Moien! Last month, we introduced Helena, music teacher at the Conservatoire of Luxembourg. This month, you get to meet Laëtitia, who is in charge of promoting the many job offers and the diverse professions within the Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois (CFL).
"What's great about Luxembourg and especially at the CFL is that we are not necessarily reduced to our CV. We are given a real chance." - Laëtitia Louis, Content Writer and HR Marketing Officer at the CFL
The offer that changed her life
While for many people, working at the CFL is an end in itself, Laëtitia had never thought about it. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She had a strong opinion about the company. Until the day she came across the job offer for her future position, which described missions matched her expectations perfectly.
For her job interview, she was asked to prepare a fictitious campaign for a specific target group. After spending five evenings preparing for this test, she told herself: "I really need to get this job". The more time she spent on this exercise, the more her motivation to work at the CFL grew. For that reason, she put everything she had into making it work.
With a degree in Business Documentation and Records and three years of experience as a Marketing Officer in a life insurance company, it was her excellent French writing skills and creativity that impressed the recruiters and landed her the job.
In her opinion, this was the best career move she ever made. It was "a conscious choice, more than an opportunity".
Today, she is not ashamed to say she works at the CFL, quite the opposite. Laëtitia is very proud of her work and her company.
"We are all railwaymen and it is something that we claim to be, regardless of position, age, origin... No other company claim it as much as we do."
Marketing applied to Human Resources
In 2018, a HR Marketing department was created within the CFL to address an increasing need for today's companies: promoting the employer brand. In other words, this is the internal and external image conveyed by a company. Hereby, a company will try to communicate a positive image and to put forward its values, so that people can find their own beliefs reflected in this company and want to join it.
In 2020, in the middle of the lockdown-period, Laëtitia joined this HR Marketing department as Content Writer and HR Marketing Officer. In a team of three people, she is in charge of creating content for their social media channels dedicated to recruitment, for their HR blog, for their job offers and on all other channels related to recruitment and employer brand promotion. In addition to this editorial side, she is also heavily involved in the organization of recruitment events.
But what she likes most about her job is the human side to it. One of her missions is to highlight the great diversity of profiles that make up the CFL. To do this, she persuades her colleagues to take part in video and photo shoots, and then accompanies and assists them throughout these. This allows her to discover jobs that are sometimes the complete opposite of what she does and makes her learn more about their "workplace" and the reasons why her colleagues like what they do every day.
"I like the diversity of the assignments. I get to organize, involve, create, always on interesting topics and with enthusiastic colleagues. Basically, we only look for the positive in our work."
Her tips for managing stress
While managing several missions at the same time, Laëtitia works in an "extremely positive" atmosphere. Still, at times, she also experiences "moments of stress", whether it's due to events or photoshoots. There are always deadlines, security procedures and protocols to follow. "Everything needs to be according to our guidelines.”
To guard herself against stress, she always tries to put things into perspective and take a step back from the situation in order to calmly reflect about it. Her first advice is to do everything possible to avoid causing yourself stress. This means anticipating the stress, honing the ability to organize yourself and thinking about everything possible in advance. Indeed, this reduces the probability of making mistakes. Following this, you have to be able to evaluate the impact of the source of stress.
"Do I need to deal with this right away? In the next 5 minutes? Today? This week? What's the 'worst case scenario' if I make a mistake?"
It’s certain that with experience, it gets easier to handle tricky situations. The stress will always be there, but it will be a productive kind of stress.
And, as she points out, "When there's stress, things are moving forward."
Working at the CFL
Do you want to work at the CFL but don't know how to go about it, or if your profile fits?
The CFL is inclusive in terms of jobs and profiles. You just need to be motivated to join the adventure and be ready to leave your comfort zone, even if it means changing jobs. The possibilities are endless, and support will always be provided.
