A professional career is filled with challenges, milestones, and lessons. While challenges can sometimes feel overwhelming, they can also be seen as opportunities to succeed, while adapting to them and growing with them. In the latest episode of the Sprint to Success Podcast, Valter Bastos, an experienced IT consultant, shared with our CEO Marco Pincho his journey in the IT industry—a story of resilience, adaptability, and personal growth. From starting out in consulting firms to embracing the freedom of freelancing, Valter’s experiences provide valuable insights for anyone navigating the fast paced tech world.
Learning from the Consulting World: Growing as a Young Professional
Valter’s early experience as an intern in a consulting firm was both formative and challenging. Reflecting on this period, he described it as a mix of stress and invaluable learning. Consulting companies are known for demanding a lot from their employees, requiring long hours and sometimes even weekend work, which creates significant stress for their workers.
Despite these pressures, Valter recognized the positive aspects of the experience, including a young and energetic team, a great project manager, and interesting projects. Working in such an environment taught him resilience, fostered meaningful friendships, and provided a solid foundation for growing as a professional and as a young individual.
However, this intense period also showed him what he didn’t want for his future. Valter emphasized that for young professionals, putting all their energy into their career early on is common, but it’s equally important to distribute that effort throughout one’s professional journey. He noted that when you’re young and starting out, you either learn this balance yourself or someone shows it to you.
Moving from external consultant to internal employee
During his time at WeDo, Valter found himself well-paid by Portuguese standards and had the opportunity to work on diverse projects across Europe, including Romania, Poland, and Armenia. He described this period as highly enriching, not only from a professional standpoint but also culturally, as it exposed him to various working environments and ways of life.
Later, an opportunity arose at BNP Paribas to kickstart a service desk team in Lisbon. Valter seized the chance, recognizing that being among the first to join provided extra room for professional growth. As the team expanded, Valter was appointed team leader and eventually became an employee at BNP Paribas.
This shift between being an external consultant to an internal employee came with common trade-offs: he experienced a slight decrease in income, which he admitted wasn’t ideal. However, the role also brought significant advantages, such as greater stability and the chance to lead a growing team.
Joining the European Commission: Stability in the Public Sector
After several years growing at BNP Paribas, Valter received an opportunity to join the European Commission (EC) through Marco. The role involved working as a Service Provider/freelancer, but it required moving to Brussels. Initially, Valter was reluctant.
When he left WeDo as an international consultant in Telecom, one of the driving factors was his desire for more stability in his personal relationships, as extensive traveling had taken its toll. Moving again raised a question: Would it be a good idea to relocate once more? However, he was able to achieve a balance with his personal life, and ultimately decided to take the leap.
This transition marked his embrace of freelancing, which inherently offers less stability compared to being an employee. At the time, freelancing wasn’t as common, and there were a lot of uncertainties about what would happen at the end of a contract. Fortunately, Valter found the European Commission project to be exceptionally stable. Contracts were routinely renewed, and he never felt the insecurity often associated with freelancing. And that stability was one of the main advantages of working in the public sector, especially for someone who had freelanced before on the more uncertain private sector.
Exploring the International Private Sector
After some time at the European Commission, Valter decided to try the private sector in Belgium, taking up a position at Zurich Assurance. This move offered him the opportunity to compare his experiences in the Portuguese private sector, the European public sector, and now the international private sector.
Valter found the private sector to be more demanding across the board. However, he observed that international companies are far more respectful of personal time and schedules compared to their Portuguese counterparts,t hus being more professional and improving employee satisfaction.
At Zurich Assurance, Valter joined a great team as a Qlik Sense developer. Over time, he transitioned from a hybrid work model to fully remote work, which aligned perfectly with his professional and personal preferences, growing is career even further.
Freelancing vs. Employment: Weighing Stability and Flexibility
At Zurich Assurance, Valter often received offers to become a full-time employee. However, he declined them, as he valued the higher earning potential and flexibility that came with freelancing.
As Valter explained, a freelancer can negotiate better salaries and conditions, especially if the budget for the project increases. Nevertheless, freelancing is not without its risks. Despite doing an excellent job and building strong connections with his team and supervisor, internal political decisions can lead to budget cuts, forcing companies to let contractors go—even if they’re valued contributors.
Valter observed that as an employee, these situations occur less frequently. Employees are generally more protected from such uncertainties. Yet, the ability to command growing salaries and negotiate terms as a freelancer made the trade-offs worthwhile for him.
Still, the constant questions around budgets and whether a contract would be renewed added an unavoidable layer of unpredictability to freelancing. It’s a balance of risks and rewards that Valter came to understand well over the years.
Returning to the European Commission as a Team Leader
After some years growing his experience and know-how at Zurich Assurance, and after hearing about the improvements in the European Commission’s contract framework, Valter decided to return to DG MOVE—this time as a Team Leader, his current role. This presented a unique challenge: leading a team that included his former colleagues.
Valter acknowledged the potential difficulties but also recognized the advantages. He already knew the team and what he could count on. One of his strategies to deal with this challenge was having a good mindset and promoting a positive atmosphere, making everything easier for everyone and for the project.
Drawing from his career experience across various institutions and companies, Valter introduced techniques and methods that improved the team’s daily work processes. His leadership approach focused on leveraging his background to make a meaningful difference. Since he was exposed to diverse environments, he thinks he can bring a lot of value to the team and the project. Valter’s journey back to the European Commission not only highlighted his professional growth but also underscored his ability to adapt and lead effectively in evolving roles.
The problem of the CV templates in recruitment…
Throughout his career, Valter frequently looked for opportunities in the job market and received numerous offers, especially through LinkedIn. However, one of his biggest frustrations—particularly with Portuguese companies—was the redundant task of filling in information, especially on branded CV templates.
Portuguese companies often require candidates to use branded templates instead of standardized ones. As a freelancer, Valter found this process especially frustrating. “You take so long to create your own CV carefully to represent your career and yourself,” he said. “Then, when they give you a job offer, they ask you to review everything, and you have to do this for every job offer.”
As Marco pointed out, many companies do this to test the motivation of candidates, but with this process “You’re not testing the motivation, you’re testing the desperation.”
In Valter’s view, asking senior professionals to fill in CVs often results in them opting out entirely, causing consultancy companies to lose talented candidates. To address this issue, Valter began instructing recruiters to edit the design and layout themselves (since some of them took that as a lack of interest) While this led to some lost opportunities, it also saved him significant time to focus on what truly mattered when seeking new roles.
This inefficiency is particularly prevalent in the Portuguese market, where companies often rely on outdated recruitment practices. These habits not only make life harder for recruiters but also create an unpleasant experience for candidates.
That’s where our platform made a difference. Sprint CV automates the CV management process, allowing companies and consultants to avoid tedious manual tasks. Valter, one of the platform’s earliest users, quickly leveraged its features to simplify his job search and eliminate the hassle of manually updating CVs. By using Sprint CV—whether as a recruiter or a consultant—it’s possible to improve the recruitment process, present better talent to clients, and ensure greater satisfaction for everyone involved.
Growing your Salary: the Portuguese Taboo
In Portugal, salary negotiations are often seen as a delicate or taboo subject. Typically, you agree on a rate when you start a new job or project, and the expectation is that it won’t be discussed much afterward. You might get small annual increases, but there isn’t much room for negotiation after the initial agreement. Additionally, discussing your salary with colleagues is generally discouraged, so employees may not have a clear sense of what is considered a fair salary for their position.
On the other hand, internationally, salary discussions are more open. People are more willing to talk about their pay, and it’s seen as a way to help everyone in the industry improve their earning potential. By exchanging information and learning from the experiences of others, individuals can gain a better understanding of what constitutes a fair salary for their role. This culture of transparency and collaboration ultimately benefits workers, as they can navigate salary expectations with more knowledge and confidence.
Conclusion
Valter Bastos’ career journey is a powerful testament to adaptability, resilience, and the importance of finding balance between personal and professional goals. From consulting firms to freelancing, navigating the public and private sectors, and taking on leadership roles, Valter’s experiences provide valuable insights for IT professionals at every stage of their careers.
His story highlights key lessons: embrace new opportunities, leverage your experience to add value, and streamline your job search to focus on what matters most. Whether you are starting out or seeking to grow as a seasoned contractor, tools like Sprint CV can help simplify the process, allowing you to take control of your career.
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