Editorial The Lifestyle Institute | Author: María José Núñez | June 2022
“I’m multi-tasking person, so coincidence or not, my job at TLI is to multi task. I am currently in the role of Assistant Marketing, Talent Recruiter and Student coordinator. What do all these titles means? I am aa assistant that, along with my colleagues, takes care of social media and corporate image of TLI. In addition, I am also recruiting new students on LinkedIn and I will also (when the new edition starts) coordinate the schedule, answer all students by mail and help organising our events. In short, I do the job of student coordinator during editions in addition to assistant marketing and talent recruiter all year”. Would you like to know more about Penélope and her work at TLI? Then read this interview where she tells us about her career path and even some anecdotes and curiosities about her work with us!
What attracted you to TLI and Alberta La Grup when you started working here?
The atmosphere of the company and the synergy between them and me, clearly. I was searching for a long-term job that will challenge and offer a lot of different tasks. The Lifestyle Institute is the best offer ever because they offered a one year contract, with three different roles in one human size enterprise.
Human size enterprise was important to me because you can really be part of the evolution of the enterprise, see it growing and also having a very enjoyable workplace where you can really get to know your colleagues.
Finally, Alberta La Grup grabbed my attention because the atmosphere in the office is like working in a small family business. This gives you the energy to continue working hard even on the more challenging days.
Do you think that the profession of Personal Angel is becoming more and more known?
I think that this profession always existed, we are always the Personal Angel for someone in our private or professional life. However, I think that this is becoming more recognised as a profession, yes! I think this fame is inspired by the different American movies about personal assistants or secretaries (who, in fact, manage also the personal life of their boss so they are their personal assistant too). It will become more well-known as we continue to work on it with our school!
What are your goals to achieve here?
I came into the enterprise with the goal to grow as a professional and as a person. I was also keen to learn about managing marketing campagins and also to evolve in business development, which the talent recruiter role helps a lot with. More than this, my goal is to achieve that the next edition is full of happy students who want to learn and reinvent themselves with our team. As a person, I want to learn from my collegues and also give what I can to them and to the enterprise, we can go further together than alone.
If you had to define TLI and Alberta La Grup in a short description, how would you do it?
TLI is the first and only school to train personal assistants about the profession but also how to reinvent yourself as a person. It is the reason that we named our students Personal Angels instead of Assistant. The TLI programs are suitable for people of all professional backgrounds, so it is an open place to learn about a well-established profession that is becoming more well-known.
Alberta La Grup is a company in which you can find Concierge services, PA services and a school to train Personal Angels. To sum up, it is a business that started by offering Personal Angel services, then saw that there is a demand for concierge services and, finally, created a school knowing there is a huge demand for Personal Angels and no school existed to train them. We could say that it is a company that handles the full cycle. Behind all this is our CEO Lourdes Carbó, who is always there to offer a helping hand when needed. The company strives to create an atmosphere of trust which ensures that the employee experience is enjoyable.
Any anecdote or curiosity you would like to tell about your work here.
I need more time to have funny anecdotes but I do have one: I’m previous roles I used to hide my age at work as I was concerned clients would think I was lacking experience. During the first week TLI, I was therefore very discreet about my age and then we had a briefing with the TLI marketing team and I became aware of how the work environment can influence you. I told them my age and they so welcoming! This made me feel very amused by the situation that I was making a big thing of something that really wasn’t a big deal in this new enterprise. It was the same with all the rest of the team. At Alberta La Grup we look for your skills, your results, your aptitude and not the age or where you come from.
Can you tell us, in brief lines, about your professional and/or academic career until you got here?
My academic background is composed by one year of preparatory class, 2 years of Bachelor in Science and Business Administration and I’m now in the second year of a Masters in Management and Business Development that I study in the evening online and during the weekend when im out of the office hours of Alberta la Grup, so this is my new challenge.
I think my professional background is more interesting because I started to work at 14 years old to help my father in his business in French Guyana. Then when I was 18, I started my first job as a barmaid in a restaurant in my town in France for 5 months and that got me used to working in the evenings and Studying my baccalaureate at the same time. I needed a challenge beyond just studying because studying alone can get boring at times, so I managed to study my baccalaureate and work in the evening at the same time! Challenge done! After this, I had another job as a personal teacher for one candidate for the baccalaureate in natural sciences and he passed with good grades. But that’s not all! Afterwards, I started to work as a saleperson in DIY knowing company during the first 1.5 years of my Bachelor. It was important to me to begin at the bottom and learn all the sales techniques. I finally arrived in Barcelona for a 5 month internship as an International Business Developer for a metal company and after that I came to TLI and Alberta la Grup. I have no regrets about my background because I am a hard worker and need to be challenged. I wouldn’t be here without these experiences, so I’m very proud of it!
