Calvi Heroes: Chiara Diepstraten

About Chiara

“My name is Chiara and I am 22 years old. I live in the beautiful city of Waalwijk (NL) with my boyfriend Dilan. I met Dilan while doing something that I love, playing soccer. We are both real soccer fanatics.”

“Furthermore, I love enjoying drinks and good food in the sun, especially when we’re on one of our city trips. Every Saturday is reserved for soccer, but during the rest of the weekend we love to discover new cities in The Netherlands. Right now, Haarlem is high on our list. When we travel abroad, we enjoy visiting London every year during Christmas time. But Curaçao and New York City are favorites as well.”

How did you end up at Calvi?

“After High School, I started at Tilburg University and obtained a degree in Psychology. Within the Psychology curriculum, you must choose between a clinical and a social track. I decided to join a clinical psychologist for a day, and immediately knew that it was not what I wanted. So, I decided to focus on Social Psychology. I then decided to focus on the work and organizational sub track since this enabled me to conduct research and implement my findings.

“The real story of how I ended up at Cavli starts with my first job as a recruiter. I worked in a tiny office with one other person. It was so tiny, that when one of us had an interview, the other one needed to work in the hallway. As you can imagine, this was not ideal, and after a while, we decided to move to a different office and ended up at the Calvi office in Tilburg.”

“During the lunchbreaks, I always enjoyed chatting with Calvi's employees. So, when I mentioned that I had to do an internship for my Master’s degree in Work and Organizational Psychology, Calvi's CEO asked me to join Calvi. The first impression was extremely positive. I admire how everyone believes in the vision and has the ambition to turn this shared vision into reality. After my internship, I stayed with Calvi as a member of the HR department.”

What do you do at Calvi?

“Officially, I’m an HR specialist. This basically means that I concern myself with everything surrounding Calvi’s employees, contracts, and business-related problems that affect the employees. My colleague Katrien concerns herself with the administrative part of it all. During my internship, I designed a new performance review, which is still enforced today. Other than that, my day is filled with talent development, recruitment, employer branding, and much more.”

What are your biggest achievements within Calvi?

“I think I have two. The first one is becoming an official member of the Calvi team after my internship. The second biggest achievement is the new performance reviews I set up. Before, Calvi also held recurring performance reviews, but these were a bit more static. My new approach consists of appreciation appraisals and goal interviews. The focus in this new approach lies on personal goals and development, instead of simply reviewing one’s performance. The appreciation appraisal looks at how an employee has developed during the past year, and the goal interview is all about looking at the future.”

What have been your biggest challenges within Calvi?

“Every Team Lead within Calvi took part in a Coaching course. For HR, I did the same. When I started this course, I definitely underestimated it. It cost me blood, sweat, and tears, but in the end, I am super happy I did it. I discovered so many new ways to talk to people and learned how to motivate people. The course itself was very interesting and educational. Most importantly, I learned that good coaching always leads to better results.”

What do you love most about your job?

“I love discovering new things. The analytical parts of my job also interest me a lot. This includes the analysis of our Employee Satisfaction Research. I also talk to all Team Leads on a regular basis to learn about their team’s progress, and I’ve learned that everyone has a different vision on leadership. This makes me wonder how I can make these different visions come together in one common approach. That’s what I love about my job.”

Where do you see Calvi in 5 years?

“In 5 years, Calvi’s team will have expanded with many new heroes. We will have entered new international markets as well. We will have grown exponentially in Canada and the US. But despite all of this, we will still have the same Calvi culture. At Calvi, we listen to each other; we value personal interactions and want all employees to grow. Hopefully, in 5 years, the HR department will have expanded as well, so that my colleagues and myself can support Calvi’s employees even better.”

What is your personal motto?

“Always stay curious”

 “I live and breathe by this quote. I feel it is super important to always be on the lookout for new things to learn and new people to meet. It’s essential to continue developing yourself and discover new things. And not to forget, curiosity is also a form of ambition.”

How would you describe Calvi in 3 words?

Ambitious, Challenging, Caring

 “Calvi is a very ambitious organization, with big dreams and the motivation to achieve its goals. We set the bar high and challenge our employees to jump over it. And when you are not able to jump high enough yet, we will take care of you and provide you with the support and resources to help you jump over the bar with us.”

A workplace that you love isn't easy to come by. Are you interested in becoming part of our amazing team? Check out our career page to see whether we have an application open that fits you, or send us an unsolicited application.