About soft skills and professional reconversion: An interview with Ingrid Hannek, Head of Recruitment in IT and trainer at Atelierul de Șanse
Atelierul de Șanse is a project that becomes more dear to us every day. Developed by the Orange Romania Foundation and launched this year with the help of us and other partners, it facilitates the process of professional reconversion. At Digital Stack, we develop courses that facilitate professional conversion to IT. Specifically, we have the opportunity to help those who want to make a career change to gain the necessary knowledge for a start in the IT field. At the same time, the project gives us the opportunity to discover great people who we can't wait to see grow in their new careers.
Although much of the process of preparing for the change of professional trajectory is focused on developing skills and knowledge related to the new field, there is also another very important aspect: the development of interpersonal communication skills (or soft skills). Soft skills are essential for those who want to change their professional trajectory. It is not a novelty that they help us in the process of looking for a new job. But, they are also essential in other situations. Some examples would be the process of settling into the new job or advancing into the new career.
We Talked About Soft Skills & Professional Reorientation with Ingrid Hannek, Head of Recruitment in IT and Trainer at Atelierul de Șanse
Ingrid Hannek during a soft skills training session @Atelierul de Șanse
Taking into account the importance of this aspect, we built the programs within Atelierul de Șanse to give participants the opportunity to develop both hard and soft skills. To explore the soft skills area in more detail, we spoke with Ingrid Hannek. Ingrid is Head of Recruitment in IT and trainer for soft skills sessions at Atelierul de Șanse. And, we thank her very much for helping us with more information on this topic. Next, we pass the microphone to Ingrid. If you, too, are curious about soft skills and the importance of developing them in the context of professional reconversion, keep reading to see Ingrid's answers!
Ingrid, To Begin, Tell Us A Little About You:
I am Head of Recruitment in a software consulting company. I like to build, to do projects, to make from nothing... anything. I am proud of the team I have, I feel that we have built something, different, with a different vibe, that sets us apart and defines us as a team.
Tell us a little about what you do at Atelierul de Șanse, the project carried out in partnership with the Orange Romania Foundation:
I am happy to be a part of Atelierul de Șanse, carried out in partnership with the Orange Romania Foundation. It is a project that provides opportunities for youth development, but also career guidance. This is where I intervene. I hold workshops where we learn how to have an impeccable CV, how to apply personally to jobs and about preparing for an interview — we simulate a real interview context, where I ask questions that are often practiced in the industry and then give them my “hot” interpretation as a recruiter.
There are situations where the emphasis seems to fall more on hard skills than soft skills. Can you tell us a little about the importance of balancing the two?
To get a good job it is really very important to have a set of relevant skills. The soft skills part, however, can cost you to get a job. Any job involves teamwork, interaction with colleagues, with customers, with various stakeholders. If we are talking about a junior level job — you can get the job based on soft skills, at the expense of hard skills.
Ingrid Hannek during a soft skills training session @Atelierul de Șanse
What should someone who wants to develop their soft skills focus on?
I believe that every person, regardless of personality, can contribute something good within a team. I would advise that everyone make a self-assessment, identify the aspects they consider “strengths” and highlight these qualities, both during an interview and then within the team to which they will be part. Are we aware that we are missing certain aspects? No problem, we try to compensate by something else so that we create a positive impact around us.
Let's go a little further. What if we are thinking of someone who wants to refocus on a career in IT?
Learning, curiosity, attention to detail and adaptability, both to the environment, but especially to technology.
Throughout Your Sessions With Those At Atelierul de Șanse, You Have Met People In Various Situations. What are the challenges faced by those who balance the career reorientation process with a full-time job?
First of all, I think it's about time. It is an effort to assimilate new information for a few hours, especially after you have already completed the program at a full-time job. But I think the motivation that comes from learning new things, designing a new career in your future, makes the effort worthwhile. I like to get to know the students, to find out their challenges, to try to show them things from a different perspective and to give them insights into the future they are heading towards.
Is There A Future-Proof Career? Tell us your perspective on this concept.
We are part of an extremely dynamic environment. The most important thing is to always be curious, flexible, eager for learning and personal development. In this way, also following technological trends, you can always adapt, apply and adjust the knowledge you already have so that it is constantly relevant to the IT market. Everyone has to put in their mind a goal or a point where they want to get to and then find the ways they can get there.
Ingrid Hannek during a soft skills training session @Atelierul de Șanse
Would you like to tell us something else?
Give back to the community. Knowledge, information, skill, everything.
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If you want to know more about Atelierul de Șanse, you can go to project website. You can reach it using the website Orange Romania Foundation. You will find all the courses developed by partners and you can sign up if you see a topic of interest to you! On the website you can also register for our courses, but for some of them you will see that registration is closed. In the case of those courses, we will reopen enrolments at the beginning of next year. So keep an eye on us so you don't miss the moment! You can follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, or here, on blog and on sieves.
