Zebra Community Story
Call A Colleague Zebra Community is a peer to peer career consulting point for Zebra professionals who face systemic othering.
We call people who decide to face othering in the name of a purposeful work Zebras, since you know - Zebras are very obviously non-us almost in any environment.
Othering is an automatic us VS. them thinking that all humans are guilty of. One of the situations when othering can really make or break your life is the job hunt in a new yet unmapped environment, like abroad, in a new industry. Or just as a neurodivergent person in the neurotypical world. We have been observing how this phenomena plays out in the experiences of clients of CV Abroad Career Atelier from 20+ countries and in our own lives since 2008 (through multiple economic crises, yes).
The job seeker can suspect some type of othering if something like that is observed:
- no invitations to interviews, if you are self-employed – no sales
- weird interviews you are not sure how to interpret
- general feeling that you are surprising people in some way that might not be positive
Sounds familiar? You can find a fellow Zebra colleague in a European country and immediately book this person for a free 20 minute video call to ask the pressing job hunting and other career related questions.
Job and career is probably the one sphere of human life we have most control over. Call A Colleague was started in 2022 as Career Ateliers' reaction to the Russian war in Ukraine to help professionals (and ourselves) to overcome the trauma of control loss. Back then 150 socially engaged people from Europe and the world have registered as career mentors for their colleagues from Ukraine. Engineers, project & product managers, marketing pros, teachers, software developers, data people, translators, medical doctors, nurses, designers… we were inspired to see many former clients of CV Abroad Career Atelier among the Call A Colleague mentors. As a result over 2000 people received career consultations via call-a-colleague.
Today the world keeps going crazy and it doesn't seem to stop anytime soon. So we invite you to register as a mentor or seek career advice as a Zebra-mentee.
It is free and it is fun to share on LinkedIn and other social networks - you can use it for your professional brand as a proof of your civil engagement against the us vs. them mentality that dominates today and will probably keep spreading. If only we could do something, right?
Let's do something:
https://call-a-colleague.eu/mentors
How does it work?
Really simple. A video call happens via service Jitsi. It is free, no need to install an app. Both sides get the same link per Email - so that only they can participate in the conversation that is encrypted. You only need a smartphone or a laptop.
Mentors and mentees can cancel their engagement any time. Mentors define the time and the amount of calls on their own. Mentees are expected to NOT miss the scheduled calls.
Mentors get materials on the topics of intercultural communication and career consulting from professional career experts and social psychologists of CV Abroad Career Atelier.