Achieving Sustainable Career Progression

Fabio Micera is a Project Manager at MSX Rome. Responsible for a team of almost 44 people, his team describe him as a caring Manager to work for. In this short article, we asked Fabio for his best advice for sustainable career progression.

I left my hometown of Naples to join MSX in Rome in 2010, working as a Customer Relationship Advisor for one of our most important automotive customers. At the time, I was processing hundreds of customer claims by phone and letter. I remember I missed home a little, because I love my city - I still return there often for the food, people and of course football team!
After 7 months, MSX offered to promote me to Senior Advisor for another major automotive manufacturer. I did this role for few years, learning about local commercial and marketing strategies and the relationship between car dealers and the wider network. 

“My career plan when I started is still my actual plan! I dream of one day becoming a CEO/MD at a multinational company like MSXI… My career plan when I started is still my actual plan…I dream of becoming CEO/MD of a multinational company…stay tuned, Emiliano Nebbioso!”

Fast forward two years and I was moving from Rome to Lombardia – this time to work as a Senior Field Consultant, before moving back to Rome as a Project Co-Ordinator managing 3 teams and 28 employees. This was my first big experience of resource management, which requires wit and good instincts. Managing this many people is a continuous tightrope, where you need to oscillate between maintaining ‘authority’ and ‘approachability’ to make people feel at ease. Only with both can the team can continuously enhance their talents. Is this a mission impossible? Partly. One of the major difficulties I found was the search for this balance, authority and approachability. It is something you have to constantly worked on, adjust and correct.

Now I am a Project Manager for 44 employees split across 6 teams – day to day I am dealing with important stakeholders, negotiating business extension and monitoring our SLA’s and contract extensions. 
The variability of my job is what gets me up in the morning. We provide professional services to OEM's and I can contribute my experience and skills across marketing, social media, public relations, management, strategy and design to a wide variety of clients. Each project presents unique challenges. Every day is different, and it is a constant adventure. I love my job!
I am also responsible for assessing budget risks, executing online and offline customer marketing and maintaining customer satisfaction.

"At MSX International we maintain a global vision and approach, but locally customized. I'm very lucky all the people I work with love their job and have a positive approach."

Family makes it possible

Outside of work, I married my wife Fabiana in 2013 and we now have two beautiful children... Flavio is 4 years old while Federico is 6 months old. You could say that MSXI has helped me as a Father as I really understand the importance of time management! I know that my wife is very proud of my professional career, and my son Flavio loves coming to work with me in the summer.

"What I wanted from my Managers when I was younger is exactly what I try to be today: I try to listen more than talk, take responsibility and be willing to learn from my team. I would want my team to describe me like a leader inspires them to innovate, think creatively, and strive for perfection."

Moving forward to grow together

If I could change one thing to make the automotive industry a better industry to work in, it would be the speed of evolution and change – which I think we are starting to see. As a company, I think we can continue to overcome our challenges by encouraging others, recognizing our employees’ natural gifts and by staying positive when seeking out solutions.

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