A team passionate about our digital co-location culture
“Pura Vida” represents Costa Ricans’ relaxed attitude towards life, no matter the circumstance. It’s used to say hello, goodbye, to say everything is okay, and to brush off any negativity. It’s a way of life and an attitude. If I had to choose a term to represent this team, it would be exactly that ❤️.
As part of the social team both Franco and I (for those who don’t know me yet I’m Alba, nice to meet you 😉) aim to make this community grow stronger with every NEWS, meetup and event we are bringing to you. And to do so this week we’ve chatted with Johanna, Natalia and Hayde about their passion for their jobs and digital co-location way of life.
First we had a very funny moment. Not that we don’t trust their knowledge of the IAM community 😜, especially having brought so many new members lately, but we wanted to test them with a trivia game. Joha is the Lead, who is not only famous for being the girl with the pink hair but also for living with 17 cats and 3 dogs. No doubt someone can be a great leader if they can make so many animals living together 🤣. In the Trivia she came up front as expected, but at the last minute Hayde took the main prize 🏆. It was a closed competition: Congratulations Hayde!!
Our Culture
For those who don’t know us yet, we are a distributed community with IAMExperts in many countries and a lot of different cities. We have been growing in Latin America and Europe learning the different cultures from each other, our similarities and also the things that differentiate us but always with one thing in common: collaboration to make us grow and richer.
“It’s a lifestyle”, says Johanna about our Community and our collaboration ethic. It is not only the autonomy it gives when organizing your time, but to be in the place of the world you want, to be able to travel in parallel (well, not right now…), to be on a beach, a mountain or your favorite city committed with the same passion to deliver the best you can. Where there is an internet connection, a quiet place to be focused and a good headset you can rock and be part of a team.
They agree that remote working might not be for everyone, with the right work set up (e.g a home office and comfortable equipment) as well as a fixed routine they see it is the perfect option for those who are tired of tedious hour long commutes to the office. Plus, Hayde brings up an interesting point because she mentions how remote work and having your office at home favours agile responses when emergencies arise.
They also see many benefits of being part of the IAM Community, starting with the possibility to work while travelling as Natalia did for a month in Europe (when she’s based in Costa Rica) or Hayde who moved from Mexico to Switzerland. They point as well that this requires a high level of communication with your fellow team members so projects run smoothly.
Even when recruiting new IAMExperts they take into great consideration how skilled they are in teamwork, communication and flexibility.
When thinking about which is the most valuable soft skill when looking for a person, Johanna chose “Problem Solving” because, not being in the same physical space and perhaps with a different timezone, it is important that a member has the ability to make decisions in the face of any inconvenience.
While Hayde and Natalia chose “TeamWork” which goes hand-by-hand with our collaborative culture and always helps others for the good of the group.
Who they are
To know a little more about these beloved members, Natalia holds a degree in Business Administration and Hayde and Johanna have a background in psychology. Not being too interested in the clinical field they rather chose to explore options in IT business and the decision to specialize in the tech industry came from a young age for both.
After so many years dedicated to this field it’s pretty obvious that they love their job for many reasons. For Johanna it’s the rush of tight deadlines that drives passion, not to mention that she loves setting herself and her team new goals every day. Constant change seems to be what Haydee and Natalia value the most about her duties as well, loving to be in the hunt. But the reason why each and everyone of you is receiving this email today is what they treasure the most about their jobs, helping professionals find life changing and fulfilling jobs.
Even though they have never been together physically, the way they get along, the connection they have with each other, the knowledge they have of each other, shows that closeness is not the result of being in the same place, it is the result of the empathy one can generate with the other.
Challenges to come
The community faces daily challenges and with the strength to continue growing, they as ambassadors have the challenging task of making our culture known to people from different parts and ways of being 🚀.
