Wednesday, December 17, David Blay, communications and teleworking consultant, author of the book Why don’t they let us work remotely?took the stage at EL PAÍS con tu futuro (EPCTF) and declared: “You are the first generation in the history of humanity who can invent your work. » The 2,000 1st and 2nd year Baccalaureate students, from schools and institutes in Madrid and surrounding areas, who took part in the event – around 1,200 others followed streaming— they received his words like a soothing balm. A few minutes earlier, at the entrance, the groups had been reproducing, for another year – and it’s been 11 years – the same murmur: “I’m hesitating between several degrees”; “I don’t know what to study”; “I see the future as quite bleak.” The sixty speakers of the day agreed to downplay the importance of the decisions that must be made at this age, and to recall that it is nowhere written that educational and professional paths must trace a straight line.
Furthermore, some, like Virginia Sánchez, director of Talent Attraction and Acquisition by Leroy Merlin, are real pirouettes: he is trained in astrophysics and has a doctorate in nuclear physics, but discovers his vocation in team management. She spoke not of mistakes or successes, but of steps on the path that led her to the position she holds. “Everything evolves. The most chaotic, unpredictable and changing system… is people,” he stressed. He ended his speech by urging us to stop being afraid of making mistakes. “You are going to make mistakes, you are going to get back up and, from this mistake, you are going to achieve great success,” he assured. To prove him right, the event organized by EL PAÍS this year had the motto “Choose your own adventure”.
EPCTF 2025 was promoted by Aena, Renfe and Santander; Acciona, Farmaindustria, Iberia, L’Oréal Groupe, Leroy Merlin, Moeve, Multiópticas as sponsors; at Comillas Pontifical University and Schiller University as partners academics; Newswork is now a collaborative company. It had three rooms – Education and Business (Sala Santander), Science and Technology (Sala Aena) and Art and Creativity (Sala Renfe) – through which students circulated as they pleased and from which they emerged to approach students. one by one with the speakers who interested him the most. “We are satisfied that a quarter of our students are motivated by a lecture and stand behind a speaker to have a more personal meeting with him,” said Rebeca Velasco and Úrsula González, tutors from the Aquila high school in Parla (Madrid), who accompanied a group of 40 boys and girls.
Many clearly knew which year to study, but others were lost and, in some cases, unmotivated, apathetic, as detected by the teachers. “We want them to have innovation credentials that inspire them,” they said. But if someone came to EPCTF expecting to find their calling there, in bold capital letters, like some kind of revelatory flash, they would most likely be disappointed. The experts convened stripped away this mystical vocation, presenting it rather as a process of introspection and self-knowledge; a game of pulleys and opposing forces that must find a balance: what I am good at, what I love, how I would like to live my life. “I see it more as an intersection between what makes you happy and what gives you work opportunities. If you stay true to your vocation and don’t look at the market, you will be frustrated; if you only look at the market, it will make you unhappy,” Sánchez warned.
In this balance between dream and reality, Carlos Casadomé Perales, originally from the Canary Islands, evolved until he found his place in the world as an optician-optometrist and training technician at Multiópticas. Little Carlos wanted to devote himself to architecture when he grew up, but he was not good at mathematics. Then they gave him a camera and he decided to become a director, but the cinematography degree cost money his family didn’t have. “If I can’t work behind a camera, I’ll design them!” » he thought, and he opted for engineering in Zaragoza because it was the only university he could get into with his score of 6.49 out of 14 in the University Access Test (PAU). He performed poorly, but he still yearned for something related to cameras and lenses, so he enrolled in optics and optometry at the Complutense University of Madrid. “It changed my life,” he said.
10 years ago, Pedro Marcelino, director of Data-driven experiences and consumer service of the L’Oréal Group, graduated in marketing who made his living as a tattoo artist. “It taught me to listen and connect with people,” he said in his speech, in which he revealed that the driving force behind his unusual career path had been curiosity. Likewise, he commented that from his current position he helps, with data, innovation and customer knowledge; where applicable, to offer you cosmetic and beauty products. His work is part of the challenge taken on by his group to lead digital transformation, by promoting initiatives under the aegis Beauty technologyas the axis of this change which integrates technology into the beauty experience.
“I studied computer engineering because my friend Murillo programmed a very cool circle with the computer,” recalls Carlos Rebate, director of transformation at Securitas Spain. He earned his philosophy degree while juggling in Madrid’s Retiro Park. He obtained a doctorate in both branches of knowledge, without thesis; He now wants to take it back and devote it to artificial intelligence (AI) and philosophy. With all this, he tried to make it clear that the knowledge, baggage and experience that everyone accumulates in their backpack is used to create new things. “When we create, we manipulate symbols, subjects, known learnings; with three symbols, something small is created; what about 10? What about 100? What about a thousand?” he wondered. At 51 years old and with a 17-year-old daughter, Rebate admitted that he was still immersed in doubts, fears and uncertainties; He advised welcoming them as something positive which, who knows, could give birth to a new life or a new professional project.
The EPCTF 2025 made the morning of December 17 a plea in favor of curiosity, creativity and the human factor. The message was formulated in different ways and from different sectors. It was launched, for example, by nutrition expert Antonio J. Meléndez, professor at the University of Seville. Also María Ángeles Quesada, CEO and co-founder of Equánima, who affirmed the need for philosophy in innovation, ethics in artificial intelligence, humanism in business, critical thinking in absolutely everything.
Raquel Roca gave it a name: Anglicism connoisseurs — to a profile of nomadic workers whom he describes as curious, imaginative and creative, self-taught, autonomous, extroverted, non-conformist, innovative, adaptive, endowed with organizational skills, good networking and a flexible mind. One of his books is aptly titled, Knowledge (two others are Silver Surfers And The power of charisma). During his presentation, and paraphrasing Bruce Lee, he encouraged to be the water that flows, taking the form of the cup, bottle or other container that contains it. “Be water, my friend“, he asked.
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