#AmazingJobsAtSafranNacelles - Lucile - "I knew I was made for the HR function"

Choosing your future job is not always easy, Lucile knows something about it. “I selected a fairly general education path because I didn’t know what I wanted to do.” she explains. “But after my degree in Management and Organisation and several internships, I still didn't know any better! So, I decided to continue studying together with work experience to have a foot in the world of business and progress in my knowledge of professional organisations.” In the 2nd year of her Process Management master’s degree, she was passionate about finance, marketing, communications, digital transformation, human resources… “I was interested in everything,” she remembers, “but I focused on project management, which fits my dominantly logical profile."

In 2013, after graduating from Paris-Dauphine University, Lucile was hired as a consultant in project management and change management at Safran Consulting⁽¹⁾. There, she spent three enlightening and rewarding years, discovering the Group, its activities, its companies and its sites. “However, I still had not specialised in a specific function,” she notes, “I was waiting for ‘something special’." 

And it wasn't long before she got her wish. In 2016, Lucile started a position as local HR Manager at the Safran Nacelles site in Le Havre. Her role: to be the prime point of contact for engineers, managers and technicians for all matters related to human resources. “What I liked,” analyses Lucile, “is both the operational side, working very closely with the various departments, and the diversity of the missions: recruitment, career management, skills development… I started almost from scratch, and I undertook training whilst learning in the field. That’s how I discovered the Human Resources profession… and I knew I was made for it."

Four years later, in 2020, Lucile had gained a solid background. She was then offered a position as Human Resources Development Manager for several departments. “It was a new function in the company, aimed at providing Directors with a multi-site first-level HR contact.” she recalls. “To me, it seemed to be a natural extension of my previous missions.” Growing in her role with ease, Lucile knows that she took the right path. 

Finally, she was presented with a new career development in 2023: while retaining her HR development functions, but on a new portfolio of departments, Lucile received the additional responsibility of Head of Recruitment and Campus Manager, taking charge of relations between the company sites and higher education institutions. Three hats that she wears with enthusiasm, motivated by the diversity of her missions and the satisfaction of seeing her efforts recognised. “It’s a very rewarding position, where you have to alternate between the short and long term, between the central function and the operational departments, you define priorities so as not to lose focus, rely on internal and external relays to deploy projects…I have no time to get bored!” Lucile smiles. “But my greatest pride is to know that I can be useful to a colleague or a student who is wondering what to do with their future. When I have positive feedback, it further adds to my motivation."

In hindsight, Lucile has only one regret: “I would have liked to have been guided in my career choices. But even a few years ago, there was less support available to young people than we have today. I probably chose HR to provide people what I wasn’t lucky enough to received myself.” 

Her advice? "Know yourself. It gives people the confidence to make decisions throughout their career, to dare to position themselves in a specific domain, then experience something else… Of course, in Safran, there are many technical functions. But there are also many positions where people's know-how is regarded as a great asset. With motivation and seriousness, doors open!"

⁽¹⁾ Safran's team of internal consultants, reporting to the Group's Quality and Performance department.