Kévin: a French expatriate in Portugal

A couple weeks ago, Kevin, HR in the Extia Portuguese team was interviewed by Leo Capelossi, founder of The Recruiters Gang.

Their two companies are located in the IDEA SPACES, which is a coworking space in Lisbon. According to Leo, it is more like a “community” with 360 companies, made of 2.500 members, divided into 4 premium locations in Lisbon. It is huge! One of the biggest coworking community in the country.

As they are members of the same community, Leo got in touch with Kevin in order to learn more about his experience as a French expatriate in Portugal, and especially in IDEA SPACES, the main theme of his article.

Here is what he shared :

🤟 Three Questions - Featuring Kevin - HR/TA Expats in Portugal

0. Could you share a short bio? (just a tiny paragraph about you!)

Kindness, Empathy and Patience are keys in your life. A simple guy who promotes authenticity. In a nutshell : Psychology, History, MMA, Marvel.

1. Kevin, French is the 8th expat community in population in Portugal, and continues to rise. In your experience, why is Portugal attractive to live in and work in? Also, are there any differences regarding talent attraction here and in France?

To be simple : Portugal is attractive because of :

• Its climate, huge source of Vitamin D and day to day, it's a pleasure to live under the sun. OK, today it's raining, but it's good for the environment. The possibility to cross the country in a few hours which offers you a quantity of different landscapes.
• Its culture, warm and welcoming. You can live in peace and in a global security that you can't find elsewhere in my opinion.

It's a pleasure to work there because obviously, it's important to put some positive pressure on ourselves in order to deliver, but in a global positive environment, it's a big plus.

I like the mindset, facility to network, and to engage people.

I don't think there's a difference with France. The global vision of talent attraction is the same, depending on which area you are.

In the consulting area we have to face many international competitors implemented here. It's a small country with very talented people but that's the deal : Few profiles, too many companies. We need to adapt.

2. You are in the tech industry, where the talent shortage is huge everywhere. What do you do to make Extia different, not just for new joiners, but in the long term?

Our ambition is simple : to deliver a positive experience and it starts from the first approach until the end. It passes by different types of hiring, one more based on the candidate's wisdom and mindset which allow us to have visibility regarding different projects that could fit. In general we do our best to give the possibility of choice to our candidates when we have the opportunity. Then it applies during their career with us. It's a way to build their career from scratch.

We have a triple monitoring career management with one business manager, one admin support and one HR manager / Extians. That allows them to always have someone ready to answer depending on the subject.

We also want people to grow: we deliver internal training, external training with certifications if it's needed. We have a community of expert systems with free conferences in order to make people network and share knowledge.

We encourage initiatives : If someone has an Idea, let's discuss it and implement it quickly in order to grow! Test & Learn, continuous improvement.

That leads us to be the 2nd Great Place to Work in France and for 6 years, one of the European Best Places To Work.

3. I know many people in recruitment that would like to move to a BP, career management role. You play both. Could you comment on how you think the roles are connected and more than that, tips for someone waiting to do this kind of transition?

They are connected because:

• Without business visibility, you can't recruit. Without candidates, you can't recruit, it's simple. You have to understand the business but also to be understood by it. It's a win-win situation. The recruitment process will not end at the signature, in my opinion it's a continuous process. If you recruit a candidate but then lose him/her during the trial period because you didn't do what you have promoted, you failed.
• It starts at the recruitment. There's 2 types of recruiters : The one who will pay attention to the need, the LinkedIn profile and the one who will focus on the person. Behind the LK profile, there's human beings, with their life, family, issues, hopes. You recruit someone you want to work with because you can imagine this person in your company. You have a direct impact in people's life. It's important to know what the candidate wants to do, how he/she sees him/herself in a short, middle term. Then the goal is not to sell dreams, but to do the maximum in order to support.

Playing both includes being organized, to manage your time but also to give enough energy to maintain the balance. Also, to make you understand : No, the candidate unicorn doesn't exist. No, you can't answer yes to every internal demand.

Tips: If you want to switch from recruitment to career management role:

• Have a clear understanding of what exists in your company, what's the visibility (in terms of training for exemple). Know your colleagues. You have to know what they do, how they do it, how they feel.
• Deploy empathy & patience. Be passionate about personal growth and be happy in what you do. If you're not happy in your position, everyone will feel it before you.

Finally : Don't wait. Do it. Life is too short to hesitate. Take a decision and move on.

If It works : Great! it doesn't work : adjust.

To read the entire article, click here!