Who am I?

That’s the only secret I will ever tell…

Spotted. Cambridgeshire, Uk.

Dear book, this is another day in my life. A life is like a book. A book is like a box. A box has six sides. Inside and outside, so, how do you get to what’s inside? How do you get what’s inside, out? Once upon a time, there lived a very pretty girl, who lived in a beautiful box, and everybody loved her….

I am Alex and my book has an HR title: My career coach, as simple as that.
It has a black shiny leather cover and small scratches on a side. It looks fatter than the others in the shelf and stands a good couple of inches higher.
Pick it up and you will see it has already been loved, open it and enjoy the journey.
It smells of coffee and cookies and something musty.
I will let you get inside, but can you get what is inside out?

Chapter 1 – An international career

I started my professional career when I was quite young, 16 more precisely. I started working as travel agent for a small company, organising travels to Romania and Turkey.
As working in tourism was a tradition in my family at that time, I already had travel agent skills and I was fluent in English, French, Italian. Later I started studying Spanish and German.
In 2001 I started my own travel agency, Xella Tour, and I run this business for over 6 years. My company had a max of 12 employees, travel agents, drivers and technical staff. In 2004 it was classed as second tour operator for the Romanian seaside.
I monitored all company operations including sales and marketing, risk management, staff management and recruitment, cost and budget management, investment management, contact negotiations and infrastructure development.
Implemented a realistic and comprehensive long and short term business plans, find business gaps/needs and developed cost effective plans to close and address gaps.
Xella Tour started as a fun company and with the help of my uni colleagues (which, in time, become my employees) become a self running business.

Once the company started having stable income I started orienting my attention to studying abroad.
In 2003 I joined Universidade do Porto – Faculdade Economia, for six months as an Erasmus student. It was an interesting and fascinating experience which gave me an international approach over how a business should be run. It also allowed me to study and sustain exams in Portugues, my sixth language.
In 2004 I spent two months in Italy, in Rome, at Scud’It, perfecting my Italian and studying international negotiation.
In 2004 I graduated AES Administration Economique et Sociale, Faculté Economique d’Orléans with a major in Business and Management Administration.
In 2005 I graduated the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, Faculty of Economic Studies in Foreign Languages, French section (meaning all my lectures and exams were in French) with a major in Business Administration.
In 2007 I left for France, for Cluny more precisely. I joined ENSAM and I studied for a Special Masters Degree in Industrial Project Management. In parallel I also got an MBA from the Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, Faculty of Economic Studies in Foreign Languages, English section this time.

You might wonder why I have so many diplomas. I chose this path as studying in different countries gives you a different approach over business and because I am pretty sure that my Romanian studies would not have been so valuable in my international career.

It was in Cluny that I fell in love with Project Management and Human resources and it was also in here that I decided to start my international carer in HR.

I worked mostly in French companies such as Accor, Bouygues and CNIM in Romania, France and UK. As HR i had the chance to be trained by one of the best HR teams, the BBI one in Saint-Quentin en Yvelines.

In October 2008, I joined the CNIM group for a 2 years mission in Wolverhampton UK. I deputised for CNIM Group Environmental Sector HR Director and re-organized and implemented HR operations including strategy insights and solutions, organisational development, resourcing, learning and talent development, performance and reward, employee relations, service delivery and information for all UK subsidiaries (MES Environmental, CNIM ECS, CNIM UK.

I have to say I fell in love with the Uk HR and the challenges that a common law system can bring. I find it fascinating and though I would not dare saying I am an expert in Uk employment law I am very well prepared for pretty much any challenges it can offer.

Executives and industry peers can confirm that I thrive in an atmosphere of challenge. An in-depth knowledge of both business and HR management, and the ability to positively change the status quo, along with specialised abilities that set my performance apart, enables me to offer a truly unique talent. I’m confident I can bring to the table a package of skills, experience, and abilities that provides my employer with an invaluable resource. In addition, as you can see, I am a self-motivated performer who gets the job done.

If you want to know more, fell free to download my CV.

Chapter 2 – The coach

There are a lot of career coaches out there. I am sure they are good. I am also sure that they have more training in career coaching than me, but that is not the point.
I started being a career coach and this blog because people asked me to.
I wrote a number of articles on the subject and I also helped a lot of persons in discovering their career path and finding their job. I am not technical and my speech does not contain heavy definitions and fancy terms.
I help people re-discover small forgotten details, but which can be crucial in getting the right job.
My coaching is a mixture of personal experience, practical examples, HR, sociology and psychology studies, Skills, sixth sense and as people say, an inborn talent.

Best cvs not best candidates are invited for an interview.
Best sellers not best candidates get the job.
As a career coach, I focus on work and career or issues around careers.
I make sure that YOU, the best candidate, go to war with the best weapons YOU can forge and the best strategies YOU can apply.
I do not choose YOUR career, as I do not do YOUR work. I just help YOU ask yourself the right questions so that YOU can choose the right career.
I do not rewrite cvs or supply letters of applications, as I am not looking for YOUR job, and I certainly do not replace YOU at the interview. I am here to teach YOU how to use YOUR weapons and when to apply them.
At the end of the day, my job is YOU and YOU are my soldier.
I declare an open war to all those who rewrite cvs and transform you into a robot that gives the perfect answers at the perfect questions.
YOU are unique and that makes you so precious… that is your first weapon and I am your second!

If you want to know more, fell free to check my references on LinkedIn.

Chapter 3