A World of Opportunities
Meet Colara: HR Manager
About Colara
Colara Hall is the HR Manager for Guavus US performing the HR functions of Onboarding, Performance Reviews, Employee Engagement, T&D and job evaluations. Colara has spent over 13 years in the HR arena with combined experience and knowledge in both the public sector working for the Administrative Offices of the Courts and the private sector now here at Guavus.
HR Team
Coming from the public sector to a start-up is very exciting. The fast-moving environment and the flexible atmosphere here are what attracted me to this job.
San Jose, CA, USA
Q & A
Please describe your role at Guavus.
I’m an HR manager at Guavus San Jose USA. I take care of all HR-related things, so I deal with employee management: day-to-day requests for personnel changes, benefits updates, payrolls inquiries, performance review, employee engagement, and so on.
How long have you been at Guavus and what attracted you to working here?
I’ve been at Guavus for about four years. This is my first private sector job. Coming from the public sector to a start-up is very exciting. The fast-moving environment, the flexible and hard-working atmosphere here are what attracted me to this job.
What are you most proud of?
I’d say my sense of adaptation. With the recent acquisition by Thales and now that Gemalto has joined the Thales team, my role here has evolved, and I’ve been able to shift and move with all these exciting changes. When I started at Guavus, I was just strictly HR and Benefits Administrator; now, my role is much broader.
What are you most looking forward to in the next six months?
For the next six months, I’m most excited to see how Guavus will work with Thales and Gemalto, how my role will evolve, and what my new responsibilities will be.
What is the best career advice you ever received?
The best career advice I’ve ever received was never be afraid to make mistakes because making a mistake is how you learn. I’m sure everyone has made a mistake and from that mistake they learned from it.
I’m a person that believes that no one is perfect because perfection comes from being imperfect and making mistakes. That’s the best career advice I’ve ever received, and I’ll always remember that… there’s no reward without risk- thanks, mom!
What's the culture like at Guavus?
It’s a very flexible, laid-back culture. As long as you get your work done and you’re dedicated to what you’re doing, you can do it from anywhere. Guavus is completely open so you can bounce ideas off of each team, whoever sits next to you or is in the office. It gives you the ability to not feel like you only can operate in one area of a box. We are very fortunate to have this culture at Guavus.
3 words to describe Guavus
Flexible. Hardworking. Dedicated.
How do you spend your time outside of Guavus?
I’m a full-time mom. I have two children: a 14-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son. I’m a band parent coordinator for my daughter and a Karate parent coordinator for my son.
Another thing that I love to do is cook, that’s my therapy. Outside of my career path and for my own personal development, I’d like to own a restaurant one day called “Colara’s Kitchen”. I’ve started to craft my future business plan! It still falls into being a mom, because it’ll be a family-oriented restaurant. My specialty is real Southern food. I’m originally from the South (Mississippi) and I’d like my restaurant to be very homey, with the original ingredients of soul food dishes the way soul food was created back in the day.
What is your favourite place in California?
LA!!! LA is the land of dreams and opportunities because you can do so many things there. Yes, it is hard to start. But once you start, you’re like there, it’s just a matter of networking and getting to know people that will put you in the right places in front of the right people at the right time.
And food-wise, LA is a THE place with the best restaurants and great chefs. That’s why I love LA.
I don’t go very frequently there, because it’s an 8-hour drive but when I do I enjoy it to the fulliest.
Another place that I love, closer to home, is Napa. This is my staycation, the land of wine with so many beautiful wineries and so many different cuisines. So I have two places: LA and Napa.
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