Beyond the Tourist Trail: Unforgettable Cultural Experiences

Cross-cultural experiences offer unique opportunities to delve into people's behavior, norms, values, and cultures. Exposure to these experiences can be amplified through global travel, overseas work, museum visits, and exploring the culinary pleasures of different demographic groups. 

One of my most significant career milestones was in 2015. I was a principal recruiter for CommVault Co., a backup data management company. In my role, I took on the most challenging recruiting assignments globally. Due to an unexpected vacancy, I took on an urgent assignment as the interim Talent Acquisition Director for our Southeastern Region in Asia, specifically Australia. My ability to recruit talent and embrace cultures from all backgrounds made me a perfect fit to aid in hiring critical leadership positions across Asia (Australia, Singapore, Japan). 

Upon arrival, I listened and did not try to dictate a US-centric approach to working with regional business leaders. One of the critical things I learned while engaging talent in the Asia Pacific region was that candidates liked to meet face-to-face and buy the prospective employer or recruiter coffee when interviewing for a role. Unfortunately, social media and platforms like LinkedIn have not yet been fully adopted, so taking time to acclimate to how people drive relationships helped me gain credibility and quickly penetrate the market. 

As a result, I built up a good tolerance for drinking lots of coffee while saving the company a substantial cost avoidance expense of $150K in potential agency staffing fees.