Mar 30, 2026
From startups to the European Parliament with Fátima González-Torres
From startups to the European Parliament with Fátima González-Torres
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Transcript
0:00
[gentle upbeat music] Hey there. Thanks for clicking play on Work Around, a podcast that explores big career transitions and the reality of following your ambition. I'm your host, Andra.
0:13
I'm a career transition coach, and I get to witness these powerful shifts in my private conversations with clients all the time.
0:22
I know how lonely and difficult it can feel to know that something needs to change, and yet to be afraid of making tough choices.
0:29
And that's exactly why I wanted to start this podcast, to share stories of people who made big moves, their motivations, their experience of finding answers to life's big questions, and the aftermath of those decisions.
0:41
Spoiler alert, people are usually really satisfied on the other side. The people I speak with here are not my clients, and these are not coaching sessions.
0:52
But the themes that come up are exactly the kinds of topics I help my clients work through. For now, this podcast is an experiment.
1:00
I want to hear the real stories of transformation from interesting people that I'm keen to talk to and to share them with you.
1:08
I honestly hope that it grows beyond just a few episodes, and your feedback could be very valuable to help me develop it. So if you like what you're about to hear, let me know.
1:18
If you have other questions you'd like answered, also let me know. And if you have someone in mind that could be my guest, tell me about them, and I'll try to invite them on the podcast.
1:28
I'm endlessly curious, I love a good chat, and I'd love to share these conversations with you. So with that, let's get into the first episode, where I speak to my friend Fátima González Torres about her journey.
1:41
After eleven years working in communications at Ecosia, the search engine that plants trees, Fátima took on an exciting new role with Volt in the European Parliament.
1:50
In this conversation, we talk about going from startups to politics and the real challenge of putting the pieces together and taking the leap. Let's dive in. [gentle upbeat music] Hey, Fátima.
2:01
Thank you so much for joining. I'm really excited to have you here today as a guest on my first-ever podcast recording. Thanks for having me. I'm very honored to be the first one.
2:11
I know you have a lot of interesting things to share, but what I want to zoom into today is your story of career transformation.
2:21
But maybe before we do, can you start with a quick introduction, high level, telling everybody who you are and a bit about your background? Yes. So I'm Fátima, and well, my background is it started in journalism.
2:34
I studied a mix of film and journalism and politics and worked in that sector for a little while before I then felt the itch of doing something for the environment and somehow ended up in the tech world when Ecosia was founded, the search engine that plants trees.
2:53
And I moved from a role of journalism and was into a more marketing, social media, and all of that. That was a big transition. I... A very steep learning curve. We were a startup. We were five people.
3:08
Um, [chuckles] I had nobody senior above me, so I kind of learned as I went and found, uh, mentors here and there. And I did that for 11 years- Wow... um, and then only recently changed to,
3:26
to the European Parliament. Switched not so much the role itself, so I'm s-state and communications and marketing to a certain degree. Changed the, the context, let's say. [chuckles] Mm-hmm.
3:37
The sector completely went from startup to, to a political institution. That's a massive change. And you are now what? About one year into that change- Exactly... roughly? Yeah. Okay. Great.
3:49
What I'm really curious to dig into is specifically this transition that you made in the past year from the startup world into your job at the European Parliament.
3:59
And maybe a good place to start would be if you take me back to, let's say, a year ago or when you started to understand, okay, it might be time for a change. Can you tell me what was going on with you? Yeah.
4:11
[clears throat] I think there are several vectors, I guess, to this. As I said, my background was in journalism, so I've always been very politicized and, uh, very political and interested in politics.
4:22
So that's one thing that never left me. And so when I made the transition from journalism to the tech role into Ecosia and marketing, that still didn't, didn't change me.
4:32
And I think anyone that worked with me at Ecosia would know that I was always a political voice pushing for Ecosia also to, to speak up about things that were related to the climate and were political, right?
4:43
So I think that's one thing that was always simmering in me. It's an interest that never left me. Mm-hmm. And I think 2016, when Trump was elected, uh, the UK left the EU, I started getting really stressed out.
4:59
I was seeing this world crumbling and the fear that what was being built up was not something that I could agree with. Um, password to nowadays we're seeing [laughs] exactly what that is.
5:10
Um, so that's was in me for quite a while. So I think by 2024, at the very latest, I really had this urge in me to, to do something about it and to, um, yeah, he-help stop what was happening. So that was a, a big thing.
5:27
Back then, when I changed from journalism to, to Ecosia, I had had a similar transformation from I was seeing what was happening with the climate. I realized that the European Union was doing very little.
5:38
We had no Green Deal back then, and I thought to myself, "How, how can I have a bigger impact?"
5:43
I thought, "Okay, here I, I see the impact directly," and this was a similar thing, so in terms of, like, what I wanted to, to work in.
5:51
And then the second vector is, of course, was at Ecosia for quite a long time, essentially helped build it up. I was one of the first ones, so it was... it hadTurned into my home.
6:03
I had also, in that time, profiled myself in a way as producer, video producer, YouTube producer, content creator. So changing away from that was a bit difficult in my head.
6:16
Topic-wise, it was very clear to me, I want to go towards politics, but the switch from what I was doing to working in institution, that was a mind fuck [laughs] Mm-hmm... that, that I found very difficult.
6:31
I don't know if I answered your question.
6:32
I think there, there was a point, really the, the feeling of having to change came more from wanting to have an impact in this area of politics, but also the feeling of I've been here so long, which was good and bad.
6:46
It was good because I felt like I had built up something, and that made me f- feel very proud. And over the years, I did... had asked myself a couple of times, "Should I be changing?"
6:54
Because everybody was changing jobs every two years. But I felt very secure in saying, "Actually, no." Like I, you know, I'm... I am a person that looks profoundly into things, but I did have this feeling of
7:06
I want to change something, but I don't really know in what direction exactly other than knowing, okay, probably something in politics.
7:13
That's great, and I think what really comes through is this idea of impact because the need for having impact is what took you in your first career pivot, let's say, into Ecosia.
7:23
And then the other side of things that was going on for you was the personal shift from the professional persona, right, of a creator and producer into this new role. Can you tell me a bit more about that?
7:38
I think there was s- a feeling of having reached a little bit the maximum I was going to reach in the role I had within Ecosia, just because of the context of what Ecosia needed.
7:50
And I had felt already for a good two years, two and a half years, that I was not developing myself any further. And, um, there was, there was not much more that I could do to, to develop.
8:07
But for me, it was mostly having the feeling that I was doing the same things again and again at Ecosia for Ecosia, which was important for Ecosia, but it was unfulfilling for me.
8:20
So I had reached a point where I felt I'm not developing and, and Ecosia can keep having an impact like this, but anybody else could do my role. So I f- I felt like I needed to change because
8:33
I wake up every day thinking, if I'm gonna spend the next eight hours working, I want that to have an impact and to... for my skills to really be well-placed.
8:44
So you reached that point when it felt like giving, giving, giving and not really getting anything- Yeah... back anymore, so that's kind of the emotional reality of knowing I have to change.
8:55
I also need to feel like I'm growing and- Yeah... I'm getting back and not only giving. And what did you do next, practically, when you realized, okay, this is it, it's time to look for something else?
9:05
How did you start to move into the next phase? I mean, I think when one looks back at it, it sounds very li- like there is a clear timeline, right? [laughs] Yeah, I felt this, and then I did that.
9:15
That is absolutely not how things work, not for me [laughs] because I had had these intertwined feelings for quite a while. I always had a bit, an eye open and y- and ears open to other things.
9:28
Like, I had signed up to newsletters for jobs, specifically in institutions in Brussels, but also other newsletters with impact jobs. I have the privilege to be able to choose a job by the impact I will...
9:42
positive impact I will have. So I was speaking to friends and colleagues and ex-colleagues about starting to feel a bit this unease in me, so sometimes some people would also send things in my direction.
9:54
I think once I really realized I really need to change, I just increased the search, basically. I looked actively into these nes- natter- newsletters instead of letting them die off [laughs] in my inbox. Archive.
10:07
Uh, yeah, archived or deleted. Mm. Uh, I started actively, uh, paying attention, speaking to people, sometimes going out for coffee with, uh, people in other organizations that I found interesting.
10:19
And when the EU elections were happening, I had a very strong eye on which parties are gonna make it into the EU Parliament, and is there any interesting party that I'd be interested in working for that was there.
10:31
That was there. That was there. Okay. So you kind of activated your network- Mm...
10:36
and then slowly you started to build up your search, but in a way that it doesn't sound like it was, "Oh, I'm going to look, look for this kind of job with this kind of title in this kind of company."
10:46
It was more broad, more, "What is the kind of cause that I want to work for? What's out there in politics that aligns with my values?" Yeah, exactly. I think there was no methodology behind that.
10:57
[laughs] But then, yeah, in, indeed, what you just described. I did also consider going freelance. Like, I had, um, accumulated enough experience to, to also have that option.
11:08
But it still gave me the same sense of staying in the same path, and I realized I needed, I needed some change also in the, in the industry I was in- Mm... seeing things from another perspective.
11:22
It felt like you still had a lot that you could gain from going into this other kind of experience than going and working for yourself.
11:28
Because if we think back to what you were saying before, you were feeling like you were giving, giving, giving- Mm... and this freelancer path looked like it would be much of the same- Yeah... in a way.
11:37
It would be staying the... in, again, in a way, staying in the same sector, right?
11:42
I was seeing the entire spectrum of political forces towards the left not really winning the communications game and realizing if I had to change it all, I wouldn't really know how. Nobody has an answer.
11:59
Everybody's trying. And I thought this is where potentiallyI would have to gain some experience to be able to have an impact in that direction. Be part of figuring out- Yeah...
12:10
the left can, yeah, reclaim their agency- Yeah... in terms of communications. Okay. And then how did you find specifically the role that you're in now, and were there any others that you were looking at?
12:22
There were a few that I was looking into, yes, and I think they all came through networks. And how is the process of interviewing for roles in politics?
12:33
So the thing is that the other two roles that I was considering, they were somewhat related to politics, but they were not directly in politics.
12:40
The big difference of Volt with other priorities, I'd say, is that they themselves understand themselves as a political startup, as they once said to me.
12:50
It is something that I was very aware of, the gap between the world I was from, let's say, and that I wanted to enter. But that was precisely the gap that I wanted to bridge.
13:00
So I think I went into that with the humbleness of understanding that there was many things I didn't know, and I was very open about it, but at the same time with the conviction that the world I came from could really enrich politics and political communications.
13:17
What I love about this is that I see in your story that, yes, you had developed really deep expertise in one job and in one sector for a very long time, and in parallel you had this sort of long-running interest in politics, which meant that you had a lot of insight both into the world you were looking to go into, and of course, you had a lot of experience in building something in a startup from the ground up.
13:40
So it almost sounds to me like you didn't need to do a lot of research because you knew both worlds really well. Mm.
13:47
And yes, there are things you didn't know, like you said about the world of politics, but you also were very aware of what you are bringing- Mm... to the table.
13:54
So being aware of all of this made it fairly easy, let's say, to tell your story and present yourself in a way in these interviews that was very assured about what your role there could be. I mean, it...
14:05
to a certain degree, probably yes.
14:07
I think I give a lot of credit to Volt and the people at Volt because they are very open-minded about pr- specifically taking people into their teams that come from a very different world.
14:19
I was very aware that it was going to be a very different world, potentially a frustrating one. I came from starting a startup and growing a startup where everything is very dynamic. You have a lot of freedom.
14:32
So I was used to that world where if something doesn't work, you just go ahead and change it, and the less patience you have with, like, you know, things that are inefficient, the better- Yeah...
14:42
because you find solutions quicker. So there was a big risk for me to change, and I was aware of that because there was a potential for me to get frustrated.
14:50
But to the second part, to the story, yes, I think it makes sense, right? It's not a story that came out of nowhere. So in that...
14:56
and you are right that the two worlds, it's just two worlds that, that kind of made sense.
15:01
But actually building that story in my head created a few mind fucks because I had changed from being a journalist to going to social media marketing, which was already a moment where I had to, like, change my brain and be like, you know, does this narrative make sense?
15:15
Ma- and back then I told myself, "Well, you know, just gather experience and do what's fun and just do it." By the time I was doing this change, I was much older. Um, and I did have perhaps a big fear.
15:28
I had this thought of I could actually stay in the sector I am and, you know, become the best video and/or YouTube producer out there, or instead I switch, and then I'm switching again, and how does that make sense, and what's the narrative here?
15:43
So for many months, I was torturing myself with this, trying to make the new personality, quote-unquote, that I was going to be by going into political communications.
15:53
And at some point I realized, actually, you know what? There is, there is no clean way of doing this. This is precisely this gap I'm trying to bridge, and that's okay. You know, like, it's...
16:05
at the end of the day, we decide what story we tell ourselves, and I could either tell myself a story of, "This just doesn't fit in, and therefore don't do it and ignore everything else you feel and that you wanted to do and everything you're interested in and that you're seeing in the world," or I could tell myself, maybe a clear definition of a professional path doesn't matter, and what matters is the impact I'm having in the context of the actual world we're in now.
16:33
Once I changed the story in my brain, I felt free. I love that. How did you change that?
16:39
Can you point to the moments that made you go like, "Aha, no, this is okay if I go a- after what I want, what I feel is right for me, not after what I think I should in order to, quote-unquote, 'progress' in my career"?
16:52
Again, very hard, I think. [laughs] Now when one looks back, one says, "Yeah, this is the moments," but there was no such mo- moment. I tortured many friends [laughs]... including yourself.
17:03
Friends, acquaintances [laughs] With, with my question marks.
17:10
I think the moment that I formulated it that, that way was really the result of thinking for quite a few months, considering different options, really also talking about it with a therapist and really
17:25
picking out what things are fear, what things are just, you know, rational thoughts, and which parts are just the story I'm telling myself. So it took...
17:34
I think it took a lot of conversations, a lot of writing, and just also walking away from it and not thinking about it for a couple of days, doing sports, whatever. It was, it was a mess. That's what it was. It was hard.
17:49
I remember being there- Mm... as you were thinking through this last year, and I know it was a lot, right? Because there's the, this identity part of it- Mm...
17:57
that you needed to work through and the emotional part of it, and then there was also the practicalities of actually- Mm...
18:03
having to make some very serious decisions that would impact your day-to-day life.What were some of those things that were- that you were weighing?
18:11
Yeah, I mean, I had to move cities, move away from a city where I had a very strong, uh, community. I had ha- done that a few years before briefly and then came back, and that didn't go that well.
18:23
So I think the memory of that, feeling very lonely in that other city and then coming back, that hits me. Now that I look back at it, I think that decision happened much faster in me than I realized back then.
18:37
When I was offered to come, it made a lot of sense in my head. I was like, "Hell yes," like, "This is great."
18:44
And I think because I was scared about moving again and that potentially not working out well, I was trying to rationalize every element about the professional change in every way possible.
18:59
I remember it being really frustrating, me trying to talk about the job and the changes in job with my therapist, and that's obviously not her job. [laughs] She's not a coach. And I f- real- I remember the frustration.
19:11
I was like, "Why is she changing topics?" But she was not changing topics. She was, like, trying to point out [laughs] exactly what was happening.
19:18
Yeah, that was a big fear, um, that I had to see, observe, and then realize, okay, well, whatever happens, I'll, I'll be okay because at the end of the day, no matter how bad I felt with the other move, I changed and everything was okay.
19:33
That's so interesting to realize that even what could seem like practical aspects of the decision, like, oh- Mm... do I want to move cities? Do I want to move countries, you know?
19:43
This was a much bigger emotional part that was disguised- Yeah... as a practical decision to make. Yeah. And it took time and therapy to work through it and then to realize- Yeah...
19:51
"Ah, okay, now I understand what I'm dealing with, and I've done this before.
19:55
And just because it didn't go well the time before, it doesn't mean that it has to go the same way when I do it again, and I have new resources and a different kind of fuel, which is this mission and this potential for impact that can kind of carry me through."
20:07
Exactly. So what other things would you say you were worried about? What I heard so far is this idea of I might feel frustrated because it doesn't move at the same pace as what I've been used to.
20:19
There's this potential to have a really tough experience again, moving to a new place, maybe feeling lonely. Was there anything else big that you were considering really seriously? Two things.
20:31
Um, first, the emotional one, which is, like, what moving would also mean f- for me long term. I think the older we get, right, the more moves you make, the riskier it is. You're leaving behind a community.
20:47
I think I was trying to answer questions of the future that I just couldn't ask... uh, answer at that moment. And I had to just let myself and trust that in that sense, everything will be okay.
20:58
I was not gonna lose my friends just because I left, just like I hadn't lost other friends or the same friends when I had left once, right? So the long-term question of where do I belong- Mm...
21:08
which, um, is a constant in my life. I've lived in a million places throughout my life.
21:15
Berlin has been the place that I stayed the longest, so leaving it was also emotional in that sense because I was telling myself, "Well, will I ever, like, stay put somewhere? What is home?"
21:26
[laughs] Yeah, this is the eternal question that I feel as well, and I think everybody who's lived in more places than one realizes that you might never feel whole again in the sense that I belong to one place and one place only- Mm...
21:37
and that can be super confusing. It's very confusing, and, and maybe there just isn't any response. Maybe it's okay.
21:43
And then while I had solved in my head this conundrum of like, oh, this change of role fits just because I choose that it fits, it still is a change. I was going into a place where many things I just didn't know.
21:58
Practically speaking, I was going from a very senior position to maybe a position that was gonna be much less senior. So I think there was a bit of fear around that as well.
22:09
Will I feel very quickly again like I'm not actually having the impact that I'm looking for? And, and quite honestly, will I get bored?
22:18
You mentioned all these pretty big fears and pretty big reasons to think really deeply and to take your time to consider, and in the end you decided to go.
22:26
What was the other force that was pulling you towards this place despite everything that you just mentioned? Mm. Yeah. I think many things. I think
22:35
genuine excitement for, for working in the parliament, but also working with Volt because several people that I studied with in my master's, they ended up in Brussels, and I've been going to Brussels for the past 10 years quite a lot.
22:47
[laughs] So... But that was a big, a big one that my closest friends in Brussels were telling me, "Don't worry, like, if things don't go well, we'll just watch films together and eat popcorn together."
22:58
Or, like, they were describing to me very specifically what we'd be doing day to day. Mm.
23:03
I think at some point, especially one friend specifically realized that that was my fear, and that I could imagine my life there, and she described to me, like, places I had been to, and she's like, "We'll go there.
23:12
We'll do this." I was like, "Ah, okay. Like, I'll be fine." Mm. Um, it was that. And a little bit also, honestly, I wanted to leave Berlin.
23:24
Like, at, at the end of the day, I stayed at- in Berlin because I was tired of moving and because I loved what I was doing at Ecosia, but at the same time, I had never fully 100% vibed with the city.
23:35
And so there was a little part of me that was curious to go to a city that in many ways feels a bit more Latin. Mm-hmm. I, I love Berlin, and Germany has given me a great home.
23:47
I'm very thankful for Germans to accepting me as one of theirs, but day to day, Berlin is rough. Yep. I feel you. So this is a great point to actually look from Brussels towards Berlin.
24:00
So looking back, how have things panned out? I mean, overall, I, I have to say good. My friends welcomed me with open arms, made my life really easy.
24:10
Uh, when I arrived in Brussels-Only two weeks later, I hurt my foot severely [laughs] I was on crutches, and there was a whole community taking care of me.
24:23
So it was a really good heartwarming start, other than the fact that I started my first day on a wheelchair [laughs] in the European Parliament- [laughs]... because with...
24:32
I was on crutches, and the Parliament is so huge, getting to my offices was hard. Anyway, a colleague picked me up, and we asked for a wheelchair, uh, at the entrance.
24:43
They gave me one, and she pushed me around- [laughs]... the whole day to show me everything. It was so heartwarming.
24:48
I think I didn't mention this at the beginning that obviously I loved my colleagues at Ecosia, and, uh, changing to a new team, you know, I had obviously a good feeling about Volt. It's an awesome place.
25:01
Uh, but you never know, right? And then I arrived, and the first day, this absolute legend of a colleague pushes me around.
25:07
It's an awesome group of people, uh, who truly care about each other, and that's not a given in, in every team. Yeah.
25:15
It's been a learning curve as well, understanding how this institution works, what the impact is that I could have, which meant a lot of change as well for a team that had been waiting for me for a while.
25:26
Because between the time they offered me the, the job until I came, there was also a lot of issues with paperwork. So anyway, it's, it's been hard, a lot of work, um, as it always is, I guess, when you start a new job.
25:38
But it's been very fulfilling and, um, and them, in a way, matching my energy of like, okay, anything that is not working, hasn't worked so far, let's just change it. Don't wait another year, you know? So- Mm.
25:48
So I really like it. Nice. I'm really, really happy for you. What does a working day in the European Parliament look like? That's a good question. [laughs] That depends very much on the day.
25:59
If nothing h- is blowing up in the world politically, if there's no Trump taking over Greenland or any other country, then essentially you're coming in, you're aligning politically, so with the politician that you're working closest with, and then with the communications team and planning ahead for, for what's gonna happen that week.
26:21
And, and then honestly, you're just writing and recording and running around and editing a lot, sometimes running around behind your politician to get enough images of them doing what they do.
26:34
There's lots of events in the European Parliament as well, some of them then run also by the politician that you work with. It's very varied, votes here and there that you need to be prepared to communicate about.
26:46
It, it can become very hectic very quickly. And once a month, we spend a week in Strasbourg because the European Parliament has, uh, two seats, in Brussels and in Strasbourg.
26:56
But then similarly, you arrive there, and that's even more stressful 'cause that's when the actual votes of, um, policies that have been discussed for months are voted on.
27:05
Um, there's that and always being prepared for whatever crap is happening in the world- Mm-hmm... [laughs] making sure that, that the politicians you're working with, um, can react to that quickly if they need to.
27:19
One final question. What would you advise anyone who's thinking about making a significant career transition right now?
27:28
I mean, I think, perhaps I'm talking just out of my own experience, but I, I would think very deeply about what are your fears. Try to really look into what is really stopping me here
27:42
if you really are at a position where like, oh, I can't decide, I can't decide, I can't decide, and which is really frustrating, that, that spot. Now that I look back at it,
27:50
I was generally excited about the opportunity, and I was excited about the place specifically. Like, it was a dream.
27:58
So I had to look really deeply to understand that there was a fear that sounded actually like just a practical thing, but actually turned out to be a deep emotional fear. Potentially, if, if you're like me, write a lot.
28:12
Some people, it's really just about talking or maybe it's recording yourself, whatever it is, but try to really go deep into what it is that is stopping you because it's never what's in the surface. It never is.
28:23
Be really honest with yourself, and then just face the fear. Look it in the eyes, and ask for support. Like, don't, don't stay with it yourself. Like, you will go crazy. Like, ask for help. Yeah.
28:34
Respect the, the limits of your friends as well. But, like, really try to look into what the fear is, and just be as radically honest as you can to yourself and be nice to yourself.
28:44
I love this point of not staying stuck with the fear and asking for help, and it's always refreshing to get out of your head and get new perspectives from people you trust. So thank you for this, Fatima.
28:54
This is a beautiful point to end on. And now, before I let you go, do you want to tell people where to follow you and the work you and your colleagues at Volt do? Yes. Follow Volt Europa, but also all our MEPs.
29:09
[laughs] These European politics needs more following, so Kai Tiegotopf, Neela Riehl, Damien Boese Lager, Reinier van Lanschot, hope I pronounce that correctly, and Anna Strolemberg.
29:22
They do awesome work, so follow them, please, and, um, follow that journey and give us input. I'd be very thankful about that. Of course. Is there any question that I didn't ask but you think I should have asked?
29:37
I don't think so. Can't think of anything right now. [laughs] Good. Thank you so much for joining and for being so open and honest about the emotional journey that you went through as you made this decision.
29:48
I'm sure that people who listen to this will have a lot to learn about this rich, scary path that in the end, uh, can be rewarding. And, um, I wish you all the best. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.
30:02
[outro music] Thank you for listening. I hope you enjoyed my chat with Fatima as much as I did. If you like this podcast, please subscribe, leave a review, and maybe share it with a friend who would need to hear this.
30:16
And if there's anyone you'd like me to interview, please reach out and let me know. I hope you'll drop in next time.
Workaround with Andra Nuta
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