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Balancing the Grind with Pavi Iyer, Global Talent Acquisition Manager at Liven

Pavi Iyer is the Global Talent Acquisition Manager at Liven, a full-stack customer engagement platform built for venues to cultivate their own community of super-fans

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1) To kick things off, could you tell us a little about your career background and current role?

I started my career in HR and over the last decade or so I moved into the Talent Acquisition space. There were lots of opportunities in the industry to shake things up and do things differently, which I really enjoy.

I wanted to be part of the change and help disrupt the industry for the better. During that time I’ve worked across global organisations, mid level corporates as well as  startups/scaleups. I was also fortunate enough to run my own businesses within the coffee roasting & hospitality industry for a few years, which allowed me to get some hands-on insight into running & growing a business. 

I currently head up the Global Talent function at Liven as they scale their web3 platform, to look after all things recruitment, EVP, branding, candidate experience, talent mobility and global expansion! Phew! It’s a whole lot of fun and ambiguity rolled up into one role.

2) What does a day in your life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?

 My role covers a gamut of different hats on a daily basis so it can be pretty varied. Some days may involve phone screens or shortlisting, tech fixes/implementations, TA strategy, stakeholder management or sourcing. 

My most recent workday involved working with my stakeholders to take them through hiring training, moving along to interviews with candidates, managing candidate experience, planning out recruitment marketing timelines, doing school pickup and ending the day by running reports on hiring metrics for the quarter.

3) Does your current role allow for flexible or remote working? If so, how does that fit into your life and routine?

My role allows me to be pretty flexible with my work and have ownership over my remote working options. I have the flexibility to come into work or work from home depending on the workload I need to get through, or events/meetings I’d need to attend in person with my colleagues.

This fits perfectly around my lifestyle as I have 2 young kids, and this flexibility means I’ve managed to be there for all their milestones at school or sports days whilst being able to focus on growing the business and my own career.

Very different from having to drop them off at daycare and not seeing them until bedtime – we missed all the fun and interactions that we now get to enjoy with the kids and helping shape their development.

4) What does work-life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?

Work-life balance to me, means having harmony across all aspects of your life. You have set timelines and KPIs at work that you need to meet, obligations you have in your home life, career goals & personal goals – but the balance is finding a routine that works for you in order to achieve all these in harmony.

This doesn’t always come easy but I try to achieve the best I can with lots of planning, calendar management and backup plans!! You always need to be prepared in case plan A fails 😉

5) In the past 12 months, have you started or stopped any routines or habits to change your life?

I’ve definitely started taking pockets of time out during the day to focus on myself. I’ve consciously made time to read a book, locked in lunch breaks in my calendar and avoided answering messages during this time. I guess it’s a problem that we all face in this WFH space, where it’s so easy to work throughout the day without stopping because there’s no separation between work & home.

6) Do you have any favourite books, podcasts or newsletters that you’d like to recommend?

I love reading more than podcasts but most of my books tend to sway towards the Sci-Fi genre rather than non-fiction. Some others I’ve recently picked up to read have been more focused around web3 and the metaverse and they’ve been an amazing read!

Books:

  • The Metaverse And How It Will Revolutionize Everything by Matthew Ball
  • Augmented Human by Helen Papagiannis
  • SuperSight by David Rose 
  • Navigating The Metaverse: A Guide to Limitless Possibilities in a Web 3.0 World by Cathy Hackl, Dirk Lueth, and Tommaso Di Bartolo
  • Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Newsletters

  • Recruiting Brainfood by Hung Lee

7) Are there any products, gadgets or apps that you can’t live without?

Canva, OneNote, To-Do app, my E-reader & my online bookstore! 

8) If you could read an interview about work-life balance by anyone, who would that be?  

Reshma Saujani – founder and CEO of Girls Who Code.

9) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?

  1. Learn to say no: going back to creating work-life balance, learning to say no and being comfortable with that decision normalises it for others around you too. It creates realistic expectations and helps you make time for what’s important. 
  2. Find something you’re passionate about outside of work, or a hobby that’ll help you focus and refresh your creativity. Balance is all about finding that synergy between mind and soul as well as work/life. So don’t forget to look introspectively!

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About Author

Hey there! I'm Hao, the Editor-in-Chief at Balance the Grind. We’re on a mission to showcase healthy work-life balance through interesting stories from people all over the world, in different careers and lifestyles.