Success, happiness and balance. Antonclaudio’s journey in Andalusia
Antonclaudio is a proactive Italian HR Manager working in Seville, Spain for a multinational company where he seeks and contracts talents from the IT sector.
His passion for Andalusian region brought him to Granada first in 2013 and to the capital of Flamenco a couple of years later. He points out how being in human resources can reach high levels of frustration when the perfect match profile-position is not found, with competitiveness getting proportional to the raising amount of recruitment agencies, a phenomenon that is not confined to European countries. The silver lining stands in having the chance to meet and interview people with different personalities, coming from different backgrounds, a daily diversity which makes the routine stimulating and worthwhile.
But how does he rate success? He does it according to the life-phase he is living in. ‘’Right now success for me is being in peace with myself’’. Having gone through some difficult moments, like each of us, Antoclaudio finds the definition of success in his internal balance and is particularly interesting to notice how he translates success into happiness automatically.
In cat words (read the interview!) ”Happiness is like your tail. You always have it attached”.
Antonclaudio suggests to ‘jump into the pool’ by not having fear of the unknown but instead embracing the new opportunities even when scary and full of uncertainty, as what comes after stepping out of your comfort zone will be so rewarding and personally fulfilling to compensate the initial skepticism. Learning how to welcome bad moments and loneliness is part of the game too: ‘’at times, solitude knocks at the door, but she’s become a journey companion by now. And it’s totally fine.’’
Don’t miss out this inspiring video interview in Spanish version of Antonclaudio and his experience. If you’d rather stick to English instead, read the written English version!
Who are you today?
My name is Antonclaudio and I’m an Italian guy living in Seville, Spain.
How did you get here?
The love for Andalusia brought me here in 2013. Back then I was living in Granada when I decided to move and work in Seville after literally falling in love with this city. I am an HR Manager looking for professionals from the IT industry: I interview them, play around with them a bit, and finally I contract them.
How would you define your job in 3 adjectives?
My job is first of all stimulating as every day you don’t know what is going to happen and who you are going to meet with; challenging in terms of competitiveness as it is a ‘fight’ against the local agencies where you must reach before the others; frustrating if the perfect match doesn’t come along.
Living in a country that is not yours, without that home-country comfort zone, I face quite a few bad moments. The feeling of loneliness is a companion that very often comes to find you and knocks at your door, but still I learned how to blend it in making it part of my journey. Landing a foreign country on your own and solving your problems however big or small alone will eventually benefit dramatically. Other bad moments… well yes they come and go, but still living such a beautiful experience really balances it all, so I don’t even care about thinking of it!
What is success for you?
Mmmh. That’s a really interesting question and I ask it myself very often: I believe success can be economic, so translated in good money, do the job that you love, or be satisfied with your personal life either in a relationship or with your own family. I reckon success for me at this very moment of life, is feeling good with myself.
There’s a lovely story I would like to tell you, I read it on a book some time ago: there are two cats talking each other. The younger cat asks to the older one, ‘what is happiness?’ And the older goes: ‘See, happiness is like your tail: you always have it attached but most of the times you don’t even notice, either because you are used to have it or too busy doing something else.
And that is very true. Happiness is like your tail: you always have it there, you just need to acknowledge it’s standing right beside you and enjoy it!
What is the advice you would give to influence someone in a good way?
Don’t be afraid of ANYTHING! Eventually, everything will be fixed and at its right place. The feeling of anxiety one has before spreading the wings towards something new or a new country whatsoever is first of all an exceptional one that makes you feel alive. Second of all, it’s one of the engines which boosts us to do something always better, improving ourselfves every day.
Hence, don’t have fear of jumping into the pool as you will follow the right direction. If you feel those sparkes and the desire of doing something new, do it. NOW! Believe me if I say it’s much better to experience uncertainty and at least give it a try rather than living in regret, or even worse, having given up.
What do you think about Be influenced?
Be influenced is a project that hopefully will reach lots of people and well, now I’m just shooting with short video, but I hope my message and my suggestions will pass onto all the viewers.
Ciao Be influenced and thanks for this opportunity!