Tiago Modesto, one of our youngest crossers, is our Technical Service Manager and he’s on the other side of the Atlantic, in Canada, for about 8 months. He joined Crossjoin through a curricular internship and, soon after, he was invited to join the Crossjoin Academy.
The proposal presented to Tiago included his participation on a project taking place in Canada for a few months. It was easily accepted because, according to him, he always wanted to work outside Portugal for a while.
He considers important for any professional to leave his comfort zone and get to know different working methods.
Tiago said that the biggest difference compared to Portugal, is the fact that it is a multicultural country, there’s people from all nationalities, such as Pakistanis, Indians, Americans, Poles, Portuguese, among others. And they are all very well received by Canadians.
The adaptation was very easy because Tiago was never alone, always had the support of other colleagues from Crossjoin who are also in Canada, so he always felt integrated.
Tiago is enjoying the experience very much, he feels that in a short time he has already evolved a lot and if 8 months ago they told him that he would be where he is today, he would not believe it. He feels that his and other Crosser’s work are highly appreciated by the client.
“We’re seen as problem solvers, we solve missions that seem impossible. We are seen as very flexible and willing to do more. This is something we gained with Crossjoin’s methodology, mutual help! There hasn’t been a moment where I felt alone, or not oriented, since I’ve joined Crossjoin. And, of course, the customers sees this.”
Tiago has been living in a hotel, as well as his colleagues, and despite all the comforts, he confesses that he sometimes misses an oven to cook his own food. Whenever he can, he goes to a Portuguese coffee shop to eat a “pastel de nata”, it reminds him of home.
The Canadians are very nice and everyone knows Portugal due to our Cristiano Ronaldo, which is a starting point for great conversations, said Tiago.
What he misses most about Portugal are the people, the gastronomy and the weather. But he’s really enjoying living in Canada and says that if he could, he would implement in Portugal a traffic rule that Canadians have: It’s not necessary to respect the signs if you want to turn to the right! In other words, as long as there are no cars on our left side, you can always turn right, which helps a lot to flow the traffic.
There are always different things to learn from these new experiences that give us good stories to tell, like the one that Tiago shared with us:
“Once I went with a colleague to a car dealership at night (They have a different format, most of them are on an open space). While we were driving around at the car dealership at night, we heard a gentleman on the speaker: Get out of here! I’ll call the police!. At first and at the second time, we didn’t realize that it was for us, but at the third or maybe at the fourth time, we realized it must be for us and we couldn’t be there driving around!.”
We asked Tiago what he recommends us to visit in Brampton, where he’s living, and he said Brampton is a very quiet city with only one or two parks to visit, however, Toronto is just 30 minutes away from Brampton. Toronto is spectacular, said Tiago, and he strongly recommends us to visit the CN Tower at night, because it has an amazing landscape; Little Portugal, a neighborhood where there is a huge community of Portuguese people; Casa Loma, the only “castle” in Canada. And, of course, the city’s emblematic stadiums: the hockey stadium (Scotiabank Arena), baseball stadium (Rogers Stadium) and the basketball stadium (Scotiabank Arena).
This is an experience that Tiago will keep forever as enriching.
“Regardless of the experiences we have, we always end up changing over time. Clearly, the experience and contact with foreigners helps the person to become less inhibited.” Said Tiago.
When we asked Tiago our usual question about what he values the most about Crossjoin, he replied: “The demand that obliges you every day to be better, the complicity with colleagues who leave you at ease regardless of the position they hold and the fantastic environment at Crossjoin.”
Thank you Tiago for sharing your interesting experience.
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