Women at Mirada

Have you always worked in tech?

Adapting to life circumstances, I had to start working early while studying to help my parents. I’ve done very different things in a lot of different places. I’ve been a teleoperator, taught one-to-one classes, been a waitress, a hostess in congresses, a receptionist, an usherette and cashier, before I started to work as a Telco Engineer. These first experiences taught me a lot in regards to my future working life. In these roles, I was constantly in contact with the clients and so I’ve learnt so much about how to deal with people. They helped set me up for my current work.

How was the transition from Engineering to Project Management?

The truth is that I didn’t study Engineering out of passion, but for the opportunities it could offer me. I had good grades and that’s what my parents and teachers recommended to me. I found it interesting and I enjoyed it but, as I didn’t feel too passionate about engineering, I specialised in project management more than in the pure technology itself. When I started to work for the first time as an Engineer in a small telco company, they rapidly offered me training in Project Management, and it was at that moment that I realised it totally resonated with me. I was literally thinking about how to improve processes day and night. My former manager realised how much I liked it and that I was actually pretty good at it and offered me the first PMO position in the company. And this is how I found my real vocation and decided to go to Chicago to study a Masters in Technology Management.

What are you most proud of in your professional career?

I can say that I have never stopped fighting for what I want. I always set objectives for myself and do everything in my power to reach them. Sometimes I get lucky, and other times not so much. Sometimes the objectives have changed along the way but I’ve never settled for less. I’ve always been true to myself. When things get easy it’s when I start to get bored. Then came my family who I cherish and love spending time with, and the objectives changed a bit, mixing both my personal and family challenges. In that sense, I feel like I’ve found my place at Mirada because it allows me to reconcile family life while still also having constant challenges.

Talking about balancing the professional and the personal, how was the confinement?

This situation has had a huge impact on me. Being stuck working remotely at home with my husband and our young daughter, who needed non-stop attention, was pretty complicated. Each night, we tried to organise our schedule in order to be able to both attend our meetings and take care of our daughter. It was very stressful.
Having said that, I think that working from home is ideal (especially now our parents can babysit her!) In my job position, I don’t need to physically be at the office. The only thing I miss are the personal relations with my colleagues which help us to empathise with each other. Still, I’m lucky to be in constant contact with them and we have managed to maintain a very good relationship. During every call, even though they’re for work, we always take the time to have a nice chat and ask about each other’s personal life.