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 Paweł Błaszyk, a DevOps Engineer Manager based in Wroclaw, Poland

How long have you been a CA at Avanade?

3 years

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

When my advisees, who transitioned from operations to engineering department under my wings, got theirs first projects and felt great about it. In addition to having very good feedback from the client.

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

Talking with advisee about negative feedback from co-workers and clients.

That's a difficult one. What would you recommend other CAs do when they have to share performance insights with their advisee?

In my case it was just my own experience. More or less every one of us receives some negative feedback at some point. I’m trying to show my advisee how I handled this personally and what next steps I took in my case to improve myself or something I did. I always try to give real life examples on how to handle negative feedback. Showing that myself allowed my team to learn a lesson from cases like that and are they're in a completely different place right now.

What general advice would you give to all advisees on how to work with their CAs?

Talk, talk, talk and… talk. Tell your CA about your good and bad moments within the Avanade. Let CA be your “professional” friend.

What advice would you give to fellow CAs? 

Always lead by example. It will give you satisfaction and respect from your advisees.

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

Be honest. If you build your advisee-CA relationship on honesty, you’ll have your advisee’s trust. Working with people who trust you is a pleasure. 

When asked about what kind of CA Paweł is, this is what we heard:
Paweł is an extraordinary CA who meets with his advisees on a regular basis, provides coaching, helps them grow and understand the importance of processes within the company. He is constantly growing his own skills and is focused on enabling others.