How Choosing the Least Obvious Path Led Her to Become a Global Chief People Officer

What happens when instead of planning a career path, you’re open to saying yes to opportunities that could sound slightly insane to others? This mind-set is what led our guest, Cristina Espejo, to leave the comfort of her hometown in Madrid, Spain, and accept work offers in Taiwan and Angola at a very young age.

These uncommon choices (for a young recent college graduate) plus Cristina’s fearless attitude led her from being a sales and marketing professional, to her discover her true passion: Human Resources. Today Cristina is a Chief People Officer, but more importantly, she’s one of those HR executives who deeply cares about employees’ well-being and growth (something that is not always the case).

In this episode, she talks about fascinating cultural challenges she faced in during her career, she shares insights about how to grow your career, and explains why HR gets a worse rep than it probably deserves. 

Resources:

• The foundation Cristina worked for and highly recommends is AISEC.
• The book Cristina recommends is Adam Grant’s "Give and Take."
• You can find the Give and Take assessment here.

Highlights:

• 3:03 Cristina talks about joining AISEC and how that changed her path.
• 4:50 Cristina talks about her work in a start up in Taiwan.
• 6:20 How she jumped to a career in HR
• 9:45 from Angola to the US.
• 10:42. The importance of employer branding to attract the right talent. How companies handle Glassdoor reviews.
• 13:44 Where does HR’s has bad rep come from. US compared to other countries.
• 16:04 The Edelman trust barometer: employees don’t trust their companies’ leadership and less than a quarter believe their CEO is ethical.
• 25:40 Advice for those seeking career growth: Find your advocates / Do self-branding / Find mentors
• 35:44 Fun stories about cultural differences.
• 40:08 Corporate confessions

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