Success Story: Vimala at XLENT Link
Meet our former student (SDA) and former consultant Vimala! Her journey has been truly inspiring as she did a career change to the IT sector. She started as an IT Consultant at XLENT and later became a partner at the same company. The hiring manager of the recruitment process, Martin reflects on her development, the service he got from us as well as on diversity recruitment.
Vimala Senthil Kumar, Senior Integration Consultant & Partner
What occupation did you have before your current employment?
I started my professional career in 2004 in India. I have 14 years of experience across industries, roles, functions, geographies, and different types of organizations.
Tell us about your journey at XLENT
I re-started my professional journey in Sweden through SDA (Novare Potential and KTH collaboration). After successful completion of the extensive course, I accepted the offer from XLENT Link as an IT Consultant. We at XLENT Link connect systems and people through our integration platform, i.e., Nexus Link services. Integration of different IT systems is interesting and challenging at the same time. The need of each customer varies which presents an opportunity in itself for me to improve my knowledge about different business processes, IT systems, and professional growth. I believe in this quote from Louise Hay, i.e., “Challenges are opportunities for me to grow. The more I learn, the more equipped I am to handle whatever situation comes up”.
What does this job mean to you?
I believe that knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice. In this job, I can use my education and previous experience to provide better integration solutions according to each customer’s need.
Martin Grünwald, Senior Project Manager & Partner
Why did you decide to collaborate with Novare Potential and are you happy with the outcome?
We continuously struggle to find technically skilled people. Novare Potential represents a great opportunity to expand our recruitment base. We are very happy with our collaboration with Novare Potential!
What was it that Vimala did or said to make you think she is the right fit for the job?
Vimala was full of positive energy and self-confidence. Her technical understanding was very high. But most impressive was her clarity and sharpness when answering our questions and reasoning around complicated technical questions.
What are your thoughts on her development at XLENT?
Our business model is quite complex, so it takes time for our employees to get up to speed. Vimala has managed this in an exceptional way. She has achieved a deep understanding of our technical services and frameworks and now takes on key roles in our customer deliveries. Although learning Swedish has not been Vimala’s highest priority, I consider her to be one of our best communicators. It is so easy to collaborate with her in a team, that it has made me reevaluate the importance of language for communication. Vimala also takes great responsibility, not only for her own work but for the whole team. All in all, Vimala’s development has been extremely impressive. So much, that we recently asked her to become a partner at XLENT and we are very happy that she decided to say yes!
What would you say to companies who are considering recruiting from a more diverse candidate pool?
A practical thing to consider is how to make the workplace a positive and inclusive environment even for non-Swedish speakers. It is valuable to set up some simple policies for documentation, communication, meetings, etc.
But generally speaking, I think a common mistake these days is to make diversity a goal in and of itself. Our goal when recruiting is to find people with the highest competence and best cultural fit. At XLENT “cultural fit” means to be brave, reliable, helpful, engaged, and wanting to help our customers succeed in the long run. To broaden our candidate pool with people that are assessed by Novare Potential is a great opportunity for us.
