Connecting with People: Episode Notes
Selin and Hilary are all about connecting with people. As recruiters and people partners they understand the value of building meaningful relationships, both at work and outside.
While they are based in different locations (Berlin and New York), they share a similar perspective on living in a hectic and fast-paced environment, which includes the difficulty of focusing on one’s own mental well-being while keeping up with ever growing demands.
To manage professional and personal growth nowadays can quickly turn into an everyday struggle that needs to be put under control before it gets too stressful. To this point, Hilary and Selin discuss the necessity for people to be self-aware and open to communication.
The second part of our interview is centered around the concept of resilience.
Specifically, we become acquainted with the challenge of bouncing back from tough times and connecting with people who are headed towards a common goal. After all, a successful organization is a living and breathing organism made of individuals who believe in the same values.
Among the many outtakes from this Stepsero episode, we find the ones below to be particularly meaningful:
- Make time for yourself, no matter how busy you are.
- Don’t underestimate the importance of breathing.
- Identify areas of strength and weakness, and act upon them.
- Look for the right information, either via a podcast or a good read.
- Get comfortable with opening up to someone, whether a friend, a colleague, a therapist, or a mentor. The sooner you do so, the quicker you will realize that you are not alone.
Our Guests: Selin Songur & Hilary Gardner
Selin navigates her career in a similar way to her life values: Authentic, honest and people focused. She is happiest when part of building an inclusive and progressive culture.
Her most recent learning and reflection on wellbeing in the workplace comes from her role as a Senior Recruiting and People Partner at SoundCloud. Prior to this, she was part of hyper-growth at Glispa where she supported the leadership team in Berlin, Beijing, São Paulo, San Francisco, and Athens as Recruiting Partner.
Selin is also on the founder journey, with Wild Mission, an organization that supports people who are ready to change the way they eat in a collective effort to respect animals and preserve our planet.
In 2010, Hilary started her recruiting career at a boutique agency, focusing on social and mobile gaming. While there, she learned the ropes and hustle of technical recruitment – and her love for startups was born. From there, she joined the US office of a large Japanese gaming company, helping to double the office in size in a short five months. But New York’s bright lights pulled her to the East Coast, where she joined the social AdTech start up Adaptly, centralizing, building, and maintaining all recruitment channels.
Hilary moved on to the music streaming world, and now leads the effort of supporting and growing SoundCloud’s ever evolving brand as their Director People US & Global Recruiting. Her love for the hustle and start ups has never changed.
Please note that Hilary and Selin joined the Stepsero Podcast on their own account, and represent exclusively themselves.
References:
Hilary Gardner Linkedin profile