From France to UAE: Being part of the foundation of FM

I studied in France, gaining a bachelor’s degree in Dietetics and Nutrition majoring in Orientation of Integrated Management Systems for the agricultural industry followed by a master’s degree in management and Engineering for the Catering industry.

But once I had completed my studies and began searching for work, I had the overwhelming feeling that now was my moment. My moment to be a bit crazy, to take chances, to say “yes”, to develop myself and to do something different. 

In the end I received two job offers on the same day. One in my hometown in France and one in Oman, Western Asia. Can you guess which one I took?

What have I done?

My first role was focused on Quality, Health, Safety & Environment and Nutrition. I was working at a newly mobilized military university location in Oman. I was one of two women amongst 5,000 men. I couldn’t speak Arabic and my English was more basic than I had realised. English was supposed to be spoken in the workplace but if you are in a meeting with 10 male Arabic military colleagues, you can assume they are going to speak Arabic at some point in that meeting. 

It’s safe to say that for the first 3 months I regretted my decision and wanted to go home.

But I didn’t. I removed the thoughts of regret from my mind and I stayed. Going home would have been failure in my mind and failure was not an option.

Adapting to expat life

So, I overcame the language barriers. I learned English and I adapted. I developed a second personality for work. This personality understood which behaviours were appropriate to local business culture such as exactly how much to smile to come across as professional and to be respected.

Soon it paid off. After 6 months I was promoted to a catering manager role. After a further 6 months I moved to an operations supervisor role where I was responsible for managing operations across 15 on shore rigs and base camps related to the energy industry. This was a very different role again. I would cover around 6000km a week travelling between the locations. Many of the laborers working at these locations were from local desert tribes and were completely unaccustomed to seeing someone European. 

After two years in this role I moved back to the city to a project management role, this time focusing on in-flight retail.

Collaboration, negotiation and happy clients

At this point I took an opportunity to join Sodexo with responsibility for the management and development of all facilities management (FM) operations across 8 client accounts in Algeria. In this operations manager role, a large part of my role was selling the benefits of FM to clients in a country where FM is not well established as an industry. Despite this context I was able to support the award and mobilization of 4 new accounts as well as the upselling 15 occasional and new services. This role really helped me develop my sales and convincing skills.

My most recent role with Sodexo has taken me to the UAE. I am now focused on integrating large global FM contracts into what was previously a purely catering business as part of a merger of two business entities.

I love seeing months of solution design become a reality. After working closely with clients, listening, looking for ideas, negotiating and facing my doubts the day a contract finally goes live, and I have a happy client, is a wonderful one for me. 

Discover my tips for a successful facilities management career in this video:

In the UAE we are still in the foundation years of FM services being established as an industry.

In the future I would like to work towards a general management role. I see that as a step which would consolidate my experience across finance, supply chain and health, safety and environmental roles.

Find out more about a career with Sodexo!

This article was created by Marie Chatelier, Operations Manager – Sodexo United Arab Emirates