As part of Avanade’s culture of mentorship and learning, every employee is assigned a career adviser (CA) who guides them through their career, helping everyone at Avanade grow professionally and feel inspired, confident and cared for. Career Adviser Spotlights shine a light on Avanade CAs who go above and beyond for their advisees.

This post features Antonio (Ant) Gatti, a Group Manager for Engineering Management, based in Singapore.

How long have you been a CA at Avanade?

December 2016, 4 years

Describe a moment where you felt inspired, confident or cared for as a CA.

I always feel cared when my advisees demonstrate the appreciation for the work I do; their transparent comments and feedback make me confident that I’m doing a good job.

What's the most rewarding thing about being a CA?

I feel very satisfied when I see my advisees getting awarded and promoted. If I don’t see clear recognition coming from all of them that it’s a sign on where I need to work more.

What work-life balance activities do you partake in, and how would you recommend other CAs do the same?

Work-life balance is the most important aspect to consider, my recommendations are always to make sure to spend quality time with family and sometime to do exercise/sport. My personal practice is to always be free every day from 7-9 pm to spend time with my son before he goes to sleep and over the weekend to go out with family to do some sports. I do cycling, inline skating and kitesurfing, at least one of this for half day over the weekend is a must. We understand that some time our job could be very demanding and this is why I reserved time and make sure there are only few exception where I need to stay connected in the slots I mentioned.

What advice would you give to fellow CAs?

We are persons first! Invest time in creating chemistry and synergy with your advisees, without being unpolite and intrusive, and try to know them as a person, their family, hobbies and what they really like. You need to know them well first and only after you can help them to succeed in their career. We get a lot of support from Avanade to succeed as a CA, however this is a very personal role so understand guidelines, processes and timeline and create your own way to support your advisees.

What advice would you give to someone in their first week of being a CA?

The first thing you need to do is to schedule time with you advisees, I suggest to start with a group video call to know each other. Prepare some personal open question like “What’s your passion?”, “What makes your happy every day?”, “What do you do over the weekend?”, then insert only one question about work like “What project are you in now and what’s the technology you are using in the project?”. After the group call you need to schedule a one-on-one meeting, where you will follow the same approach: first you want to know better your advisee then you want to talk about work. Your objective is to create the trust (no easy!)

Not easy indeed! Thanks for being a trusted career adviser to six advisees while still finding a way to maintain work-life balance and sharing your perspectives for this spotlight.