What is a management trainee?

Management Trainee Management Trainee (Management Trainee) is a foreign term. It is a special project in foreign companies with the main goal of "cultivating the company's future leaders". For example, the campus recruitment of the four major foreign banks is divided into three channels: intern, staff and MT. 1. Why should companies recruit management trainees? When it comes to management trainees, we must first talk about the talent management and promotion system. What kind of people are considered talents? Who should be promoted? What kind of talent can manage a multinational company? I think these issues all have to start with the growth of talents. Human resources research shows that the growth of a talent does not depend on how many experiences he (she) has had, but on how many challenges he (she) has experienced in these experiences. As shown in the figure below, the number of businesses developed (NUMBER OF BUSSINESS LAUNCHED) only accounts for 1 of the ability growth, while other experiences, such as: leading a team (13), innovatively solving problems (14), developing departments Strategy (13), etc., will make the talents' abilities grow rapidly and significantly. Regarding the challenges a talent needs to go through, there is a saying in InBev: Great people, allowed to grow at the pace of their talent and compensated accordingly, are the most valuable assets of our company. PACE here does not refer to pace or speed, it is the acronym of four words: ? Challenging P eople roles ? Challenging A ssignments ? Challenging C ommercial roles ? Challenging E xpertise roles And these are also a successful business leader Four challenges that must be experienced. Challenging P eople roles refers to experiencing the challenges of team management and coordination; Challenging Assignments refers to experiencing the challenges of hosting and managing large projects and tasks; Challenging C ommercial roles refers to experiencing and participating in business operations, in-depth understanding of the market, and the challenges of understanding customers ; and Challenging Expertise roles refer to the challenges of understanding professional knowledge and being familiar with the professional background. Therefore, a successful business manager in the future, or a talent, should experience as many of these four challenges as possible in his work. The purpose of the management trainee program is to train future managers for the company. Therefore, at the beginning of the design project, most of the internal cross-department rotations, leadership training, corporate culture training, etc. are arranged so that future leaders can By roughly going through these four parts of challenges, management trainees are expected to get enough training so that they can become top managers of the company in 10-15 years.

2. How is a typical management trainee program designed? A typical management trainee program generally includes two parts: training and practice; the training part generally includes leadership training, corporate culture training, business training, etc.; and the practical part will Arranged in the company's core departments, in the form of cross-department rotation, the trainees will be more comprehensively exposed to all aspects of the company's operations. Therefore, when judging whether a trainee program is suitable for you, you can generally examine the following factors: 1. Whether the company Have a complete training project plan; 2. Is there a reasonable follow-up plan after the training period to ensure the continued growth of the trainees; 3. Is there an opportunity for cross-department rotation training; 4. Is the company likely to provide sufficient training in the foreseeable future? senior management position; 5. Whether you fit the company's culture, in short, whether you like the company's atmosphere; 6. Whether the location and intensity of the work meet your needs; 7. Whether you are satisfied with the salary and benefits, etc.; In order to let everyone To have a basic impression of the trainee program, let’s take InBev’s global management trainee program as an example to introduce the management trainee program. At InBev, the entire project lasts three years and can be roughly divided into four parts: a two-week global project introduction (Global Introduction), a four-month internship period (Field Training), and a one-month headquarters training (HQ Training). , five months (Field Assignment) and the remaining two years of on-the-job training period (First Job, Second Job…). The following is a brief introduction to the contents of each part. Global Introduction (2 weeks) I like to summarize the management trainee program as: "global vision, grassroots experience." In my opinion, global vision includes two aspects. One is to be able to think big and dream big from a global perspective when considering problems. , using the world as the stage; second, having a general understanding of the thinking habits and lifestyles of people from all over the world, and being able to communicate smoothly with colleagues around the world. The Global Introduction at the beginning of the project is for this purpose, giving each trainee the best opportunity to gain a global perspective. Inbev's Global Introduction was held in Leuven, a beautiful town in Belgium. ***94 management trainees participated. Their hometowns are all over the world, including Brazil, South Korea, Russia, Canada, Argentina, France... two weeks During the training, we studied the history of the company, understood the current situation of the company together with our peers from all over the world, ate together, partyed together, and competed together in outdoor development. Field Training (4 months) After the Global Introduction, there will be four months of Field Training, two months of production visits and two months of sales visits. The purpose is to allow trainees to understand the basic operations of the entire industry and gain first-hand experience. practical experience and a comprehensive understanding of the entire industry. (I am going through this stage now) HQ Visiting (3 weeks) After learning about the operations of each local winery, you will go through a one-month internship at the headquarters, where you can have an overall understanding of the company's finance, human resources, legal and M&A departments. How to support the actual operation of the winery. Field Assignment (5 months) It should be said that the training in the first five months is still a process of knowledge accumulation. Starting from Field Assignment, trainees can choose production or sales direction and experience front-line work experience. First Job (12-18 months) After having front-line work experience, the First Job stage begins. At this time, the trainee will participate in the company's operations as a junior manager. After working for 12-18 months, trainees will have a comprehensive understanding of the job, and then the trainees can start applying for the next job.

3. What qualities are required of management trainees? Due to the characteristics of management trainees, the company can provide them with more systematic training. Therefore, the professional knowledge requirements for management trainees are not very strict, but their overall quality is more valued. Although there are many classification methods for each company, there are many. But the main comprehensive qualities include: · Enterprising: This is the ambition that many foreign companies emphasize. The reason for emphasizing enterprising spirit is that companies generally hope that management trainees can become senior managers of the company through training, but this process is destined to be a The hard and challenging process is doomed to sacrifice a lot. Without a sense of professionalism and a spirit of unwillingness to admit defeat, it is easy to give up in this hard process. Therefore, an ambitious goal and a relentless pursuit are particularly important for management trainees. · Leadership: There are many understandings of leadership, but generally they require the ability to lead a team to accomplish predetermined goals. Such abilities are largely developed through past management practices. Therefore, when recruiting management trainees, students who have experience in club leadership or other types of leadership experience are generally preferred. · Analytical ability: Leaders will inevitably face many complex situations. How to quickly find clues and sort out the clues in complex situations is a problem that leaders must solve. Therefore, in the recruitment of trainees, problem-solving problems often arise. Generally speaking, in addition to being agile in thinking, being familiar with the business environment and having business experience will largely help candidates solve such problems. In addition, proper mastery of some business analysis frameworks is also very effective in solving such problems. · Rapid learning ability: Being able to quickly learn and use knowledge based on analyzing things is particularly important for management trainees to quickly enter the industry and take over jobs quickly. · Expression and persuasion skills: Specifically, it is the ability to explain your own opinions and achieve communication effects. For example, how to use different languages ??for different conversation partners, how to use body language correctly, how to set the conversation scene, etc. · English ability: For most foreign companies, managers must communicate with colleagues from all over the world, and a certain level of English ability is a must. 4. How to apply for a management trainee position: Know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated in any battle. Before applying for a management traineeship, the most important thing is to know whether you need this job and what your strengths and weaknesses are for this job. Before you start, you can ask yourself a few questions: 1. Do I really want to be a senior manager and am I willing to work harder than ordinary people? 2. Can I accept a job that involves frequent business trips or even changing work locations? 3. Do I have some management experience? 4. Do I have some business experience? 5. Am I able to handle difficult problems? 6. Am I able to communicate with others smoothly and persuade others when possible? 7. Can I communicate with foreigners? If there are more than four YES in your answer, then it is recommended to try to apply for the management trainee program. After understanding yourself, you also need to understand how general management trainee recruitment works. Taking InBev as an example, the screening process is very strict, with 6 steps: 1. Resume screening: preliminary screening of qualified applicants 2. Written test: testing the applicant's analytical ability, computing ability and English ability, etc. Basic ability 3. Group problem-solving discussion: Test the applicant’s leadership, expression ability, persuasion ability, and ability to analyze and solve problems. 4. Behavioral interview: Understand the applicant's past experience, test maturity, past experience, and leadership, etc. 5. Business case game simulation: test problem analysis, problem-solving ability, quick learning ability, leadership, expression and persuasion ability, etc. 6. Group interview: interview with company executives to understand the fit with the company culture, reaction ability, communication ability, etc. wait. There are a lot of materials online for resume and written test preparation, you can refer to them. To prepare for behavioral interviews, you can refer to P&G’s 8 questions. It's basically more comprehensive. Among the several types of interviews, the more difficult thing to master is group discussion, and this is an important part of the entire trainee recruitment.

When preparing for this session, it is recommended that you organize some simulated group discussions yourself. Through personal participation and observation, you will discover many problems and techniques. Attached is a PPT about group discussions I made last year, I hope it will be helpful to everyone’s preparation.