Steve Azevedo

I believe that everything happens for a reason.

My name is Steve, and this is my story.

It was April 2012 and I had just gone through several events in the previous 3 years, which most people only go through in a lifetime.

I witnessed the loss of a loved one to a devastating disease, closed a dream business that went terribly wrong, experienced firsthand the pain of the ending of a long term relationship. If that wasn’t enough, I was diagnosed, operated, treated, battled (and won) a fight with cancer.

Although I had gone through a lot, I still felt that I was desperately in need of a change.

Then one day, out of the blue, I got a phone call from a former colleague from a past company telling me that there was an opening in the Learning Department for the company she was working at. She told me a bit about the company and only had great things to say. As I had worked almost 9 years in a Contact Center before, I thought she must be exaggerating. My thought was, “You’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all!” So I was not very excited, nor inclined to accept. However, she was very persistent and just asked me to come to visit, see the site and meet the people.

I was hesitant because this job offer would mean that I would be almost 400 km away from my family and friends. I would return to the fast-paced world of the BPO Industry and I would once again be in uncertain territory.

Sure enough, when I got to Foundever Lisbon Offices, I witnessed something that I had never seen before, neither in my former Contact Center Company nor in all the other companies I had worked at. Everyone greeted me and were very kind, from the moment I walked through the Reception doors. But skeptical as I am, I was expecting that. Of course, they were going to try to WOW me.

The real test was going to be when I walked through Operations, meet the people, and get a sense of their level of commitment and satisfaction towards the company. So when the time came and I entered the Operations floors, I was overwhelmed with the feeling of the energy, the smiles on people’s faces, the pride they exhumed while taking their contacts and solving their customer’s issues. I immediately felt good vibes all over the place.

I returned home that afternoon and sure enough, during the 3-hour train ride, I could not get the experience of that day out of my head. I was hooked!

It took me only a few days to get my affairs in order and decide to embark on a new and great adventure: become a Foundever employee!

I started as a Learning Manager for our 1st site in Lisbon on June 4th. As Portugal operations were on the verge of exponential growth, rapidly 1 site became 2, then 2 became 3 and 3 became 4 (and still counting)!

I assumed the role of Leadership Development & Training Manager Portugal, in 2015. Now, I work every day alongside the most caring, hardworking and talented Teams I could ever ask for. Of course, we do have our ups and downs sometimes, but the Team Spirit existent is something I had never seen before, so there is no challenge too hard that we could not overcome together.

Currently, I am very excited to be part of Foundever’s new great initiative called MAX. As a MAXpert, I get the chance to meet and work with even more people worldwide. My goal is to encourage everyone to share their Foundever stories, contribute by sharing ideas/best practices and take part in the implementation of global activities/projects in order to enhance Foundever’s Employee Experience.

It is truly an honor and a pleasure to be able to work in a place where you really feel you are amongst family.

As I said, everything happens for a reason.