales and service companies, monitoring the applications they develop in-house for remanufacturing activities and taking part in the audit process led by our remanufacturing team. Adèle also works to find cost-reduction initiatives for remanufacturing, such as collaborating with suppliers to improve the repairability of components.

‘With direct experience working with our Australian sales and service company, I can better understand certain issues, tailor my responses and act as a bridge. The connections I made in Adelaide also make collaboration more effective and help to build a relationship of trust.’

Lessons in self-belief

In her short time with Liebherr, Adèle has a lot she can be proud of. But she considers her biggest accomplishment to be discovering just how much she is truly capable of.

‘What I’m most proud of is having managed to prove myself and demonstrate my value, first within the remanufacturing team at Colmar, then out in the field in Australia. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by colleagues who trusted me, gave me real responsibilities and enabled me to progress quickly. Because of this, I feel I can make a useful and recognised contribution in my work and bridge the gap between the field and production.’

For Adèle, Liebherr is a fantastic place for students and young professionals with ambition, an inquiring mind and the drive to step outside of their comfort zone.

‘Liebherr offers plenty of opportunities for career progression, but you need to be able to express your aspirations and be ready to take on new challenges. My experience shows that when you’re curious, motivated, willing to think outside the box a little and open to relocation, great opportunities can arise,’ she says. ‘It’s with this mindset that I want to continue to develop at Liebherr, stay attuned to what’s going on, take on more responsibility and contribute to projects by connecting teams, sites and our sales and service companies.’

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