Big infrastructures are built through thousands of small moments: a question asked early, a handover done clearly, a teammate who makes time to explain. That’s the reality behind the energy projects we deliver at Linxon, and it’s also why early-career experiences matter so much here. When you are in your first job, you don’t just learn tasks. You learn how work moves, how decisions are made, and how to contribute with confidence.
In Linxon Sweden, this comes to life through LIA (Lärande i arbete, “learning by working”), a credited internship period embedded in many programs. The idea is simple: learn by taking part. For students, it turns theory into practice. For us, it brings new perspectives into real teams and real projects. When trainees feel included, trusted, and supported to take initiative, the learning curve becomes a contribution. That’s how we try to show up as an employer, guided by trust, entrepreneurship, and collaboration.
Three trainees. Three paths. One first look at Linxon from the inside.
In our group session, three trainees described what it feels like to step into a fast-paced EPC environment for the first time. There’s uncertainty, a steep learning curve, and the moment when it starts to make sense. Across their different roles, one theme kept returning: you grow fastest when you feel part of the team.
EPC can feel complex from the outside. From the inside, it becomes a series of conversations, decisions, and practical moments that connect disciplines and move the project forward. Here are three perspectives, told from our side at Linxon, on what that first experience can look like.
Elana: From drawings to site reality, and the confidence to speak up
“I realised fast that everything here is connected — every person, every message, every handover. It’s not something you do beside the work; it is the work.”
Elana joined our Civil team and quickly moved between office and site. She described it as “two worlds colliding” into one project, with plans, models, and calculations on one side and the physical reality on the other. Seeing how a drawing looks in real life, and then returning to the office with that context, changed how she understood decisions and priorities.
“It was during the first days when I thought ‘wow, this is a lot of information.’ Then, as time passed by, I thought, “well, I can do it. It is good.’”
That early intensity is part of what makes EPC such a strong learning environment. The work is steady and structured, but there is always movement around you. You learn to hold several threads at once, because the project advances through many connected steps happening in parallel. It is also a setting where details matter. The way information is handled, checked, and handed over shapes what happens next, and that discipline creates confidence, especially when you are new.
“At the beginning, when I heard everyone talking, I thought, ‘how do they know this much?’ Then, after some time, I realised, ‘I can do this too.’ I really felt I could contribute to this company… You just need to believe in yourself and believe in your team, and learn from them. Even though we come with fresh views, it meets the experience here in the middle. It is like watering a tree. It only grows bigger.”
What Elana describes is the everyday reality of work at Linxon. You rarely move forward alone. You move forward because someone shares context, someone spots a dependency, and someone else picks up the next step. That is where trust shows up in practice, in clear handovers, quick questions, and teammates who take the time to bring you in. For a trainee, that makes the difference between trying to keep up and starting to feel like part of the team.
“When I was on site. I found it very interesting to go out and see how a drawing looks in real life. Then, I worked with BIM (“Building Information Modelling”) and ACC (“Autodesk Construction Cloud”), talked with the contractors, and took part in meetings. All of it together made me really interested.”
For Elana, that’s the moment the placement shifted from intense to meaningful. Working closely with others, she could dare to contribute while still learning and accept she would not know everything from the start. With a team that shared context and supported her in practice, she got to try new tasks, join meetings, and follow site discussions until the patterns became clear. That is how capability builds, and how your scope can widen naturally. Confidence follows, then professional growth.
“Don’t be afraid to ask, don’t be afraid to contribute; don’t be afraid to learn and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. A huge part of my learning has been not to be afraid and dare to put myself out there. Everyone has their own role to play, and everyone here is willing to teach you. So, don’t be afraid.” It is the advice she would give to future trainees coming in after her. When you ask, contribute, and keep learning, even while you are still figuring things out, you stop being a visitor and start becoming part of the work.
Jiao: Learning the systems, and finding her voice across teams
“The first days were a total surprise — new tools, new terms, new ways of working. Then I understood: if I keep asking, checking, and staying close to the team, the complexity becomes manageable.”
Jiao entered the EPC industry for the first time through our Supply Chain team. She described how quickly theory turns into practical decision-making: suppliers, equipment, project timelines, and the constant need to coordinate with multiple functions. Her work on mapping the supplier base aimed at giving a clearer view of how often suppliers have been used across projects, turning scattered information into something teams can act on. To do that, she quickly learned she had to stay close to the people who hold the information across the project.
“When I came here, I was not familiar with the industry, so my colleagues helped me a lot. We have regular meetings, and I am in constant communication with many departments, including the team in GETS, so we work together across locations.”
Because so much of that coordination happens through conversation, language became part of the learning curve at the same time. Working in English every day, picking up new terms, and joining discussions across both local and global teams helped her confidence grow gradually. In parallel, the work itself demanded structure.
From suppliers and equipment to timelines and stakeholder needs, she had to turn many inputs into something others could use. Handling complexity while communicating across languages pushed her to build clearer routines, keep an overview of next steps, and contribute even while she was still learning the industry from scratch.
“The first days were intense, but after a few days I could navigate and became more comfortable interacting with the team. My manager helped me a lot, not only with assignments but also by making me feel comfortable. I joined the team for Monday breakfast, and I got introduced to colleagues, so I could feel welcome from the beginning.”
Her story also shows what makes global teamwork work in practice. It is not only about productivity. It is also about the psychosocial working environment, how work is designed, organised, and managed, and the everyday routines that shape workload, role clarity, support, and the confidence to speak up. When those conditions are in place, people can ask questions early, align quickly, and contribute while still learning, with empathy for each other along the way.
Oliver: One problem at a time, turning ideas into viable solutions
“I felt like a real employee from day one, and on site I learned that good ideas only matter if you can turn them into something the project can act on, within real constraints – time, cost, and what the site actually needs.”
Oliver joined us through his bachelor thesis work and spent most of his time on the Värtan site, working closely with daily logistics. He looked at how materials and orders are handled on site, and how small improvements in routines can save time and avoid unnecessary rework. Much of his progress came from being out where the work happens, talking to the site manager, and learning what is realistic to implement in a live project.
“I am most proud of finding a good, reliable solution that has not been used yet, and then working through the process to make it work. I have been doing interviews with construction site workers to get the best answer, and I will present it to the team when I am ready.”
That is the core challenge of learning on a real project. You can have a strong idea, but you still need to test it against time, cost, and the realities of the site. When constraints show up, the learning is not theoretical anymore. It becomes problem-solving, iteration, and learning to adapt without losing the value of the original idea.
“When I came here, I quickly realised how much knowledge people have from working on projects for a long time. It taught me to respect the decisions they make, and to balance my own ideas from theory with the approaches that come from experience.”
For Oliver, that respect became a practical skill. It shaped how he tested ideas, how he presented options, and how he collaborated with people who carry deep project memory. It also made the step from student to colleague feel real, because he learned how to contribute while still learning the full picture. In that kind of environment, the way people work together matters as much as the process itself.
“It feels like a normal, functioning, good company. You find people coming from different parts of the world here in Sweden. We help each other, which is very nice.”
Oliver’s observation about diversity fits naturally with that. It is part of how projects move. When teams bring different perspectives and still work as one, inclusion becomes practical. You see it in who gets invited into conversations, how context is shared, and whether it feels safe to ask questions before small issues turn into bigger ones.
Moving forward together
We are actively working on creating more opportunities for students who want to explore a future in the EPC industry, and on making those early experiences clearer, smoother, and more connected.
As Therese Rosen, our Linxon Sweden HR Manager, reflected during the conversation, working life is a shift from mostly relying on yourself to relying on each other.
“Here everyone is important and we are relying on each other,” she said. “Our values, trust, entrepreneurship and collaboration, are really valid, because it goes through everything we do. It is not just words. It is actually how we want to work.”
If you would like to follow our journey and keep an eye on future student opportunities, our careers page is the best place to check when new openings arise. It’s where we share roles as they become available and where you can learn more about life at Linxon.
