She is the chemist who became interested in programming. She realized that her knowledge and experience in production could be applied to many other industries and companies. Lydia Söderlund is a consultant at Plantvision currently works as a developer of production planning solutions.
"I noticed that I enjoyed working in Excel when I was studying chemistry, and this interest developed when I got a job in a life science company as a production planner. That's when I first came into contact with programming, by making macros in VBA, and I discovered that it suited me so well. I love problem solving where you get to be creative and have to think logically, and that's exactly what you do when you program." says Lydia.
When she started taking a distance learning course in C#, she thought of Plantvision, with whom she had previously been in contact through a collaboration. At that time, she was on the customer side, but now she was considering whether Plantvision be her next employer.
"I knew that there were many people with a background in chemistry at PlantVision when I went in to check for vacancies, there was an advertisement for an application engineer in production planning. It felt like a job tailor-made for me, and I immediately knew that I really wanted that job,"she says.
She emphasizes that developing her own skills and competencies has been important to her in choosing her next workplace. This is something she feels she has really been able to do at Plantvision.
"Being able to develop in the workplace is very important to me, and I have really been able to do that during my first period as a consultant at PlantVision! Among other things, I have learned the basics of SQL Server and Power BI, and I have delved even deeper into smart features in Excel and our planning software. Another important aspect is flexibility. I set my own work schedule and have the option of working remotely, which gives me more time for my interests—dog training and gardening."
Lydia currently works in the Supply Chain & Production team and in her work she helps our customers with technical solutions for more efficient production planning.
"I work with production planning tools and things around that, linked to that. It can be anything from helping a new customer map their production process from scratch to implement a planning tool, but it can also be helping existing customers with tools to complement the way they work, such as visualisations of late orders, stock balances, weekly planning and different types of reports. I also get to fix bugs and have been involved in training planners on the planning tool to teach them how to use it in the most effective way." she explains.
Given her background as a chemist, she has worked on the production floor, in the analysis department, in the development department, and also as a production planner. These experiences have enabled her to understand the customer's perspective when it comes to challenges in production planning. This is something she has really been able to benefit from in her role at PlantVision.
The work as a consultant is varied, which suits Lydia.
"The best thing about my job is the variety of tasks. I also get to interact with a lot of different people through our customers, and during my first 3 months I got to go to places in Sweden I've never been to before, and get an insight into industries I hadn't even considered. I get energized by helping people make their lives easier, and in my job I get to combine that with the best thing I know; creative problem solving!"
"I notice a big difference from working on something I really enjoy, I thought chemistry was interesting and fun too, but this is something I'm really interested in. It's really something I think people should take away, that even if you've spent a lot of time on an education and career in a field, dare to change industries and go for what you're interested in. For me, it led to that fun thing that I used to only get to do occasionally, is now what I work on every day."
Looking to the future, Lydia is confident, she wants to aim high.
"I want to become an expert in what I do and have a large toolbox to draw on when I encounter problems, and Plantvision given me a good start."
