Market analyst (START Program) chez Air Liquide

Assignments Market Analyst START Program Air Liquide

My name is Yingfei and I come from China. I was graduated from the University of Science and Technology, Beijing, as a thermal physics engineer and I joined Air Liquide three years ago as part of the Start Program. And at the beginning I spent 10 months in China and 2 years ago I moved to France to have my current position which is following the ITCC, oxy combustion, clean power market.

Here in Champigny I am working as a market analyst, follow the clean power market, which means how to develop or provide the technology to the market to permit the customer to produce power with less emission of CO2 and other pollutants. My role is to help my manager to analyse and to synthesize the information and get back this information to the local business development. One side is to understand the requirements of the customer and the other side is to find a solution, together with the engineering, with the R&D and to bring the right solution to the customer.

My case is the example of the Start Program. So the idea is you start several months in your home country, and then you move to a next position. Usually the expatriation would be in France or North America, and it can be in Australia also. And since Air Liquide is a big company we have opportunities, so activities all over the world. And then the idea is to bring back the knowledge from different entities and from different domains, back to China.

The Start Program is a window; it opens to the new graduates to go to the real world, to use their knowledge, to see the real business that is so very interesting. I like this program because it gives a lot of opportunity to see the other parts of the world, to see how people work differently in the other entities, and to see different activities of course. Of course that helps a lot also in my personal development, in terms of career development and because it is a very selective program, so not all the graduates they can access the opportunity to get faster in my career development.

Daily Market Analyst START Program Air Liquide

I make links between the engineering, R&D and also the business development. So of course I will organise this discussion among these parties. For example every two weeks we have a specific discussion on the Europe projects and we decide what are we going to do for the next step. Because another role of marketing is to let the management know what about the market, and to help them make the strategic planning and to see, 10 years or 20 years after, the market will be like this, like this. This one will grow faster than another one.

I take this opportunity to develop a tool to understand better the economy of the project and as you see here it is a calculation and you start from the coal which is the feedstock of the plant and then you can get the result of the power price you are going to produce, to provide to the market. And then you compare those projects, you get an idea of which one is better in terms of economy.

“- Il a été dit, entre l’azote et l’oxygène, mettre un ratio de manière à pouvoir l’utiliser comme paramètre.

- Oui. C’est là. J’ajoute un ratio ici. Oui, c’est le MP Gain. »

One part of my daily work is to read a lot of information from all over the world, both inside and outside of Air Liquide. So I gather all this information together and to synthesize them into different subjects. This one is a report we communicate with China, and from this report you will see in this market, what are the potential customers. And you also see how much CO2 emitted in China and what is the potential.

Pros and cons Market Analyst START Program Air Liquide

What I like in my job is the contact with people; the different customers, they have different projects, they have different thinkings, different requirements. So it’s very interesting to have contacts with them and to see different cases and to see things concretely. So of course it is a very stimulating work because it’s a new market and very complex and not everything is well known by all the players. So it’s really interesting to develop actually your work.

I felt that it’s difficult for me to understand the global figures. When some people told me that in North America the oxygen production is how much one year. The figure seems to me like a telephone number. It means nothing to me, because I have difficulty to make the links. It is something, just difficult, and sometimes it’s frustrating when you do not understand the things behind the figures.

Why Market Analyst START Program Air Liquide

I think Air Liquide is a very good company, especially for me. It is because that is my major and I like the thermal physics, and Air Liquide is one big company, very famous in this domain. Air Liquide is also a big company that opens a lot of opportunities all around the world. I joined Air Liquide as part of the start program and that really opens my mind and that helps a lot.

Skills Market Analyst START Program Air Liquide

There are two aspects very important to get into the program. The first one of course is the professional profile, because the Start Program usually chose the engineers from different countries, and usually from the top universities. So it is very selective. And the second one is to make yourself feel easier in another culture, in another country. So you need to be open-minded, well-adapted to the new environment. This is also very important I think.

Career prospects Market Analyst START Program Air Liquide

I am going to come back to China to follow the next step which is the last step of the Start Program. And I’m going to work as a business developer and to follow the gasification projects. So what does that mean – the gasification project? It is to produce syngas which means H2 and CO from the coal gasification. So I’m going to help the management to sign the contract to know the requirements of their customer and to find the good customer, and to sign a good contract to build a new plant.