Meet Katarzyna Choloniewska - a Customer Experience Agent from Poland

10 January 2023

Hello, my name is Katarzyna or as I prefer to be called, Kasia, and I am a Customer Experience Agent in Maersk Poland.

“It has been my dream to work at Maersk”

Working at Maersk has been a dream of mine for 7 years which I achieved when I joined the company in September 2022. Ever since I was in college, I have wanted to work at Maersk. I saw the ships and containers and aspired to be part of such a large and global organisation.

I started my career working at another logistics company when I was 19, in the sales department, but found that I did not want a career in sales. While working there I became familiar with all the different types of freight, but sea freight became the area I was most interested in because of its complexity so started working as a sea freight forwarder. During this time, I was imagining what it was like working for Maersk so when the opportunity in Gdynia came up, I took it even though it meant I had to move 600km to be by the coast.

“It will never get boring for me, because every day is different.”

Sea freight is complex, even colleagues who have been in their roles for 10 years still have questions. You will never know everything, and that’s something I really like. Due to this, it will never get boring for me, because every day is different, even though I have a portfolio of customers who use the same shipping lanes each time. Every week we organise the same transport, but there are always new challenges which means I am learning something new each time. In addition, each destination has their own rules which can change, so this keeps me engaged and alert.

“I work with people and departments from around the world.”

Being a Customer Experience Agent involves a lot of investigation and problem solving which I enjoy, for example, when I receive email from a customer asking about their additional charges, I am responsible for explaining their options and charges. I don’t do this job by myself without support; I work with different people and departments from around the world. I work with the One Team Customer Experience (OTCX) team who are based in India, they are a group of people dedicated to Polish customers. Together we divide up the tasks to share the workload, we help each other when we have lots of to do, and we manage to work collaboratively and efficiently.

“We help each other wherever we can.”

My manager is also so supportive and kind which helps create an amazing atmosphere in the team. I think my team is the best, we call ourselves the dream team, we help each other wherever we can. For example, when I first joined, there was someone from my team who was working late, and another colleague offered to share the work with them so both of them could finish earlier.

I mostly work from home, but I go into the office one to two days a week. I enjoy this set up as being in the office is a time to catchup with the team and build relationships with other colleagues in the office.

“Maersk is committed to sustainability and tackling climate change.”

Sustainability and tackling climate change are topics I deeply care about personally, and Maersk is committed to both these issues. This is the reason I’m most proud of working at here. Søren Skou, CEO of Maersk from 2016 to 2022, sums this up well in one sentence: "The science is clear: we must make an impact in this decade, and we are now accelerating our climate ambitions by ten years and committing to be net zero across our business and value chain by 2040 with 100% green solutions for our customers."

Maersk’s collaboration with the Ocean Clean-up organization and investing in vessels which use green methanol are just two examples of the huge steps Maersk is taking towards a more sustainable future. I think this sets an example for the rest of the industry as well as the the rest of the world to follow. I will be starting my masters at the Maritime University in Gdynia in Water Protection and Waste Management soon so I can become more informed and hopefully make my own contributions to saving the planet.

I feel so lucky, I cannot believe that I can work with such an amazing team and company which has “our employees” as one of their values. I’ve never had such a great group of colleagues who support each other.

I would encourage anyone who wants to work in a global company who values their employees and offers a training, and career development to apply and join Maersk.

Katarzyna Choloniewska

Customer Experience Agent, Poland