Hum-an Stories: Q&A with Talent & Operations Associate Alejandra Robledo Arronte
This interview is part of Hum-an Stories, a Q&A series with Hum Capital leadership and employees providing a look under the hood at what drives Hum and its funding platform, the Intelligent Capital Market.
Alejandra Robledo Arronte has been at Hum for almost two years leading operations and HR for Hum’s Mexico office. Her responsibilities include hiring the best talent across multiple teams, helping to maintain a world-class working experience, and general HR and compliance matters.
In this Q&A Alejandra shares why she decided to join Hum, what qualities she looks for when hiring talent, and what she loves to do outside work and the office.
Q: Why did you decide to join Hum and what excites you most about what Hum is building?
When I first heard about Hum in December 2020 they were looking for a candidate to fill their “Talent Sourcer” role. At that time, I was focusing my career in African Studies and wasn’t quite sure if this job was right for me.
After doing my research on the company, its mission, and what they were building, I realized this was a meaningful and challenging role. I felt Hum was building something that could have an impact locally, regionally, and even globally and could objectively help a lot of people and I wanted to be part of it. I felt inspired.
We are currently building our team, our product, and our processes – everything is exciting, but what excites me most is that we can actually make a difference in the economic system. “A world where potential is unconstrained by capital.” Ambitious? Totally. Hard work? Every day. But that’s our mission and I could not be more excited to help bring it to fruition.
Q: When helping to hire new employees for Hum, what are the qualities you look for in candidates?
One of the most important qualities that I look for in candidates is honesty. Two of our core values at Hum are trust and transparency.
This leads me to another quality which is being able to set aside your ego. Ego is really heavy and it hinders people from learning more and from being their very best in a holistic setting. Other important qualities include: patience, persistence, being open, and eagerness to collaborate in order to build an innovative and influential company.
Q: As a remote-first company, maintaining a strong and spirited company culture certainly has its challenges. Can you talk a little about some of the programs and initiatives you and the HR team are working on?
Certainly. In Mexico, the team is spread across 5 different states. Some are closer to Mexico City where our office is located, but other locations for example like Cancun, is around 2 hours away by plane. We have our monthly virtual meeting called “El Coto Virtualero” (the virtual chatter in Spanish), where we talk mostly about hidden talents that we practice in our personal lives like Polynesian dancing or music production. We try to get together in person at least once a month in the office or at a coworking space. Also as part of our general efforts, we celebrate milestones with a meal at a restaurant or a virtual cooking class! At the moment we are working on new creative ideas to get the whole team together virtually and in real life.
Q: What do you want to see as Hum’s biggest accomplishment in 2022?
I am looking forward to the results of our increased collaboration across our entire organization spanning teams. I am excited by one monolithic and powerful team ready and motivated for our next step.
Q: Now for a fun question. What’s your favorite activity to do outside of work?
I love languages. I love to learn them, study them, and ultimately hear them and their corresponding accents. At the moment I speak five, but I have studied eight and would love to add more! Each language is a world of its own and you can find interesting and meaningful things while learning them, as well as more information about yourself and the world around you. It is surprising what can not be translated with the original meaning!
