Saturday, August 18, 2007

Interview with Carolina Ayerbe

Carolina Ayerbe is an industrial designer based in Bogotá, Colômbia. She was one of the first employees of Tetra-Pak Colômbia and remained with the company until they closed operations 6 years later. Due to her shyness and a small network, Carolina was having difficulties in finding a new job when we initiated our coaching program. Today, Carolina is the second most connected professional on LinkedIN in Colômbia.

Octavio Pitaluga: Please tell about your social networking experience (time, platforms, number of contacts etc..)
Carolina Ayerbe: I was reluctant to start this program because it would involve to do something new and really invest time. However, with the support of my coach, I slowly started it. I had commenced to use LinkedIN some years ago although not actively. Today I have more than 1.200 contacts there. I also use Ecademy, Xing and TEN - Top Executives Net.

OP: How was this learning process?
CA: My coach suggested methodologies and actions in order to expand my network. I took about 5 months in order to reach the point in which my network became active and I was contributing to it as well.

OP: How our business coaching management methodology contributed for your reaching your goal so quickly?
CA: Because it offered specific actions that could be implemented, which in turn, brought specific results.

OP: What new habits have you acquired?
CA: Answer e-mails kindly, write articles, offer help without expecting anything in return and grow my network sistematically.

OP: How do your intend to keep your network active now that you got your job?
CA: It will be hard to take time to do it but a) I intend to update my profile constantly, b) keep uploading e-mails and request contact in social networking platforms and c) keep writting about my professional experience and contributing to discussion forums.

OP: Being based in Bogotá/Colômbia and having Octavio based in Rio de Janeiro, how were your virtual coaching sessions?
CA: We used three freewares: Skype, Unyte and Free-Minds (mind maps). This way we could visualize the discussion points for each session and implement action points. Other benefits are the cost matter and the easiness to organize our agendas.

OP: What advises would you give to beginners ?
CA: Have a career coach and start working.

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