IWD - Alina Simion & Andrada Șurubaru

We started our International Women’s Day campaign with the sole purpose of celebrating those powerful women’s around us and to find a little bit more about what challenges or opportunities they encountered in business or personal life.

Our interviewees for today are Alina Simion, who is a Senior Manager within the Financial Advisory Services department and her junior colleague, Andrada Surubaru, who is a Consultant within the same team.

Enjoy their stories!

What made you want to pursue a career in finance?

Addiction to tidiness and discipline and love for figures. These are the factors I can relate to now, after 13 years of experience in the fieldwork, but initially I was just looking to a profession in line with the profile of the university I graduated. Honestly, I had no idea what I wanted at that time. And it worked perfectly fine.

What’s the single most important quality the right person for financial advisory needs?

There are several qualities one needs to possess to make a strong professional in financial advisory, but the most important one is to be open minded. This will drive new challenges and opportunities.

What are you most proud of?

I am most proud of the people that I work with and the successful stories about our projects. In our profession, we cannot evolve and make an impact without a strong supporting team. It sounds like a cliche, but it is a true and fair statement.

What’s your spirit animal?

In accordance with a quiz I took online, I am a turtle. My favorite animals on the planet are the dolphins, whales, horses and dogs. I like to think that my spirit animal is one of them.

If you woke up tomorrow with no fear, what would you do first?

I have a lot of fears, therefore a lot of things to do if I was fearless. The first thing that comes to my mind: to hug and caress a tiger.

Can you recommend us something nice to spend our free time at the moment?

Yes, of course. If we are talking about books, I must recommend one of my favorites: Ce spui după buna ziua?, written by Eric Berne. If you want to watch a movie, i can definitely say that „Gone with the wind” or „Dear John” are everyone’s favorites. And if you want to dream about the next vacation that you will take, I think that Punta Cana is a terapeutical place for everybody. Enjoy!

What made you want to pursue a career in finance?

What drove me in choosing a career in finance were the skills and knowledge that I gained from the courses I studied during the university and that I wanted to implement in practice.

What’s the single most important quality the right person for financial advisory needs?

The most important quality that a financial consultant should have, I believe it’s the analytical thinking that they have to implement in solving certain aspects faced by a company/industry.

What are you most proud of?

I am proud of the opportunity offered to be a part of the Financial Advisory Services team on the basis of which I have improved my skills in the field, but also because there is a continuous learning process regarding the financial field.

What’s your spirit animal?

My “animal spirit" can be characterized by a Lady Wolf. One with a strong personality, because I am an independent person, who successfully completes the proposed objectives. At the same time, I am a generous person, who helps others.

If you woke up tomorrow with no fear, what would you do first?

The first thing I would do if I woke up with no fear, would be to focus on the positive thinking and do everything I love without being influenced by the opinion of others.

Can you recommend us a book?

As a book recommendation I would say that "Start with what you do not like!" by Brian Tracy can make you reflect on the decisions you make in your daily life. It’s worth reading it!