I first learned about the importance of professional role models and advisors as a student, when our university arranged a project in collaboration with several companies and HR specialists. This involved attending a series of workshops and presentations that would encourage us to assess whether we were taking the steps required to realize our career aspirations, while building our understanding of what our ideal career path looked like.
Attending this series of workshops really underlined the importance of meeting the right people at the right moment, being inspired and learning from their success stories as well as the challenges they faced.
I’d even describe these sessions as some of my most valuable university experiences, alongside a few memorable retro parties with friends :).
As part of Stefanini’s university partnership plan, I’m now lucky enough 10 years later to be able to pay it forward by sharing my experiences and discussing how I benefitted from opportunities during my college days and beyond. Working with our recruitment teams in Romania and Moldova, we’ve developed a solid plan designed to offer students a preview of what working life involves and prepare them to become the professionals of tomorrow.
Our aim was to provide students with all the information they’d need to expertly manage their own career paths, which we developed using our HR knowledge, while also collaborating with our colleagues from IT delivery. The result was a series of workshops offering real answers to their questions, including:
- How do I choose my professional path?
- How do I write a CV if I have no experience?
- How can I successfully handle my first interview?
- How can I impress my future employer?
- Is there a ‘survival kit’ that will help me during the first three months of my career?
Each workshop was customized, as we wanted to respond to the specific needs of each group of students. Getting this right involved carrying out surveys before each event to understand what students needed from us, before tailoring the sessions.
While the five different types of workshops cover the vital information students need when starting out in their careers, we also wanted inspire them through success stories that would boost their confidence. For this, we partnered with our colleagues from IT delivery, sharing stories that showed it is possible to succeed in a career in IT, even when initially starting out with limited experience or technical knowledge.
Finally, with cybersecurity a key topic and an area many young people are interested in exploring, we organized a meeting between the students and our Chief Cybersecurity Strategist, Alexandru Bertea.
In 2021, we’ve organized 16 events and we have four strong new partnerships with major universities in Romania and Moldova. It has been a fruitful start to the year for us, but so far our main accomplishment has been the messages we’ve received from students after these events and the fact that they have felt inspired and more confident as a result of attending. They understand how rewarding it can be to develop your own career in your own way, while still having role models in mind. Which means they’re just like me, 10 years ago.
