It can be tough navigating the working world. It’s specially hard these days with so much job loss, job change, company restructure, and the “new” work from home lifestyle. Working professionals will tell you that networking is key, but I bet not many people think of their church as a place where that type of networking can be done. Valentina and Anna, two Hoboken Grace members, are shining examples of what can happen when a church team brings on unexpected work opportunities. Valentina serves on the church HR team and Anna is a former Hoboken Grace intern. Serving together lead to the unexpected opportunity for Anna to work with Valentina at her job, which just goes to show how God uses people in our lives even beyond Sundays or church events. They can lead to ever lasting friendships and now work colleagues. The Story Team got to sit down with Valentina and Anna for a chat about Anna’s new work opportunity, and how getting plugged into a team can lead to some professional life changes.

Story Team:

What is the company that you now work for and what is it that you do for them?

Valentina:

So I work for DAZN, and it is a sports streaming company. I’ve been with them for about two years and we have some live events on the platform, and all kinds of content that we produce, which people can subscribe to watch. What I did is work in the HR department and manage people in the America’s region.

Story Team:

How did you two get connected for this internship that Anna is now in? Did you know each other beforehand or is this how you met?

Anna:

We both worked on the HR team at Hoboken Grace. I was just an intern last Fall, and that’s how we were initially connected. Valentina was somebody I really looked up to on the team, I definitely thought she was impressive and Lonzell always spoke very highly of her. Its kind of all happened at the right time where I was starting to look for jobs after I graduated college and Valentina was looking for somebody to fill this role. So we reconnected and that’s how we’re here today.

Valentina:

Anna did the Fall internship with Lonzell at Hoboken Grace. Obviously, it was still very much Covid times, so we only got to connect through Zoom.

Anna:

Yeah, we connected on our Zoom calls every other week, and we worked on some things together. So when she reached out to me I definitely knew she was someone I wanted to work with.

Story Team:

What does your role look like now interning with Valentina at DAZN, verses when you were working at the church? Or what expectations do you have in how it will be different?

Anna:

I’m just excited to be part of such a global and diverse company and to have the opportunity to talk with people from all around the world. It already seems like DAZN is unpredictable, in a good way, so I’m excited to get to work on a bunch of different projects.

Story Team:

For those who don’t know, could you both talk about what it is that the HR team does at Hoboken Grace?

Anna:

The HR Department is relatively new. So what we did was establish that department and make things easier for other teams that existed at Hoboken Grace in putting together policies and making easier for the employees who work there.

Valentina:

Essentially, Lonzell has been hiring interns for various departments at Hoboken Grace, and the current team supports him since Lonzell is the only staffer.

Story Team:

What advice would you give to somebody in the church family who is looking for a new work opportunity or maybe even looking for a job for the very first time?

Anna:

For me, I would say always putting your best foot forward with everyone you come in contact with. I did not think that working at Hoboken Grace would lead me to where I am right now, and I think that happened because of making a good impression. I thought working for Hoboken Grace would be a temporary thing, but it ended up leading to something not so temporary.

Valentina:

With Anna, she really embraced the opportunity and networked. She didn’t just come in, complete her internship and then leave. She was very much networking with everyone and didn’t do it from a “what’s in it for me?” standpoint. She genuinely enjoyed building the relationships.