Fireside Chats at KI labs; ep. 19
You are from Romania! Talk about your home country a bit.
“I grew up in the small town of Fetesti in the southeast of Romania, about 100 km from the Black Sea. Later in my childhood, my family relocated to Buzau, where I went to high school. Immediately after I moved to Bucharest and studied, as well as worked there until relocating to Munich about two years ago.
Aside from always being my home and my country, one of my favorite aspects about Romania is the warmth you feel in the Romanian community. It’s much more than just sharing a language. There is a warmth that I feel when I go back. Romanians have many qualities that I miss. In general people are resourceful, family-oriented, hospitable, funny, sociable and not just exclusively with other Romanians. We are very open to other cultures as well.”
What is the best dish coming from Romania?
“Many dishes are meat-based and I am not very into meat dishes. Many Romanians like mici (or mititei), a type of ground meat rolls. It is a bit fattening, but I do eat it, it’s always with a lot of pleasure. My favorite is a sweet dish that is called Cozonac. It’s prepared for Easter and Christmas or other special occasions. You can find a similar dish in other countries as well, but it’s not really comparable in terms of taste and smell. Cozonac is baked by many Romanians at home and fills the house with a wonderful scent that brings back memories of great times, family moments and holidays’ relaxing atmosphere.”
What made you decide to pursue a career in HR?
“I’ve always been better at social sciences than math or biology. I love interacting with people and understanding them, discovering their strengths. Driving out the best in people, helping them maximize their potential has always been my passion. I knew it, soon after I finished high school.
I started my Bachelor’s in Communication and Public Relations. I learned I wasn’t very interested in this area, so I made the slight change to Human Resources for a Masters’ Degree. In Romania, a Bachelor’s didn’t really count as completed university studies, so most students used to continue with a Masters afterwards.
School was in general quite theoretical and not so helpful, but once I started working, I knew I was on the right track. During the Masters, I honestly didn’t learn many helpful things for my upcoming professional challenges. Ten years ago, my university didn’t offer internships or options to see what real work would be like. It was full of nice reading and I met a lot of great people, but not much more than that. Fortunately, things have changed now and the programs are more useful to the students.”
What did the road from university to KI look like?
“I started exploring Communication and PR jobs in Bucharest and took a position at an agency. After almost an year of doing menial tasks, I moved to a larger telecommunications company and was an assistant for the HR Manager. I learned a lot from her and after around 3 years, I moved to an even bigger company with an international presence — Metro Systems. It was here I was exposed to a German working environment.”
What made you decide to move from a big company to a tech startup?
“I had never tried working in a startup and I saw it as a challenge. You have the opportunity to build things from scratch when you’re there from the very beginning. It ended up paying off, as I learned more in my first year at KI labs than I did at any other company, even at the 800+ people one where I spent almost 5 years. I had more challenges in my first year at KI than in any other workplace I’ve had.
When I first joined, we targeted hiring a lot of new employees and it was quite clear I needed to build a team around me as well. We hired engineers intensely for about 6 months and then I welcomed onboard a working student to help with the HR Admin tasks. She later moved to a full-time role and I also hired you for recruitment [recruitment partner].”
What has been your favorite part of KI labs?
“I really enjoyed having a full team. You [recruitment partner] were able to fully devote your time to recruitment and our HR Specialist could focus on the HR admin work. The company grew, so we had to build a structure that we didn’t have in the beginning. We shifted our focus from blitzscaling to becoming more stable and hiring senior/lead employees. This was all a growing process and fun to build up.”
What’s your overall opinion of the tech startup world, after working in other industries?
“It’s definitely a very exciting industry to work in. If I had to move to a different company, I would be very tempted to join something similar. Building things from scratch really makes the job interesting and challenging. At the same time, you are exposed to a lot of uncertainty, unknown and if you can’t handle it properly, it can really hit you sooner or later.
It’s also unfortunate that there is such a gap between the number of women and men in this industry. In Romania, I remember a more balanced amount of men and women in the engineering programs at my university. In Germany, it doesn’t seem so balanced. There should be an agreement between the state and the companies. The various stakeholders need to put the effort in to push for the necessary changes. Currently, I think the best strategy is to engage with women from other countries and bring them here, which is a big plus for the cultural and gender diversity. Unfortunately, it seems that many companies are still not so willing to hire foreign/international talent and prefer German employees. If significant measures won’t be considered to improve the situation, not much will change in terms of gender diversity in IT in the upcoming years.”
If you could go back and talk to Elena two years ago, what advice would you give yourself on Day 1 of employment at KI labs?
“I would fight more for sustainable hiring. It’s important to hire people having long-term goals in mind, not just for specific projects. Having a company vision in which your employees believe is very important. Those amazing people you want won’t give their best if they don’t feel their contribution to the greater purpose of the company.
But it’s also hard to think far into the future when running a startup. Current needs can trump long-term vision.”
What’s next for you?
“In the future, I’d like to be a coach for people and companies. Accompany them on their path towards reaching the highest possible performance and success, whatever that means for them. It’s a goal of mine to have my own business and create opportunities to interact with leaders and help them scale, become better at their jobs and drive their companies forward.
I also feel Munich is my place now. After two years, I still think the city is very exciting and I have no desire to move anywhere else. At least for my needs, it has everything. You are so close to beautiful nature, have easy access to a variety of sports in any season, plus the multicultural part, the German culture and language, the many job opportunities…
I don’t know what else I could wish for. I’m also very close to Romania, so it’s a short flight away from seeing my family.”
What is your pitch for working at KI?
“I can’t speak from the engineering perspective any better than some of our people already spoke, so from the HR perspective, KI labs is a great opportunity to push your limits and challenge yourself to the maximum. There is a lot of freedom to try things and make mistakes. You work independently and have impact through your work. You have the opportunity to define your own role, take over new responsibilities constantly and try out new things, new tools, and new strategies. I think that is something you will not see in lots of companies, and I’m grateful that I had that opportunity.”
