I
am a learnaholic, bookaholic and a challenger. Positive at heart, I learned painfully in certain situations that life cannot be full of roses every time. Life, I learned can be what you want it to be. But before I indeed incorporate this truth, I experienced hard lessons at work, burnout, skincare issues, getting out of my comfort zone and being genuinely shocked by the reaction of people. It took me time to realize that the problem was not me, but them because my strong intuition always showed the true colors of people. My mind, happy to take the lead, hid the ugly truth. From living an ideal student life in the south of France where I was so happy and having a life opportunity to work as an intern in a French bank in London, the learning curve has been massive. Hesitant in English and keen to learn, I didn’t have absolutely an idea of what I put myself into it. I knew that this opportunity was excellent but my gut at the time already warned me to keep my expectations low. I didn’t listen. I listened to others, raised my hopes and embraced this new adventure. Let me tell you, from being lively, confident and a chatterbox, I became shy, observant and inadequate. It is when I meet new friends, shared my unease and started to enjoy living in London that I began to feel better. Imagine, my friends, family, boyfriend were all in France, and I was alone, looking at the Thames and taking my lunch at Tower Hill station. The weather didn’t help either. But despite that, I found my place, moved in and felt at last at home. Eager to experience, learn, discover. Another downfall happened to me. Still an intern, my employer decided to fire me just like that. When I started to like working in the City the grass was cut under my feet. Being sacked in a foreign country like a virus is not one of the cutest things ever. I decided to stay, to look for another job, in a nutshell, to fight back. And I did it. Meeting recruitment consultants, going to interviews, sending CV and resumes, I did not stop. But I needed more than fight; I needed support. My boyfriend joined me. He found a job in his sector, and I continued to look for a job. This time, look for any situation. I connected immediately with the first Manager I met in a restaurant at Covent Garden, and I got the job. I met amazing people, went to an interview which was not definitely for me, they thought I was fluent in German! Trust me; this is not what I put on my CV. Fired a second time because I asked to leave earlier to attend it. Back to square one but this time with real people around me to grow, to learn, to feel confident speaking English. The melting pot, working with people of various nationalities that I truly wanted to experience in London occurred in this job. They confirmed my belief to fight for what I want, and they were so supportive. I took an English course, and I truly loved it. I built my confidence, and six months later, I got a job offer in an American bank. This job has been the first and best job to feel part of a family and be accepted. Kindness, joy, professionalism, respect, friendship: there are so many adjectives to translate my feelings of sincere gratitude to have had this job. I was so happy. So happy that I have tears rolling down my cheeks by remembering the years I spent in this Bank. The downside is when the management changes, you can expect two things: the better or worse. It was the latest coming in my life, and I didn’t have a clue...because they wanted to do a big cleaning. The difference between people, cleaning, restructuring, changing the mentality of one company can create living in a crazy box. Pressurised, undervalued, my savior has been my philosophy and my colleagues. A few months later, I saw my colleagues leaving this Bank with pride and no regrets while I continued to give a facelift to my LinkedIn profile and applied for jobs. When it was my turn to leave, I was pregnant with a job offer in my hand. ✴
Gaëlle Berruel is an entrepreneur and mindset coach from London. Her passion is to help conscious women entrepreneurs to build a healthy, happy and strong mindset to create a life they love. arockstarmindset.com