Meet Alexandra, our Recruitment Lead in Bucharest, and our colleague in Endava for the past three years. Her passions for technology and psychology lead her to pursue a career she was motivated and equipped to handle, finding any means necessary to improve herself every day. Read the entire story and see how her people skills help others reach their full potential.

What is your educational background, and how did you interact with HR the first time?

I graduated from the Faculty of Psychology, so my educational background is in this field. I was very keen on Organisational Psychology from the time I studied this discipline during my university years.

After University, I’ve enrolled in a Master’s Program in Psychology and Human Resources developed by the University of Bucharest. During my first year of study, I travelled to the United States where I stayed for 5 months working as a volunteer in the HR Department of the Statue of Liberty (among other, more menial jobs).

My attributions were mainly related to the pre-screening tests of the candidates. After a brief period, I also managed to participate in the actual interviews, and so I was won over by the entire HR process.

I can honestly say that I became fascinated by people interviews. It was then that I was able to discover each individual as a different combination of elements.

How did your recruitment journey in IT started?

I was only 22 years old and working in a product company when I first interacted with recruitment in IT. My journey in this field started by learning the technical stuff to be able to speak the language of the candidates I was interviewing. I began to learn by myself and as well as obtaining guidance from the people around me.

With each role I recruited, I more deeply understood how much I still had to learn and how substantial this field is. I had the opportunity to learn by installing different software to see how it works; I had colleagues tutor me in the lab - effectively constituting a miniature technical education. After all this work, people I was interviewing even asked me if I had a technical background.

How did you start in Endava?

I wanted to understand other cultures and ways of working that being in a product company didn’t offer me. I felt that recruitment is more than what I was already exposed to and I wanted to have the experience of working in a services company.

After studying the market, as well as previous experience, I knew that Endava was among the top 3 companies I wanted to join. I chose to come to Endava because it was the closest to what I wanted to learn. This is how, three years ago I joined Endava and started a new learning curve.

After about one year as a recruiter, I became the HR business partner for the Development discipline. I liked it a lot. This position offered me a better understanding of how things are done, on the Endava business and how to improve the recruitment process within the company. After about 8-9 months, I was offered this new challenge, as Recruitment lead.

How would you describe the Endava journey until now? 

Endava offered me a set of options I’ve been able to choose from. I’ve been exposed to a growing number of opportunities, and this space allowed me to flourish.

Here, I found people who believed in me, and who supported me to continue to be the way I am, helped me to open up, and to be authentic, especially to myself.

The main things I am in charge of are related to coordinating and developing the recruitment team here in Bucharest. I’m trying to grow the people in my team to genuinely be Endava ambassadors outside working hours.

I’m working with people to discover their passions that can be nurtured within the company as well as outside of it. 

Tell us a bit about what drives your career.

The endless possibilities generated by technology in particular and science, in general, are keeping me curious and help me develop further by attempting to keep the pace.

I’m not the kind of person that has a long-term career path in mind. I’ve been more focused on developing my abilities rather than achieving a certain position or status. I still don’t know where this will lead me. Many times, I’ve been driven by intuition. 
I’m sure this will help me in the future as well. 

Tell us more about yourself outside of work.

I’ve always had a desire to improve myself, and I was still very focused on helping people succeed.

Maybe this is why, in parallel to my office job, I’m also a psychotherapist.

I’ve been an acting psychotherapist for the past one and a half years. I’m doing integrative psychotherapy and somatic experiencing. I’m working with my clients, helping them through different trauma cases, anxiety, depression, dysfunctional relationships, phobias, and more.

I want to help people of Endava as well, within the organisation, not only in the psychological cabinet. What I’ve aimed for so far is to inspire the people around me to share the same passion for IT recruitment as myself.

It’s always a challenge to combine the two. I simply can’t choose one or the other. IT recruitment keeps me up to date with the evolution of the world we live in, it keeps me close to the newest trends out there, while therapy brings me closer to people and keeps me well rooted to the ground.

In Endava, I’m practicing my skills of being organised, structured, as well as leadership, and communication with groups. At the same time, in therapy, I am focused on developing compassion, openness, warmth as well as communication with individuals one by one.

What would you tell a person who just graduated and wants to join our industry?

Keep your eyes and ears open. Before making any choice in any of the professional areas you will decide to pursue, try to know yourself! Be aware of your values, your competencies, your natural gifts, but at the same time allow yourself to experiment, welcoming what opportunities arise with the goal of discovering what you truly like, and, more importantly, who you truly are.