Meet Charlie Teisseire

Tell me a bit about your background. 

Charlie Teisseire: I’m Charlie and I’m the Office Manager and Operations Coordinator for the German branch at Quantis. I’ve been with the company now for two and half years, and I’ve been acting as the Operations Coordinator for 18 months. 

I’m French and German, but I’ve mainly lived in foreign countries. I grew up in Turkey when I was young and then lived in the US for 10 years and then studied in Canada. I’ve been living in Germany, in Berlin, for about 7 years now. 

How did you find Quantis? 

CT: I found Quantis through online searches. I was looking for different office manager and executive assistant types of jobs. At first Quantis wasn’t my first choice, but throughout the interview process, I really appreciated the kind of conversations I was having; they were very honest and pragmatic, but also heartfelt and explorative. I felt like we were co-constructing my role at the company, it was a refreshingly collaborative experience. By the third interview, Quantis was my first choice. 

What does your average day look like? 

CT: I have multiple roles, and so as an office manager I do administrative tasks, event planning and coordination and act as a host for our branch.  

My role as an Operations Coordinator is something completely different. It depends on what’s going on at the time and no day is alike, which I really appreciate. On the Operations team, we focus on staffing projects, optimizing workloads, and reporting on how the business is running. Once we sell a project, we match them to right Quantisian based on expertise and interest, sometimes it feels like playing Tetris. Consultants learn a lot through the projects they work on, and so the right staffing opportunities help them reach their career goals. The business insights portion of operations focuses more on how efficiently our projects are running- this touches on resourcing, but also the tools and the knowledge that we have at hand.

As we’re a small branch, I’m still able to have regular 1:1 with our consultants, where we check in on how things are running. I’m now finding that the informal social interactions we have during these meetings are almost as important. We offer each other support and advice, and these qualitative exchanges are a welcome change from the numbers and spreadsheets I am usually focused on.  

If you had to give your younger self either professional or personal advice, what would it be and why? 

CT: That’s a big question. If I had advice to give to myself, it would be to be more confident in my career development. It’s something that took me awhile to recognize, before coming to Quantis. I’m very dedicated and loyal, but at the same time I’m hungry for new responsibilities and need to be stimulated with new challenges.  

Previously, I sometimes wasn’t given that extra challenge and found myself coasting. I’d tell myself to be more recognizing of the value of my time. I’ve found myself searching for ways to evolve at companies that wouldn’t allow me to.  

That’s a good segue to Quantis because I found quite the opposite here, so much so that it was almost a bit destabilizing. Within six months of working at Quantis, my Line Managers were encouraging me to contribute more and grow within the branch, after many conversations, I eventually landed the operations role. It was encouraging and something I continue to appreciate at Quantis. There was no time to coast. 

In your own words, what do you think defines the Quantis Spirit? 

CT: I think there’s a general overarching benevolence, likely because we work in sustainability. This brings a certain optimism and drive to make a positive impact, and although it may sound cliché, is truly part of Quantis’s ethos. When you look at our manifesto and the company’s mission, you’ll see that. 

Collaboration is one of our pillars: generally, we’re good at finding our common goals or obstacles and pooling our expertise and know-how to address them. At the Berlin branch, we’ve been faced with ups and downs in the past years but there’s a sense of resiliency and growth that comes from the change, which is something I appreciate.

I find that Quantisians are passionate and curious, both at and outside of work.

What makes you passionate? 

CT: The people around me. I appreciate the instant reward of knowing that the people around me are doing well and feel empowered. I’ve leaned into the human aspects of my job, making sure everyone has what they need and feel they have the right outlets to communicate. This also means recognizing when things are difficult and having honest, solutions-oriented conversations.