BrazilBruna Marcondes on her new Dutch adventure with Protiviti
After just under two years with Protiviti in Brazil, Bruna Marcondes decided the time was right for a new challenge overseas. She spoke to Consultancy.org about her transfer to the firm’s Dutch office, and how the firm has helped her find her feet in her new home.
Having picked up a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the Federal University of São Carlos, Bruna Marcondes stepped into the professional services sector. Joining the São Paulo office of Protiviti, she worked on a number of rewarding engagements, spanning topics including privacy, data management and compliance.
While life at the firm was rewarding, and helped her continue learning beyond university, she soon came to feel that a change of scenery would be an important part of her professional development.
“I have been working within data privacy for the past two years and my goal is to continue to develop myself in the area,” explains Marcondes. “But I felt limited in Brazil. Since Brazil is such a big country, most of our projects were focused on the national market. And with Europe being much more mature than Brazil in the data privacy domain, I decided to pursue an international career and expand my horizons to other countries and other challenges.”
Having enjoyed working at Protiviti, one part of her equation was clear: “I definitely wanted to continue with the firm.”
A global player with offices in 40+ countries, Protiviti enabled Marcondes to transfer to its Dutch office – based in Amsterdam – which was a big plus for her. “I already had some experience working with Dutch businesses. In Brazil, I worked with a Dutch client focusing on data retention.”
“Data retention is a relatively new segment of the data privacy world. The experience from that project enabled me to develop a new product for the São Paulo office, and as a result, we were able to successfully bring the offering into the Brazilian market as well.”
This previous connection to business in the Netherlands has also been helpful when it comes to bridging cultural differences – though according to Marcondes, these have been minimal so far. “It is incredible to see how much both offices carry the same values.”
“Part of reasons why I loved working at Protiviti was the environment and the people, cooperation and teamwork are extremely valued there and it’s amazing to move across the ocean and feel at home the same way.”
Contributing to that feeling, she says that the reception has been “super friendly”, helping her settle in. Not just in terms of business advice, or developing in a professional sense, either.
“The managers are approachable, the team is very sweet, a lot of people helped me with my house hunt and provide advice on anything basically. The HR was also amazing, they helped through a lot of the bureaucratic things I wasn’t familiar with and, even though everything happened very fast, I think this all helped me adjust easier and feel right at home.”
This support has enabled Marcondes to hit the ground running, taking on a number of tasks in the months since arriving. This includes joining a project focused on international data transfers, in which Protiviti is assessing the risk involved in all data transfers performed by the client to non-adequate countries.
Marcondes explains, “My favourite part of this project is being able to work more intensively with GDPR requirements, besides the fact that this involves different legislations, different risks and invites us to understand the view that other countries have on the subject, as well as the different priorities and maturity levels.”
It is exactly the kind of global challenge she was hoping to be able to apply her talents to by moving. “I am delighted with the decision and look forward to what is still to come!”
