Tag Archive for: interview

The Coworking Space Concept: Through the Lens of an Intern

After working at Stone Soup for the past 2 months, I can easily say that the community of people working in this space are welcoming, kind, and made the transition into an entirely different culture, almost effortless for me. I was introduced to many aspects of the local culture through food and drinks, by my coworkers – which is reflective of the kind of place the Stone Soup is.

Throughout my stay, I conducted interviews with several Stone Soup residents, which gave me a more specific insight into what they were doing and what lead them to their current position. This also gave me the chance to properly meet the people in the office, that I was seeing every day, in an organic and informal way. To a college student like me, hearing about how career paths can differ so drastically, is knowledge that both placates my worries about the future, and excites me for what’s to come.

                                           

I also gained experience with SEO marketing, which I previously knew nothing about. My understanding of SEO is very multi-faceted in the way that I was taught about it – I learnt about SEO from many different people around the office, who gave me many approaches to tackle SEO, which I could look at and consider on my own. This form of interaction, in which ideas and knowledge can be exchanged at many levels, with different attitudes, is something that about the coworking space concept that I highly appreciated.

My unique experience here can be attributed to a variety of factors, but an overarching theme revolves around the different kinds of people that I have continually met throughout my stay. The diverse job-fields that I encountered within Stone Soup, broke down the preceding connotations and traditional assumptions that I had about the “work place”. The benefits of a coworking space span a much larger scale than I had previously anticipated – the framework is not limited to startups, but is rather a window into the way that different local and social networks can function.

Many aspects of my experience here have been shaped by, and are a result of Stone Soup, an environment that fosters inclusivity in every sense of the word. There is no way for me to show my appreciation for what Stone Soup has shown me, and the kinds of opportunities that have begun to form as a result of my time here, other than by thanking each and every person that I came across during my stay. I am excited for the future of Stone Soup, and for anyone that has the chance to be a part of the community, even if for just a short while.

The Coworking Community in Athens: Cécile’s experience in a shared office space!

Cécile is a newly arrived translator here at Stone Soup! Her work consists mainly of proof reading and translation, form Greek to French, for French publishing houses.

Cécile grew up in Saint-Etienne, France, and has a background in literature, latin, ancient Greek and modern Greek. After graduating from University, she spent 2 years teaching, but realised that she was interested in pursuing other aspects of her degree. This lead her to proof reading, for which she made the transition, and in parallel began doing some translations from Greek to French as a freelancer.

After coming to Athens, Cécile found that she needed to work away from home, as she preferred having some separation between her home space, and work space. Stone Soup provides an element of symbiosis to Cécile – a convenient balance between working alone, as well as having the opportunity to socialise and interact with other freelancers.

Cécile highlights the importance of having a good office atmosphere, in which someone with a job like hers can be stimulated socially. Furthermore, as she comes from France, connecting easily to the local community, through the location and the people, is an aspect Cécile places a lot of emphasis on.

Cécile is currently working on translating a Greek novel into French, which is the biggest project she has worked on thus far. As Cécile’s work as a freelancer requires being fairly mobile in terms of the kind of work she is doing, having a community of people to work around brings about a certain sense of stability to the instability of her job.

Introducing Our New Intern: Japman Kharbanda

Hey! I’m Japman Kharbanda, the new intern at Stone Soup. I’m originally from India, but I now live in Canada and I’m doing my Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Sociology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. I was given the opportunity to work at a fast-growing organization like Stone Soup through AIESEC, a non-profit youth-led organisation that gives students like me the opportunity to travel to different countries and develop the necessary leadership skills along with some other soft skills. I have been an active member of AIESEC for the past year and my primary focus has been on marketing and communications which involves creating awareness about the opportunities offered by AIESEC and its benefits to university students. I intend to bring these marketing, communications and leadership skills to this job. As a marketing assistant, my focus is to work on Stone Soup’s website in order to increase its online visibility and to spread the message to a larger audience about what Stone Soup does. I am very excited to work amongst professionals with varied backgrounds at Stone Soup and to make the most out of my time here.

The Life of a Digital Nomad in Athens: Kim Gillick’s Experience

We would like to introduce Kim Gillick, a content strategist that recently joined the Stone Soup community!

Kim is from Dublin, she graduated from The Institute of Technology, Tallaght, and got her masters degree at the Skema Business School, in France. Kim’s background in digital marketing and international business development motivated her to focus her work on helping startups build their audiences.

Kim has worked with agencies such as Aad, a design agency based in Dublin, which allowed her to consult for brands such as, breac.house, a bed and breakfast in Ireland, and BEST of BEEF, an organisation under the Irish hereford prime with which Kim works to rebrand their consumer-facing website.    

Kim arrived in Athens two months ago, and as a “digital nomad”, she searched for a space in which she could simultaneously work, and connect with other developers and startups. At the time, Stone Soup was looking for a digital marketing coordinator to join one of their projects, and Kim was more than equipped for the role. Kim describes the environment at Stone Soup to be creative, energetic, and collaborative – a space that provides a “traditional” work environment to those that decide to go out in their own direction. The convenience and accessibility of having a local network with which to engage, made the transition into the Athens digital sphere a lot easier for Kim.

After coming to Stone Soup, Kim started investing more time on a larger variety of ventures, while still maintaining her own creative freedom. This has allowed Kim to engage with other developers that are also starting up their own businesses, to help them build their audience.

Kim’s ambition is to become a more diverse collaborator, in order to expand her professional network and reach a broad range of companies – to which she can bring her expertise!

Check out her website to see more of what she does!