MyMentor Spotlight: Rhidian Boobier

Cardiff-born Rhidian currently resides in London where he leads Deliveroo’s customer care function in Europe. With 10 years of experience in operations and project management across the transport, technology and education sectors, Rhidian was looking for a mentor to guide him into his next role…

Navigating a change in direction…

Prior to the pandemic, I was working at Heathrow Airport and I had envisaged having a career exclusively in the aviation and transport industry, however, Covid-19 made me reconsider my career aspirations. With a background in languages and a love of living and working abroad, I wanted to explore my interest in working for a multinational company where I could work with people from different cultures and backgrounds whilst also having the opportunity to travel occasionally. 

Like most people, Covid pushed me to pursue my passions and I felt a career change was needed, if not now then when? I was looking for some guidance from someone with a successful career whom I could bounce ideas off and who could provide me with some clarity on what my next steps should be.

Searching for mentors on his radar…

I had been a member of GlobalWelsh for a while as I wanted to connect with the Welsh diaspora in London and explore interesting opportunities. I attended virtual meetings, led by GlobalWelsh, where other members spoke about their respective career journeys and the roadblocks in between. 

With a belief that Welsh people look out for one another and basing it on the quality of people providing testimonials, I thought Connect would be a great place to start. I did some research and identified with fellow GlobalWelsh member Mike Powell, as we had similar backgrounds, both working in aviation and having lived in multiple locations abroad.

When I was applying, the MyMentor programme was in its early stages so I decided to reach out to the GlobalWelsh team to see whether Mike would be interested in becoming a mentor once the programme had officially launched. As I’d previously attended one of Mike’s talks on his career in aviation, I thought he would be a great fit for me.

Off to a flying start…

Once we’d done virtual introductions, we decided to meet up in a Café Nero at Heathrow Airport where I was working at the time as he was dropping a family member off. We had a coffee and broke the ice by discussing our connection to Wales before going on to discuss our respective careers and devising a mentoring plan. 

Following our initial meeting, we arranged to speak once a month on the phone, but Mike always made himself available despite his busy schedule! Our face-to-face meeting and shared connection to Wales was a great foundation to build upon for our mentoring relationship. We worked together for six months afterwards which was a fantastic experience and I gained a lot of knowledge.

My MyMentor experience…

I would 100% recommend the MyMentor programme to others. By sharing his career experiences and problems, Mike really changed my mindset and offered me a different way to view a challenge. Plus, as he previously had no connection to me, he gave unbiased advice and feedback based on what I was telling him.

There are some amazing Welsh and people with a connection to Wales who are currently operating at a very high level across the globe. The beauty is many of them are on the GlobalWelsh platform and are willing to help the next generation of Welsh entrepreneurs and business people. Why wouldn’t you reach out to them? You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Connect with Rhidian >>