The LIFT99 kitchen island is often a place of uproarious laughter and, unsurprisingly, lunchtime chatter, with the coffee machine putting in some serious overtime in the background. In all of the commotion, it’s easy to sometimes not notice some of the quieter residents. Among these kitchen island residents we also find Chantal, even though she has been here at LIFT for a while now, she is as shrouded in mystery as is the routine behind her curls. To uncover more about her, we sat down with her and bothered her with a couple of questions.
SO, CHANTAL, SAY A FEW WORDS ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND
I'm from Basque country, which is located in the north of Spain, which people tend to not know a lot about and most people associate it with the Athletic Bilbao football club. In university, I studied telecommunications engineering, which is a very broad degree - you learn how to code while also learning about electronics, systems architecture and so much more. In Spain, it's a good degree, as it’s a secure way to get a job because you usually start off with an internship and will then be hired straight out of school. While doing my Masters, I was also interning at a company. I thought that I had everything planned out, from the internship to a good job after that. I planned to stay in Basque Country, near my family and lifelong friends.
However, I got a chance to take part in an Erasmus project, which really widened my view of the world. I did my Erasmus in Croatia during the last year of my Master's. It was my first time abroad and I ditched the temptation of going down the safe route and staying with the "Spanish Mafia", which is how I ended up living with two Polish girls and a German guy that I had found from a Facebook group. Communication was a real hassle in the beginning: English skills on a test are one thing, but real life is a whole other story. Over time it became more and more natural, and looking back, going abroad was the best decision I ever made.
HOW DID YOU FIND YOUR WAY TO ESTONIA?
Funnily enough, I’m here for the same reason as most of the foreigners I know in LIFT99 – love. I met my current boyfriend, who is Estonian, in Croatia, he was also in Erasmus. After the program ended, we went to our home countries to finish our degrees. I wanted him to move to Spain and get a job here, however it is very difficult to get a job in Spain without any Spanish skills. When I visited Estonia, I realized that almost everyone here speaks English, which made it more logical for me to move here. Also, I had never really thought about living abroad, it had always seemed like something that only rich kids could do, so it seemed like a good adventure.
When I finished my Master's and my internship, I said "see you later" to my plan of getting a job in Basque country and got on the plane to Tallinn.
I didn't really have a real plan for what I was going to do here. The original plan was to stay here for a year but now I'm coming up on three years this summer. I have bought a flat and settled in fully.
I fell in love with the country, especially nature.
I don't even mind the cold weather but the only thing I miss is the mountains because back home I loved going to the mountains to go on hikes. Estonians do love to hike but they like to hike in bogs, but I do prefer going out to climb boulders and find forgotten lighthouses and frozen landscapes in winter and midnight sunsets during summer.
Chantal with a frozen waterfall in Estonia.
WAS IT EASY FOR YOU TO GET A JOB HERE, AS A FOREIGNER WITH NO EXPERIENCE?
It was a challenge to say the least, my pink, dreamy bubble burst really quick because nobody seemed to really care about my degree in Estonia. Everyone wanted experience, which I did not have. After getting the door slammed in my face a number of times, I was finally hired by MeetFrank. I did lead generation, data analytics and other things that needed to be done. It was a good experience, I wouldn't change it for anything.
But how I got my current job at WedoOps is a story in itself–I met Ernesto my second week in Estonia at an event for expats. He is from Valencia, so we hit it off naturally and exchanged contact information. Fast forward to the middle of the pandemic, Ernesto gets in touch, telling me that he has a job offer for me as a project manager. I was confused beyond belief by the offer and would later learn what WedoOps even does–it aims to bring together infrastructure and software, essentially being a technological partner to companies. Most of our customers are Spanish start-ups, but we recently also landed some international clients, among them, our first Estonian client, Promoty and we are also working with Flywire, a Spanish FinTech company. When I started working for WedoOps, I really did everything, but as the team has grown since last year, I have had the chance to focus more on coding and infrastructure development in addition to our own internal projects.
Regarding Estonian, that's a whole other mess because I never thought I would have to learn a language harder than Basque. Shortly after moving here, the pandemic began and I really struggled with learning over Zoom. I’m getting there slowly and it takes a lot of determination, but I can confidently say that learning Estonian is a path full of pain, but also laughs when sharing your struggles with fellow learners.
ANY HOBBIES?
I started playing rugby my first summer in Estonia. It was a very random journey, where I just went to an event with rugby players and a girl suggested that I should try it out. It seemed like a good idea and as I had promised her I would go, I just had to do it.
My first practice, I was blown away because it was unlike anything I had ever done before. It was an insane workout for the mind and body and I got addicted right away, because the feeling you get from it is so great, it really builds character. We currently train with the guys, because we only have about 6-9 girls.
A perfect tackle
However the guys are very mindful of us. It's always very fun and energizing. We do need more girls though! We're putting a lot of effort into building the female Kalev Rugby team.
Cooking and painting are my other two passions with cooking being the more recent one and my cinnamon buns are my pride and joy!
Juggling work, rugby, a social life and painting has been difficult but it has kept me focused like never before, while also making me think about taking time off at some point in my life, just to focus on the things that make me feel fulfilled, like my art.
Her proudest recipe - cinnamon buns
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, HOW HAS BEEN YOUR TIME IN LIFT99?
It has been a kind of challenge to be at LIFT, as everyone around you does all these awesome things, they have lived in 20+ countries and they travel weekly. Everyone here is also quite outgoing and I’m less outgoing than people give me credit for. This is actually what I love most about working here in this environment, you meet so many interesting people and hear inspiring ideas from all types. I’m not saying I’m against working in a big corporation in the future, but at the moment I’m very into the whole modern slippers and dogs at the workplace approach.
Hiking on Mugarra mountain, which is located in Chantal’s home town in the Basque Country