Coworking life: Interview with Kim Causier (Becoming Sevillana)

Kim is a translator from a sleepy town in the heart of England. She travelled to Seville initially to do a three-month stint in an agency. Despite the hellish job, she fell in love with her surroundings, started her blog, Becoming Sevillana and decided to stay. She has been a coworker and Space Manager in Andalusia’s first coworking space, workINcompany, for 3 years.

• On your blog, “becomingsevillana” we can find many articles about Sevilla’s lifestyle. Did it help you to get a deeper knowledge of the city?

I started writing the blog 5 years ago after living in Seville for a year as I missed being creative and wanted to show friends and family where I was living and the things I was experiencing, especially food and cultural events. When I started sharing the posts on Twitter, I soon realised that I had quite a few followers and visitors to Seville were using it as a source of information. Writing the blog made me be more proactive about seeing new things and taking interesting photographs. Now that I have lived all the “typical” festivities for six years, I have started to look at the “alternative” side of Seville:the world of startups and coworking, and music. There is so much talent in this city and the region in general, and I would like people to see that, especially as the rest of Spain tend to look down on the south as being lazy.

• How did you get involved with coworking?

When I left the translation agency, I still didn’t want to move away from Seville. Getting a half-decent paid job as a translator was near impossible, so decided to take the leap as a freelancer. The regional government organised a conference day for entrepreneurs, so I went along and attended a talk about coworking by workINcompany’s founders Jaime and Alberto. I had never heard about the concept before, but they talked about many of the fears that had entered my mind about going freelance: not having workmates and never leaving the house, especially since I am living abroad alone. I asked a lot of questions and handed them my business card at the end of the talk. They liked my profile and invited me to try out the space and write about my experience.

• What are the main advantages of working from a coworking space?

There are so many! As a space manager, I have a really close relationship with the other space managers and they have been like my family away from home, especially the founders Jaime and Alberto, who are like my big brothers.

Almost all of our coworkers tell us they are much more productive in the coworking space. I think just the fact that you have to make yourself respectable to leave the house (i.e. not changing your night pjs for day ones) makes a difference.
Also there are always new faces coming and going and I have made so many great friends through the space. Every few weeks we organise a lunch together (ordering tortilla or someone cooks) and there are lot of other events like Jelly, Silicon Drinkabout and Betabeers, which open up the community even more.

workINcompany's community

• How has workINcompany improved your professional network? Did you have the chance to increase your prospects?

From working at workINcompany and attending different events (especially volunteering at EBE and Startup Weekend) I have had the chance to see what people are doing in the city and meet new contacts. I can honestly say I have met some of my best clients through the space.
Apart from translating, I have also been working on a cultural project with some of the other coworkers, which will promote youth tourism in the city. And I have been offered interesting possibilities associated with my blog too.

• Could you tell us a bit more about your day-to-day interaction with other coworkers?

Being the main “guiri” (foreigner) in the office, everyone knows me! I tend to interact with all the coworkers (maybe too much). We always wish each other a “good morning” or “bon appétit” when passing and if anyone is new we make sure to introduce them to the others, both in person and on our group on Facebook. I often have a coffee break with a couple of the other translators at around noon and many of us stop at lunch time and eat together, talking about anything and everything. Being surrounded by so many other freelancers has really helped with issues to do with taxation and dealing with clients.

• How do you see the future of coworking?

In general, I think coworking is the future, as more and more companies are employing staff remotely. Over the past few years, we have seen more digital nomads in workINcompany during winter months as they are escaping harsh weather in the north. Seville really is the perfect place for that: there is still plenty going on, the climate is mild and food is as delicious as any other time of year.