Who is Tana Storani?

I grew up on a farm in the countryside of S?o Paulo with a chicken as a pet. I've always dreamed of speaking English and to live abroad.

When I was 15, I convinced my mother to let me participate in an exchange program and I chose to go to Australia. But the 9/11 bombing of the US terrorized my mother and, along with the Twin Towers, my dreams collapsed. Like every teenager, at 17 I fell in love with the man of my dreams and I set aside the project of living and studying outside of Brazil. And five years later we broke up and he went to Australia. That's when I learned my first life lesson: My dreams and I are always the best investments.

And from there, the exchange program to learn English became my top priority!

I had a year left of my psychology Bachelor Degree and Brazil went through a monster crisis in 2007. Still, I didn't think twice, I finished up college, sold my old Uno, and left Brazil to learn English. I chose a cheaper destination, Ireland, and chose the city of Dublin. Ireland was also going through a crisis and I, even with a European passport, did not speak any English and worked very hard to find a job in the hospitality field.

I created my own European CV version, looked for work, and did a few horrible interviews in English. It was not easy, but with a lot of determination and persistence, I got my first job. I ended up working as a waitress, babysitter, then barista, even handed out flyers on the street dressed as a geisha. All adversity was overcome because I knew it was a phase of my life and that I would soon be in Brazil working as a psychologist. I never even applied for a formal job because I thought my English wasn't good enough. What was to be only six months, became two years.

And then, at that moment, I had to decide whether or not to go back to Brazil to finish my degree in Psychology. At that time, my gringo boyfriend asked me, "drop out of college and stay here with me." Oh! But I had already learned that lesson. Of course, I went back to Brazil to focus on my education.

I returned to Brazil, completed the course, and had the opportunity to work as an intern in a Recruitment Agency; there I fell in love with LinkedIn as a tool without even knowing how to use it strategically. At the same time, I was applying for vacancies to return to Ireland, because I could not adapt to the Brazilian reality; the lack of politicians respect, infrastructure problems, and other things made me so frustrated with my own country.

I lost count of how many vacancies I applied for and couldn't get interviews, it made me lose motivation sometimes. With no interview scheduled, I ended up returning to Ireland with only a diploma in CIPD HR Management course paid for and ready to start another year of studies.

Networking is everything! In the course, I met a Spanish recruiter who hired me as an intern at Adecco. All right, I wasn't paid, but I got my first experience in Ireland. And with that experience, I got a recruitment consultant position at Sigmar Recruitment – one of the best recruitment agencies in Ireland. At Sigmar, I witnessed the BOOM of job opportunities for Brazilians and international professionals. I recruited Brazilians and professionals of other nationalities for companies like Apple, Google, Bank of Ireland, Symantec, and Microsoft.

One beautiful day, a friend who had just picked up Italian citizenship asked for help to get out of a waitress job at Starbucks. We sat down and I explained how the market worked, which companies recruited Brazilians, created her CV and Linkedin in English and, from that day, I changed our lives. We did some simulated interviews in English and in less than two months she was employed in a multinational.

And then it all seemed to make sense to me! That's when the idea of helping Brazilians in this same position began!

After 2 years at Sigmar, I felt I was stagnant and decided to change. I started sending my CV to my dream company, Linkedin.I had already applied and been rejected, four times. But I never gave up! I kept applying until they called me in for an interview. At that time I had a colleague at HP who was a coach in personal branding. She taught me how to highlight my strengths and successes. This helped me a lot for the interview and I got the job!!!

It's like Einstein said: I tried 99 times and failed, but at the hundredth attempt I succeeded. Never give up your goals, even if they seem impossible. The next attempt may be the victory.

Sometimes I do not believe that I came from the countryside of S?o Paulo and that in less than 10 years I achieved my dreams; to travel, learn English, and work at LinkedIn. What seemed like an impossible dream, became a dream come true!

My dream now is to help other people to realize themselves in their international careers as I did.

By formulating a CV in English, personal branding, coaching, strategic job searching and using LinkedIn cleverly. I want to be the mentor that I did not have, using the experience I have in the Irish recruitment industry, to leverage the career of international professionals in Europe.