International exchanges at CPW: visiting the UK

With international offices in Poland and India, we feel it’s important to bring staff together. Exchanges are a great way to develop team relationships, share knowledge and get to know each other better on a personal level.

Recently, Devangi Sonawala and Hally Desai from our India team came to the UK for an exchange in our Leeds office and managed to maximise their time in the UK, visiting different offices and even fitting in a bit of time for site seeing.

Why did you choose to do an exchange?

Devangi said: “For me, this employee exchange was an exciting opportunity to gain new skills, broaden my cultural horizons, and expand my professional network. It provided me with the opportunity to build new relationships and create opportunities for future collaborations.

“It will also be a valuable addition to my resume and help me to advance my career by demonstrating my ability to work in a global context and to be flexible and adaptable.”

Hally said: “I felt it would be a great way to build inter-personal relation within teams. It’s a chance to bond personally with the people who you speak to every day but you mainly get to see through a small rectangle on a Microsoft Teams call.”

How did you find the experience of working in another country?

Hally said: “In terms of work, you get new perspectives and an expanded network of people you work with. In my opinion, one of the best parts of the whole exchange is getting opportunities to share my knowledge with the team here and gain further technical knowledge from the engineers you work with.

“I had a great opportunity to work with John Warden, who has a great deal of practical experience, while I have more detailed software knowledge, so it was great to be able to help each other. I was also able to support the team with Revit training, which I’ll now be able to continue when I’m back in India. We were able to support each other better face-to-face, but now we have developed these relationships we’ll be able to continue building on this when we return to working virtually.”

Devangi said: “Working in a different environment provided me the opportunity to learn new skills and gain valuable experience that I can bring back to my home country. It was a great way for me to build professional relationships and expand my network – I was able to meet and work with a wide range of senior engineers who all had different specialities and expertise that I could learn from. I had an opportunity to work with new colleagues and build connections with people from different backgrounds.”

How did you find life outside of work?

Hally said: “I have enjoyed my time here as I got to explore a completely different city, a new culture, a variety of different cuisines and, of course, new people. I really enjoyed spending time in the centre of Leeds; when you are in a new place it’s always convenient to have easy access to everything like you do here in the city centre.

“It has also been great to visit the other teams who have all welcomed us by taking us on trips on the weekends. We saw so much of the UK!”

Devangi said: “It helped me to foster cultural understanding; it was a life-changing experience. Adapting to a new environment and a new country with different ways of working, and living conditions is all quite challenging but an exciting experience. It’s forced me to broaden my horizons, improve my languages skills and exposed me to new cultures and ways of thinking. This has all helped me to improve my adaptability and problem-solving skills, which are skills I’ll use in my everyday life at home.”

Would you recommend this experience to others?

Hally said: “I would! You evolve both professionally, as well as personally. Now, when working in India, I wouldn’t think twice about calling the UK offices. It has made me far more confident and, in only 3 months, the UK offices are like family now. Kevin Ballantyne and Lisa Ballantyne in particular were so supportive and really made sure we were looked after, whether that was organising accommodation for us, booking taxis and taking us out as part of the team.”

Devangi said: “I would highly recommend it to the staff in the India office. The overall exchange experience has been great! It has helped me to grow both professionally and personally. I became open-minded, adaptable, and willing to learn to make the most of the experience. Now, I hope the engineers from Leeds team will visit the India office and share their technical knowledge with us.”

We strive to make sure all our offices feel part of the CPW family.

Find out more about our India office.