The former Vantaztic tells us how the Vantaztic culture marked his professional life.
Rodrigo Vigueras, a commercial engineer from the Universidad de Concepción, joined Vantaz Group in 2008. At that time, he was working for a self-adhesive label printing company, but after two years he realized he wanted to try other things. Consulting caught his attention and he applied to Vantaz. "At that time I didn't stay because they were looking for a person with a different type of profile, but shortly after another position opened up and they hired me," Rodrigo says.
His first months were focused on the execution of a SAP training project. He then worked as an analyst and later as a senior consultant. When he left Vantaz he was Project Leader.
In 2021, Vigueras left the company to follow another path. The decision was difficult, but he says that he was motivated by the idea of being able to continue promoting the Vantáztico seal in other organizations. He went to work at BHP, where he currently works as a systems specialist for the area of Health, Safety and Environment.
How were your beginnings at Vantaz?
At the beginning, I had a hard time integrating into the team. I had experienced a very different side of consulting, I came from a smaller company, everything was new to me. I had to understand from scratch the whole world of mining, the relationship with clients, what Vantaz was doing, etc. It was very difficult for me to finish a project and immediately start a totally different one. But, finally one begins to get the taste for it and that is part of the challenge of consulting, one goes through a lot of topics, techniques and experiences, and it is in one's power to be flexible to that. In that sense, from the point of view of the projects, the learning with which I was enriching my portfolio of work tools was infinite.
What do you remember with the greatest satisfaction from those years?
If I had to talk about the good things about Vantaz, I would be here all day. It was an incredible experience of almost 14 years, longer than school. Vantaz is for me a super success story of a company that can focus on people. If we want to get good results, our people have to be happy and that spirit of having a good team has always been noticeable. I made an impressive number of friends, because we were always looking for people with a particular stamp that made it very easy for people to 'hook'. Clients said that the Vantaz stamp was noticeable because there was always a good vibe, a job well done. On the other hand, I remember with great satisfaction the possibility I had to visit several countries around the world. I went to Australia, I was in New Zealand, United States, Peru, Colombia, among others. I was sent to carry out various projects of systems implementation. I lived in Australia for almost a year, it was a great experience and I am also convinced that in that process, together with my colleagues, we left the name of the organization in a very good position with the clients, which helped to sow the path of what is there today.
Have you found the vantaztic culture in other place?
I haven't been through so many companies, but since I spent many years at Vantaz, I still have that style very much ingrained in me. In fact, it is something that I have tried to transmit in my current job and I have been told that thanks to that spirit the team has become very cohesive. I am of the philosophy that the more you know each other, the more you want collective success over individual success.
What would you like for Vantaz in the future?
I said it the day I left: take care of what you have built over time. Sometimes when companies grow a lot, it becomes much more difficult to focus on people. "Vantázticas and vantázticos" have to really feel that they are working in a company that is on another level. We alumni are aware that we took something that marked us and I hope that all the people who work there experience something similar. I hope that it is not just another line on their resume, but that it is an important line marked with golden letters. I went through Vantaz and I am a proud Vantazitic.
Any anecdotes you would like to tell us?
The 'vantasilandia', all the initiation rites, the floor payings, the Christmas activities, the 18th of September and, of course, the so-called 'vantázticazo'. Activities where we not only had a good time, but also served to build solid teams. It was a space where one could meet beyond work. All these anecdotes that we keep in our memories allowed us to generate important bonds of friendship that endure to this day.
