IMPULSE 

Impulse

Impulse. To boost, to gain momentum, to act on impulse, to feel the impulse of… There is an infinite number of ways to propel oneself in life. Impulse is the spark that makes us take action, reconsider our present in order to design our future. It is that first moment when you raise your head and realise you want to go further. Impulse shows up in any of our life situations. Think about it. We have all probably considered, at one point or another, studying something different after finding out there is something else more appealing to oneself, or making a career change after hearing about a new technology/methodology. Even moving to another company in search of a change of scene or specialty, getting trained in something specific, or just in the pursuit of happiness at work. 

Pay attention. Impulse bursts forth before you take action. When “feeling the impulse of” you enter a first stage that implies an act of forethinking which helps you find out towards which direction you want to get impulse. It is that moment in which you stop the engine to resolve what that impulse, which you can’t get out of your head and is running through your body, is. An image that perfectly defines this mental and physical phase you go through would be a catapult. Picture that previous moment to launching, when your arm is tensioned. That exact lapse is a metaphor of the much-needed reflection on what you intend to do, that might last a second, two days, or a year, until…you finally throw yourself into it. In any case, and even though some people might believe and might continue to claim it until the end of their days, the truth is that impulse doesn’t imply a vital swerve. I’m sure you’ve heard more than once: “Never take a step back, not even to gain momentum”. What about you, do you see it the same way?

Sometimes in life, in any situation, you need to take a step backwards (and even two, three or as many as you require) in order to get impulse, figure out what you really want, and move forward. In fact, the impulse towards the future is a glance towards the unknown, towards a possible hypothesis, and not a parade towards the present-day pre-set end of the story.

Our blog, a tool in your professional growth

These thoughts on impulse sprang forth when creating this blog since, no matter how you define it, it is an inherent quality of our nature that lies in each of us. It can be a collective impulse when working as a team, cooperating and uniting efforts to achieve a certain goal, or it can emerge at an individual level. Be that as it may, it has to do with people like you. Individuals just like the ones who make up BETWEEN Technology, who feel the need to impulse themselves. That’s why this term, impulse, did not only just spring forth, but also ended up being BETWEEN’s blog name, because it is in our DNA to help talent lead this impulse towards what all these talented individuals would like to reach.  In other words, to support each of them in achieving their professional goals, without giving up on their personal ones. Professional impulse is not the only essential aspect to us, personal one is equally, or even more important.

From our new PEOPLE department, we will help you so that this impulse becomes a reality. How? Through our corporate blog: Impulse, one of our tools to show our support to that technological talent with content of their interest based on our broad and diverse know-how, in order to be able to provide answers to questions, concerns or doubts that this talent may have. We work on attracting, developing and loyalising the best technological talent. We find the best professionals and we foster their growth. How do we do it? By offering the best jobs, where they will find the most attractive and stimulating projects, and which will involve a professional challenge. For example, providing growth opportunities within the company by progressively assuming new responsibilities. Regarding this issue, we can tell you about real stories, such as Carlos Gabriel Sebastiani’s one, who in only seven months has been promoted within BETWEEN to take on new professional challenges and has received all of his team’s support in this new stage.

“In a short period of time, I have seen that it is possible to evolve and grow professionally in this company. They root for their employees. In fact, it’s like football, betting on your current employees is the best thing you can do, since they have more knowledge of the business and even of the team. I am very grateful”; these are Carlos’ words shortly after assuming his new role. But the most noteworthy case is our Managing Director’s, Pau Guarro i Oliver, who started working at BETWEEN as an external consultant for one of our clients and, 15 years later, has assumed responsibility for the company’s General Management. Leading projects, taking on new responsibilities and facing new challenges are some of the professional growth opportunities BETWEEN can offer you. Not only do we offer the possibility to accomplish new challenges, we also support talent in this new stage. To that end, we count on some experts who share with us their knowledge and help us, for example, to learn how to lead teams and individuals in an efficient way.

The environment at work, a basic issue?

Talent needs support and comradeship, both essential for being happy in the workplace. I’m sure you have asked yourself more than once if you are happy at work. We regard it as an essential issue. If you are happy, you contribute to the creation of a healthy and positive work environment, and wherever you may be, it will be a company where everybody wants to work and stay. That’s why, and with the help of voices of command within the Human Resources world, you will find in our blog some tips for being happy at work. Did you know that being happy at work does not only increase personal satisfaction, self-esteem and productivity, but that it also favours creativity and the interest in innovation? We spend one third of each day working (just figure out how much that is in a lifetime), don’t you think that being happy at work and doing your bit to help all the people around you is worth it? We firmly believe it is, and we bet on it.   

Being happy in our workplace should be compulsory for all of us, but things are not always as we would like them to be, and sometimes it is unavoidable having to deal with complicated situations at work, such as the so-called and dreaded “bad working environment”. But, can you tell the difference between having a few bad days at work and being constantly unhappy due to a poor working environment? In our blog we will also give you the keys to coping with a bad working environment. Because, let’s be honest: it is usually hard coping with Mondays at the office after the weekend, but that doesn’t mean there is a bad working environment. One thing is experiencing the lack of caffeine, and a very different one is feeling panic or anxiety over having to face the week, the day, or the moment of getting to work… and every single thing it implies once you get to your desk. A bad working environment is characterised by a series of clear features that usually take place in most companies: small groups constantly chit-chatting and gossiping, lack of acknowledgement on behalf of your supervisors, undertrained managers, internal communication problems, lack of expectations, etc. Do you see yourself pictured in this description? Do you feel identified with it, or does this situation sound familiar to you? If so, you might be trapped in an unhappy work environment, and we would like to help you with 5 tips to surround yourself with a positive working environment. At least, you will have tried it.  

A bad working environment is a good reason for shifting to another project, department, company, and even to another city. It is one of the main causes for the existence of the so-called brain-drain. It is really hard to find good professionals that add value to a company and then, all of a sudden, see them flee in terror. It’s a bad deal, isn’t it? In fact, one of the greatest challenges companies have to face is dealing with this question: what de we need to do in order to “take care” of the most important resource we have and avoid its drain? We have the keys so that your company, once and for all, succeeds in retaining the so-treasured TALENT for your projects: your employees will not want to leave.

And it’s not just that, the non-identification with the corporate values of the company that you work for could be the key to opening your current job’s exit door. This is known as Culture Fit, we explain you what it is and what it consists of. You should really try to find out which are the strategic values and priorities of a given company, because, if you get on board, they will be the roadmap taking you to the next trip’s destination. Recent studies about this selection practice have concluded that more than the 80% of the employees around the world consider that being “Culture Fit” is one of the imperative variables for choosing a company over another one as the future place to work.

If you are considering changing to another company and you want your future work relationship to be stable, dedicate some time to finding out how to identify them and evaluate the similarities with your personal and professional values. This concept is, basically, a talent recruitment trend which aim is that the company and the candidate share as many values, ideas and principles as possible. It makes sense and it is desirable for both parts, don’t you think so? In the same way that you share common interests, values and a way of seeing life with your friends, couple and relatives that make the relationship work, the same thing should happen at a working level, given the fact that we spend one third of each day (and almost of our life) in our workplace.

Yes, just as you heard it. We spend 9 hours and 19 minutes at the office every day (from the beginning of the working day until the end of it, including breakfast, lunch, breaks…). And, out of that time, according to what some studies claim, we spend 5 hours at meetings. Considering these figures, don’t you think that it is vital to run efficient meetings? Maybe by doing so we would cut down on the amount of time invested in meetings or, at least, we would make the most of each of them. At BETWEEN we think it is essential to manage time in an efficient way, that’s why we have put at all our betweeners disposal an infographic with 10 steps for making your meetings as efficient as possible.

The selection process at BETWEEN

Then, you might ask yourself: why, besides all this knowledge of the company’s workforce real needs, are there still times when employees do not fit at all with their company’s corporate values? The whole thing starts at the selection process, where one of the aims should be to find out first-hand if the prospect employee and the company will fit and enable a long-lasting and profitable work relationship. At BETWEEN we are very aware of this need, that’s why we are crystal-clear during all the phases in our selection processes, and we provide all the information that any person in the candidate’s place should know. 

Aniol Sant, Talent Acquisition Manager at BETWEEN, argues that “transparency is the distinguishing factor in BETWEEN’s selection processes. We have several points in favour such as, for example, publishing the salary, social benefits, etc.”. For us, when carrying out an interview, it is not enough just finding out whether that person will be able to perform the assigned tasks in his/her day-to-day. This is what Vanessa Ron, IT & Engineering Recruiter at BETWEEN, explains to us. We go a step further, it is essential to provide a friendly attention, put ourselves in our interlocutor’s shoes, and find out the candidate’s concerns and needs. Something vital, as Ana Muñoz, Madrid’s office Talent Acquisition Lead, tells us in this video. “It is all about generating value and making the new Betweener have a career plan. Results are obtained working together with your team, the indispensable pillar”, says Noemi Cotoré Talent Acquisition Lead in the Basque Country’s office. And it is only this way that we will be able to offer the candidate the opportunity that he/she really needs. This is how we understand the selection process at BETWEEN. 

And talking about selection processes, you’ve probably taken part in more than one. At this point we (would like to) ask you: Do you think that job interviews are conducted in the same way when the candidate is a man, and when the candidate is a woman? Just one fact. According to a study carried out by the University of California, women tend to be interrupted much more than men during job interviews. This causes that female candidates speak less and reduce the speech they had originally prepared, therefore complicating a coherent explanation of their ideas, and probably making them omit information that could prove their different competences and value. In addition, female participants must answer about three more questions than their male counterparts in selection processes. At BETWEEN we are very aware of biases in selection processes and we are sure that those companies who focus on enriching their workforce will be able to face all the challenges this century is posing on us with greater solvency. Sexist interviews CAN be avoided: learn about our best practices for conducting them.

Ok, all of this sounds great, you might think, but I’ve seen search results in Google of the kind “BETWEEN dead-end job”. We are proud to tell you that you won’t find the negative results that this search suggests a priori, and we encourage you to check it yourself. Of course, if you do a search in Glassdoor, Indeed or other websites where we have a company account, you will find reviews that are not always positive and criticism that is not always constructive. We are not afraid to tell you that we make mistakes and that we are not perfect, but we always learn from them and we always try not to make them again. We are not infallible, but we try that you make the most out of the time you spend working at BETWEEN and that when you leave for a new professional adventure, you keep a good memory of your time here. You won’t be the first or last one that, although being no longer working with us, will keep on attending the company’s events. That’s why most of the reviews you will find on the internet give a good account of how we look after the well-being of all of those who make up BETWEEN.

Why do we say all this? Because we would like you to be the next betweener. Just one more relevant piece of information on this issue (and it’s not us saying it: 74% of BETWEEN’s employees are satisfied with the company. Well, let us show you some of the data obtained through the last Employee Climate Survey:

• 65% to 70% of Betweeners feel quite or very satisfied with his/her professional development within the company.

• Motivation is another key factor. Between the 80% and 90% of the employees feel quite or very satisfied regarding linkage and integration at work.

All the information obtained from betweeners’ feedback is so important and valuable to us, that we have asked them to explain it themselves. We didn’t want just to paraphrase some of the ideas taken out of the progress interviews that we carry out periodically. This is what the individuals that make up BETWEEN explain to us, and we think that their words express exactly what working at BETWEEN is like. Answers to basic questions that everyone asks himself or herself when having to choose between one company or another one. Can you imagine what working at BETWEEN is like?

Get out of your comfort zone and grow professionally

Happiness or “being ok” at work are not the only main concerns of talented people. Professional growth is also a must. Growth based on effort acknowledgement and reached goals combined with continuous and specialised training are also of great importance. Professional growth does not necessarily need to be bound to a company change, as has been traditionally happening in Mediterranean companies; now growth opportunities can (and should) be given within the same company, being of free choice on behalf of the employee, whether or not, for example, to change his/her functional area.

Did you know that those people born between 1980 and 1996 have more probabilities of changing jobs? This is what “How Millennials Want To Work and Live”, a new study carried out by Gallup, claims.

If you have a strategic view, the fact of changing your functional area may turn out to be a great opportunity for your professional growth, an investment that will result in a substantial payback. The helm to experience this 180^o turn in your professional career could be training. Continuous training within your company is something we have been promoting at BETWEEN for years. A happy employee is an employee that fulfils his/her formative inquisitiveness. Marta Giménez, our Training responsible, knows quite a lot about that, as she explains to you in this short article we dedicated to her a few weeks ago.

Nowadays, most employees, especially if we talk about qualified jobs, don’t have that (traditional) idea that most of our grandparents had in mind of getting into a company and staying there for the rest of their lives; we no longer believe in the myth of being in a company for a lifetime. Times have changed, new generations have incorporated into companies, and they have brought with them new points of view and ways of seeing life, including the working life. Yes, we’re talking about millennials, but not just about them. Most of us feel more comfortable and have gotten used to working by projects, since it is a good way for boosting our motivation. Our aim is to grow professionally, but the place where we do it is no longer the essential part of it, since we will be able to do it wherever we go. In the present day, it is far more important to feel good with ourselves, to add value, to generate a long-lasting impact, to feel useful and to improve our skills year after year, learning from everybody and everything that surrounds us. Moving in such dynamic environments has passed us on that dynamism. The fear of facing a job change has disappeared. How can we loyalise talent in such volatile environments? That’s the greatest challenge companies will be facing over the next few years, if they are not doing so yet. It is the working paradigm’s great change that digital transformation has given rise to.

But let’s put ourselves in people’s shoes, not in business’ ones. A person who has been dedicating years to a stable project in the same company will end up by being caught up with the dynamic impulse of his/her younger and less stability-loving co-workers, and will feel the need to try other projects and broaden his/her expertise in novel areas and cutting-edge technologies. Getting out of the working comfort zone is easier every day, and it is more appreciated too. If companies make things easier for us, we will both benefit. That’s how we see it at BETWEEN.

At BETWEEN Technology we would like to help you with this change, and we would like to be at the helm of your “professional change” and make sure you never lose sight of your goal. That’s why in this post you’ll find out, through the voice of experienced talent recruiters of the technological sector, three essential things to bear in mind if you are considering a job change, whether you are a millennial or not:

• Where to find new projects within the ICT world

• How to properly update your resumé or professional portfolio

• How to face an ICT job interview

A change is one of the things you’re not going to get in better conditions than at a company like BETWEEN, which offers consultancy projects in very different areas belonging to the fields of new technologies and engineering. You will be able to shift technologies every time you feel you need it (have you heard of the term blockchain? We work in this area), by moving to another project, city, country… And with the advantage of being able to do it within the same company. It’s a win-win, we all benefit from it.

Do you know the benefits of working as a consultant?

But if you don’t know what working as a consultant means, unanswered questions will prevent you from enjoying all its advantages. At BETWEEN we are in touch with a great amount of people with technological profiles and, despite variety, most of them share a common feature: their experience in technological consultancy. And, leaving aside the typical image of suit and tie that is usually associated with consultancy – and that really depends on the company and the final client you work for – there are a series of crystal-clear benefits that working as a consultant will provide to your career. In our blog we talk to you about these benefits so that, with all the data at your disposal, you can redirect your career in other directions that you probably hadn’t thought of, or you didn’t know.

One of consultancy’s strong points, as we outlined before, is that it is not exclusive. There is no comfort zone where to escape from, because it is as varied as the projects we offer. It is a professional challenge appropriate for anyone thinking of making a U-turn in his/her career, or even for someone who just finished his/her degree and would like to gain experience, but without having to make a choice on a specific option yet. First you acquire experience, try, learn, test your skills and challenge your own limits. Only this way, with a knowledgeable opinion, you will get to know what really motivates you.

At BETWEEN we are very much in contact with that emerging talent by, for example, taking part in several engineering student projects. Some of them are linked to different sport competitions that have to do with automotive technologies. On the one hand, it has been our third year in close collaboration with UPC’s ETSEIB Racing team, to whom we gave advice on the simulation and calculation of their competition motorcycle’s chassis. We love contributing to the Smart Motor Challenge by developing the ETSEIB e-Ride. Don’t miss out on this super-team’s video!

On the other hand, we’ve shifted from two to four wheels sponsoring too the best Formula Student national team: the ETSEIB Motorsport team, a squad of more than 30 students from  Barcelona’s UPC School of Advanced Industrial Engineering (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Industrial) who have participated with their competition CAT10e electrical single-seater. Would you like to see how fast technological talent moves? Press PLAY, then!

Women in technology: incorporation and professionalization of talent

Apart from finding the youngest talent, in this blog you will also find information on the current (and future) situation of techie women. One of the main issues that concerns us all. Haven’t you ever asked yourself why there are so few of them in this sector? Furthermore, taking into account that “highly gender-diverse tech companies returned on average 5.4% more on an annual basis than the average yearly returns of their peers with less gender diversity”, according to Morgan Stanley‘s study. The technological sector is wasting a very valuable talent contribution, and it seems to be careless about it. But we do care. And we do everything within our reach to incorporate women in technical careers, and later on, help them in the professionalisation of all the acquired knowledge.

We are very conscious of the gap that still exists today: women represent the 52% of the territory’s population, but presently only 18% of the jobs in the technological sector in Spain are held by women. Eli Abad, one of BETWEEN’s Counselling Board member, founded the technological company ADICIONA in 2003 and even at that time she was very aware of the gender gap in the technological sector. That’s why we would like to talk about this issue in our corporate blog, letting the protagonists speak for themselves. For example, Susana Morcuende, Pedagogue and Developer, tells us about some projects carried out by women in STEM (acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) professions aimed at giving visibility to those projects going on behind the scenes in the post  “Women in technology: Welcome, Mr. Marshall”.

In spite of everything voices of command within this sector claim that it is one of the few getting more support with regard to gender equality in Spain. But, when talking about technological events, are we really that feminist? Do we support this kind of events only until problems arise? Diversity and feminism at techie events is another of the issues we discuss with experts within the sector.

We’re also going to tell you all about UPC’s M2m programme, of which we are part through Eli Abad, who gives mentoring sessions to a young techie student during the academic course with the aim of helping, orienting and giving her advice through her own experience. Eli lets us know her impressions, concerns, fears and doubts in our blog. Are you also worried about the low index of women in the technological sector?

One of the things Eli has been able to see in her, and that, in fact, is a recurring topic among the rest of the programme’s mentors, is their mentees’fear of making decisions, or, more specifically, the fear of “making a mistake or making the wrong choice”. That's why she decided to find tools that could help her arrange her ideas. Eli prepared the SWOT analysis template that you can find here. What do you think about it? How would you improve it? You can download here.

Why are there so few data on STEM women in Spain? Because of the lack of data and the dact that they are not aggregated enough, also, it has to do with the updating speed. The technological sector is wasting a very valuable talent contribution, and it seems to be careless about it. But we do care. And we do everything within our reach to incorporate women in technical careers, and later on, help them in the professionalisation of all the acquired knowledge. That's why in this post, we have interviewed Mónica Manzanares, a betweener who is part of Young IT Girls, a project that promotes technological vocations among girls. In fact, the successful show “The Big Bang Theory” (who hasn’t heard of it?) includes representations of women with technical careers. The neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler or the microbiologist Bernadette Rostenkowski come to mind, but that’s not all. There is an episode in which Sheldon, Howard and Leonard also explore the possibility of getting more women to pursue a career in science. Do you remember which episode this was?

Perhaps after everything we have explained to you in this post, you are still doubting whether you are the suitable person for working at a consultancy or not. You are willing to do it, but maybe you have been stuck in a rut, too comfortable, or just bogged down for years. Or maybe the lack of experience is what is stopping you from making a decision that would probably catapult your professional career, but you’re afraid of not fitting in. Whichever is your starting point, ypu have to try and prove for yourself to know what consultancy can offer you.