International mobility helped me fulfill my dream!

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Mayara Viana shares her story of how international mobility has helped fulfill her dream of living and working abroad

Where it began

I am from Brazil, where less than 1% of our population can speak English fluently. When I started my English classes in 2007, it was clear that it would open a lot of different doors for me. With the promise that within 5 years I’d become fluent and able to travel abroad for the first time as part of the experience. By the end of those 5 years, I was in the middle of college, studying and working, and unable to afford the trip financially.

I started my Human Resources career as an intern in 2013 in a French multinational company in the digital security segment. I can remember that in my first week, I was sitting at my desk when I realized that on my left-hand side, the director’s secretary was speaking in French. Then on my right, a salesperson was speaking English with customers. And in front of me, the internal communication lady was speaking Spanish. At that very moment, I got bitten by the cultural bug.

Chasing the dream

Since then, I started to dream about living abroad and working with people from different cultures. So I started the efforts to make it a reality. I had heard about the opportunity to make it happen through international mobility. This is when the company transfers you from one country to another. Many personal and professional reasons made me postpone this dream for a while. But for the same reasons, in 2018 I started to look for it again.

I’ve been working at Schneider Electric since 2016. I started as a recruiter focused on sales hiring in Brazil and was also in charge of rolling out our EVP (Employee Value Proposition). My scope became bigger in 2018 covering South American countries and scaling up our Early in Career programs. One day, I asked our HR Vice President, who has a lot of international experience, what advice he would give someone that is looking for an opportunity abroad. And he said: let people know it.

Be open and transparent

Then I started my journey, making my hiring manager aware, building my network across different countries, and being part of international projects. But this wouldn’t have been easy without our amazing internal tool that empowers employees to develop their careers at Schneider Electric.

I’m talking about OTM, Open Talent Market, our internal marketplace. Are you looking for a new role? Or do you want to try something new for a short period of time? Or would you like to have a mentor to support you through a specific goal? This artificial intelligence-based tool helped me get all of this. I had the opportunity to apply to different roles around the world, be part of international and regional projects, mentor, and be mentored.

In August 2021, I moved to London, UK with my husband due to an opportunity I applied for through the Open Talent Market. I’m finally living my dream of living abroad and developing my personal and professional life, thanks to international mobility!

At Schneider Electric, I’ve been empowered to own my career. This brings me personal fulfillment and fun to be free and innovate.

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About the Author

Based in London, Mayara Viana is the Talent Acquisition Manager for UK & Ireland. She is always merging psychology, marketing and technology to drive innovation and creativity in her daily work.

Considered a foodie person, she loves gastronomic experiences filled with good music, besides sharing it all in her social media.

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