Create your own path in our Community Relations team
Career growth is one of many reasons to join the ride with BlaBlaCar, but from person to person, each journey is unique. When working with experts from across the globe, growing comes naturally. On top of this we have different initiatives to help our employees grow such as mentorship programs for women & management, a learning platform, language groups, and many other initiatives created by our learning team. In this article, we will focus on career development.
I’ve had the chance to sit down with Nara & Clovis who have grown their career in different directions, both starting off as agents in our Community Relations team.
Nara Farias — Project Manager in our Community Relations team
Nara is our Project Manager from Brazil who loves to travel, play ukulele, and enjoy the Parisian nightlife. She first joined BlaBlaCar six years ago as Community Relations Agent, and since then she’s had several roles in Brazil and later relocated to Paris.
“Before starting my role as an agent, I was an academic in the area of social applied science, focusing on migration. The reason I joined BlaBlaCar in the first place was mainly because of the product itself. It was important for me to join a company with a product that I believed in and could stand behind.”
At the time, the Community Relations team in Brazil was just being put together. After being in the team for a few years, Nara grew from agent, to specialist, to manager, which is when she was asked to put together a bigger team in order to answer to growing member demands.
“My managers saw my potential from the start and trusted me with more and more responsibilities as I was progressing in my role. On top of being guided, I also did three different management training courses to develop my leadership skills and prepare me for my new role.”
Today, Nara is working as Project Manager in Paris, improving processes for agents and other projects to support the Community Relations team.
“After working as a manager in São Paulo I realized that I wanted to focus more on global topics which are mainly handled by our team in Paris. An opportunity appeared to work as Project Manager in our Paris headquarters, and after going through our internal mobility process, I was ready to relocate. But it turned out to be a little more difficult than expected. Just after landing the new role, Covid-19 hit, and I was forced to begin my new job from Brazil.”
After a year of working as a Project Manager from Brazil, Nara was finally able to relocate to the BlaBlaCar headquarters in Paris. Her favorite part about her job? That it’s changing all the time.
“The projects that I work with are quite diverse which I really appreciate because you don’t have a strict routine that you need to follow every day. This also helps me grow in my position as I get challenged with each new project, still after two years in the role.”
One of her favorite principles is “Be the Member.” which encourages our employees to be on the road with our members. Nara loves to travel, and likes the fact that she can find new ways to improve the product at the same time. She also mentions “Share more. Learn more.” and how it has helped her grow over the years.
“In my role as Project Manager I have to share and learn all the time, this is something we do every day. This environment has helped me grow to where I am today. For me, joining as an agent opened a door to a journey in a diverse and international environment where I could develop many different kinds of skills. Today, I’m happy in my role as Project Manager, but who knows what will come tomorrow. Opportunities appear all the time, and it wouldn’t surprise me if one day I end up in a completely different team.”
Clovis Bernier — Product Manager in our BlaBlaCar Daily team
Clovis can be described in many ways, as an entrepreneur, Subaquatic Hockey player, and much more. Today, we will focus on his current role as Product Manager, and his road to get there in our BlaBlaCar Daily team, working on our app dedicated to commuting trips. Clovis studied both international business and entrepreneurship, and took every opportunity he could get to travel abroad.
“During my studies I went twice to the United States, and studied one semester in Bologna in Italy. I also had the opportunity to do two internships abroad, one in Australia and one in the United Kingdom. I loved the international aspect of my studies, and it’s something that I experience everyday at BlaBlaCar, because we have people from everywhere in the world.”
During his last year of studies, Clovis created a small business to sell customized jewelry online. This business kept him occupied for over two years before joining the ride with BlaBlaCar.
“Basically, my customers would send me a design and I would create a piece of jewelry out of it, that I designed in 3D. I would then order the piece from the manufacturer, do the weaving of a bracelet or add a chain to a pendant, and send it to my customer. I really wanted to take the entrepreneurship path and create something myself.”
Clovis continued working with his company but realized soon that selling jewelry was not something he wanted to do long-term. A friend of his recommended him to join the Community Relations team at BlaBlaCar Daily, which had an opening for a Community Relations Agent.
“When I first joined BlaBlaCar, I was working on my jewelry company in the morning, and coming to the office in the afternoon as an agent for BlaBlaCar Daily. I was actually the first agent in the BlaBlaCar Daily team.”
After a year of balancing entrepreneurship with his role as an agent, Clovis chose to dedicate less time to his company and to join the BlaBlaCar Daily team full time. During his experience in the team, he had a close interest in the user experience, which was sometimes impacted by bugs in the app. After talking to his manager about improving the app quality, he was offered the opportunity to work part time with the Quality Assurance (QA) team at BlaBlaCar.
“As Quality Assurance Specialist I put the testing processes in place for BlaBlaCar Daily, while also taking care of the QA of other squads in BlaBlaCar.”
At this point, Clovis did not only know the users’ point of view, but he also had the technical perspective from working on quality assurance. By combining his experience working at BlaBlaCar with his earlier business studies, he decided that becoming Product Manager would be his next step in the BlaBlaCar Daily team. He discussed his ambitions with his manager, and after some time an opportunity finally appeared.
“Since January I’ve been working in the Product team, first as Product Owner and since September as Product Manager, and it’s been really great so far. It’s a role that corresponds to me. I know the app well after working on it for over four years, and I know what the users want from my time as an agent.“
Clovis mentions that one of the most important things for him about working at BlaBlaCar is that he can make an impact from an ecological, economical, and social point of view through his work. On top of that, he also appreciates the Fun & Serious culture.
“The BlaBlaBand is something that is crazy! I didn’t know about it before I saw my first concert, and I was amazed to see such great artists on stage. Colleagues that I’m working with, I had no idea that they were singers, guitarists, or drummers.”
His advice? Don’t go for a new job only for the title, instead, go for a company that you love.
“If you’re doing things well, you’re gonna end up with a job that you love for sure. That’s what happened to me. I picked a company that resonated with me, and kept following opportunities on the road.
Today, I still feel like I can grow in my role as Product Manager, but I can also see myself working on the opening of new countries for the BlaBlaCar Daily app in the future. It would be an interesting challenge, and something that would resonate with my studies in International Business.”
Special thanks to Nara Farias & Clovis Bernier for giving us a glimpse into your journey with BlaBlaCar. Thank you Emilie Baliozian & Laetitia Melchior for your review & feedback.
Ready to join the ride? We’re hiring! Learn more: https://jobs.blablacar.com/
