On being yourself

Whenever I tell people about what we do at Join one of the first questions I get is “How did you come up with this?”.

Though we like to think conceptually Join is very simple – people meeting over food – it was not really a complete idea when it came to be.

Rather, it evolved from an initial experiment with loads of attempts, tons of fails (!) and subsequent fixes.

Whenever I tell the story, people suggest I should write about it, but since it’s quite long (we’ve been at it for over two years now) I thought it’d make sense to break it into chapters and, to kick it off, as promised, I’d like to connect the inception of the idea to the stories I shared last week since they did play a major influence in Join’s conception.

For starters, how acting out my nature allowed me to hone in on what motivates me.

Act out your nature or be yourself in whatever you do

Back in 2009, I had my first “career dilemma” – I had to pick out a course at university but, like most people, had no idea what I wanted to do and, for that matter, what I should commit to, so I made a sensible choice... or I like to think I did.

Computer Engineering was my choice.

Not because I was crazy about the topic – I was interested in it – but, most importantly, the Universidade de S?o Paulo (USP) offers the course as a cooperative course, meaning internships are a fundamental part of the five-year course from the third year onwards.

In my mind, interning was a fantastic way to “test the water” and have a better understanding of sectors and companies I actually saw myself in long-term. Sticking to my plan, I interned in different sectors in Finance, Technology, FMCG and HR.

Throughout this process, I had a very simple rule of thumb: I’d always try picturing myself in my manager’s shoes.

The reasoning was simple: if things went according to plan, that would be the role I’d probably occupy next, so I’d better be happy with it! The surprising side of it was that, even though I have had fantastic bosses – some of which I’m still in touch with –, I had a hard time picturing myself in their shoes.

That kept me moving.

Eventually, though, I started running out of time. It was 2015, I was 23 and due to earn my bachelors in a course that I found interesting but was never super passionate about. I was on track to join a highly sought-after trainee programme working for the world’s largest beer company, AB InBev, a company I highly admire… yet, I barely drink… I started thinking my career needed to be more aligned with what really moved me.

But what was I passionate about?

Perhaps ironically for a Computer Engineer, I had always felt I was at my best when I was around people. I felt I excelled when I had to deal with different kinds of stakeholders at the same time and get everyone to collaborate towards a common goal.

At that point, I had the opportunity to do that two main roles. Firstly, at AB InBev, where I was part of a team of two (my boss and myself) in the Exports department and we had to create processes and figure things out for ourselves – a bit of intrapreneurship – but, most importantly, at the NGO I was a part of – Cidad?o Pró-Mundo.

Cidad?o Pró-Mundo (their website is worth a visit!) is a Brazilian NGO that teaches English in underprivileged communities in Brazil. My mom being an English teacher, my two siblings and myself had the privilege of learning English from an early age and that opened tons of doors for the three of us, so when I heard about the organisation the mission resonated with me immediately.

My role at Pró-Mundo as HR Director meant I was in charge of sourcing, screening and onboarding volunteers. There wasn’t much of a department when I joined since the previous committee had left, so, again, the first step was to start making sense of everything from scratch.

I was lucky to bring into the team two sensational volunteers, Bianca and Marco, and, as a team, we started working to revamp the area and all its processes.

The common thread between my volunteer job and my role at AB InBev was definitely “putting things together from scratch” but, differently from my role at AB InBev, the output of my work at the NGO meant we had more people making English classes a reality for those who, otherwise, probably would not have had that opportunity!

Brazil is a deeply unequal country and I am lucky to be towards the privileged side of the scale, but I noticed it gave me a great sense of fulfilment when my work helped, even if at a minor scale, democratise opportunities.

English had opened many doors for me but, for many people, learning it was not an option – knowing my work contributed to making that possible was highly energising.

Being myself while testing different things with an open-mind allowed me to map out three (big) pieces of my motivation puzzle:

-      I was excited about working with people

-      I was excited about selling them a vision – getting everyone on the same boat

-      Lastly, I wanted to be working towards a tangible betterment of the lives of those around me

At Join, I like to think we've kept this same mindset.

By introducing candidates to companies in a relaxed setting, candidates are able to learn about the company directly from those who are a part of it. Research by LinkedIn shows that's the preferred way for 46% of candidates to learn about a company.

We believe the process of finding a job should feel natural – authentic – for both sides.

What about you? What are you passionate about? Do you get to bring your passions to work? Share in the comments below!

I will continue talking about the other stories and how they helped me shape some of my decisions, but that’s a topic for next week! Until then, feedback, comments and thoughts are most welcome.

If you’ve read this far, firstly, a big thank you. If these thoughts made you stop and ponder for a bit, I've achieved my goal!

Ricardo Tannus is the founder of Join, an HR-Tech startup that connects talented students to companies over blind dinners, reducing biases and helping talent meet opportunity in a natural way.