What is your current position at NTT DATA Romania? How would you describe this position in a couple of sentences?
I was talking with an old friend of mine the other day about how we perceive each other, about the things that matter when we perceive others, about their professional success or about their career models. The strategy for career development in one direction or the other was influenced by the expectations that we had and the things we really wanted.
Progress is measured based on the accomplished projects and the knowledge we gain. I believe that it is no longer enough to look in one direction only. We need to assimilate the experience of several perspectives to answer the labor market needs.
Starting this year, I accepted the challenge of taking the company's Digital Business Solutions unit under my wing. This business field sums up the interaction with different services across industries in order to offer solutions that can sustain business development and answer customer requirements best. I kicked off with a lot of energy and I am grateful for the experience I gathered. I am aware that this road offers me a faster pace for learning new things, which is a competitive edge based on knowledge and on the opportunities of doing something new in IT.
What were the positions that you filled at NTT DATA Romania throughout time? How does your previous experience help you with your current position?
My collaboration with NTT DATA Romania, began in the Resource Management department. My work was meant to make implementation and resource allocation processes more efficient within the organization, as this had a direct impact on procedures, budgets, and human resource management. The efficient management of resources enabled their proactive allotment based on business policies, which meant aligning this capital with the company's business priorities and its general goals.
During this time, I acquired, through personal effort, a deep understanding of the company's products and services, managing to maintain and support the development of client (customer)-business relations.
While working closely with the Business Development department, I contributed to the making of a creative solution for current customers, and for future business opportunities.
What are your most important contributions to NTT DATA Romania? What are the things you are proud of?
When talking about one's profession, the metaphor of a road which has many obstacles and milestones, a precise destination and stray paths can easily apply!
I started off confident in my own strength, but without necessarily having a clear picture of what my destination would look like, because, nowadays, I don't think there is a recipe that can guarantee a successful career. I believe that we all have, in our professional path, endless opportunities, objective questions and subjective answers! If we know what questions to ask ourselves before making a choice, the answers will certainly guide our steps in building a successful career.
A couple of years ago, I chose to work in the HR field in IT. I can now say that I am very pleased with the choice that I made, as this field gave me the opportunity to use all my abilities and gather small or major accomplishments day by day. I am a communicative person. I believe that I know how to work with people, irrespective of the skills they have and the environment they come from. I learned to work in a team, alongside my colleagues, to choose people based on what they know, not based on first impression or fleeting impressions. I learned to contribute to individual as well as collective success.
How does the future of Digital Business Solutions look like?
This year we managed to consolidate the management structures in our company so that they may answer the current business needs as best as possible. The Digital Business Solutions field, the Intercompany one, has become a pillar, an important vertical, strategic coordinate for the future of the company. What I seek is to expand and consolidate our technology palette, our projects, and to accelerate our outreach to other industries as well. I am glad that, in the next couple of months, I will be able to finalize a performant unit meant to address customer requirements.
Here are some of the topics that we tackle: CRM solutions (Siebel, SalesForce), Quality Assurance & Test Mgmt, Big Data & Analytics (BI), Integration & Architecture Mgmt and SAP. We currently have over 20 ongoing projects of various complexity. The customer portfolio of this business is currently being expanded by relevant names in the manufacturing industry, such as Automotive Bavaria, the financial industry and the Telecom industry. Business evolves exponentially both in terms of project diversity and in terms of raising the number of employees: architects, project managers, senior developers, junior developers and graduates from Cluj, Bucureşti or Braşov.
The way in which we will devise the Digital Business Solutions coordinate, the measures by which we will set and maintain our motivation and professional goals, the means by which we will attract and integrate new colleagues, all these aspects will impact the course of future years.
What motivates you? What are the things that recharge your batteries?
Throughout the years, I managed to build, for myself, a series of mechanisms which generate a state of professional satisfaction, because I believe that, both professionally and personally, satisfaction is driven be several factors.
Life offers us many means and ways that will determine us to say that we are motivated to continue our chosen path. High-performance behavior and professional behavior last, especially if they are appreciated by our superiors in the organization which we associate ourselves with. In time, these become a source of inspiration even on a personal level. You will add up both the daily satisfactions of feeling fulfilled when finishing your tasks, and the more important satisfactions, as is the case with long-term projects.
The values that we encounter in our daily professional life and the way they resonate with our own value set are aspects which consolidate a sustainable motivation.
I became more and more aware of the fact that performance also needs the support of inspiration. This is essential to professional performance because it motivates us to obtain the desired results and to surpass the difficulties that may arise in our work. I find my source of inspiration in creating art, in the interplay of art and the business environment where I carry on my work. All these entail great effort and strategic partnerships that require daily commitment.