Aniana Pirvulescu, HR Manager – Mood Media Romania
My name is Aniana Pirvulescu, and I’m the HR Manager for Mood Media Romania, since 2021. Mood Media is the global leader in elevating the customer experience, by creating emotional connections between brands and customers. In Romania, we are a Shared Services Center, offering quality services for our customers around continents, with the support of over 300 employees.
How did you start your career? Which were your first steps? How did you envision your career?
I started my career almost 15 years ago, after graduating from Psychology University and while I was studying for my master’s degree in Organizational Psychology. The drive for a career in HR was fuelled by my passion for people, personal development, growth, and especially the curiosity for a profound understanding of the psychological mechanisms behind a successful career story. Questions like what makes people feel fulfilled at work and who is the human behind the job were stepping stones in my journey in HR.
I started working for HR Consultancy Companies, as a recruiter, in order to have exposure to different companies and organisational cultures, to diverse people with different backgrounds and potentials. I continued working in different industries like IT/Telecom, Retail and even entrepreneurship, developing my skills in a large range of HR areas. Acting as an HR Business Partner, I was able to help companies and people reach their potential and achieve professional and personal goals.
What were your key career moments?
Working in HR takes a special kind of journey, especially 15 years ago, when we were just starting to shape our way from a functional, process-oriented HR to a partnership role, where the HR would act as a bridge between the human part of each company’s story and the goals/finance-driven part, bringing together abilities, behaviours, values, vision, and objectives in order to reach full potential.
Today, the landscape is quite different, and so is the role of HR – in a VUCA world, HR cannot be anything less than agile and human-driven.
The entire experience was and continues to be a learning road, but the most vivid experience, my key career moment, was when I had to find in myself resilience beyond my knowing limits, going through a massive closure of the business for one of the companies I worked for. It taught me centre on my abilities and skills, the power of leadership and empathy.
What are the three most valuable career lessons you have learnt?
I believe in the power that each experience has to shape the person you are today, so I would follow the same road all over again. However, I would allow myself to ask more for help, and I would be more gentle with myself for the mistakes I made. Most importantly, I would not take myself so seriously all the time and enjoy the road.
Why did you choose Business Services Industry? What were the top 3 reasons for choosing your company?
Business Services Industry was in fact my first love, going back to the days when I started my career in Consultancy. So in a way, it was an opportunity for me to return to the roots with a more experienced and mature view. Mood pictured for me a sense of belonging and understanding, a very natural, grounded way of doing things right from the beginning. The discussions I had with my different colleagues during the interviewing stage inspired me to believe this is a company where you can grow and help others do the same. People often choose instinctively those experiences that best fit their development needs at that time. That’s why is so important, as Employer, to define and express when trying to attract talents, your EVP (Employee Value Proposition).
Tell us a little bit about your private life: your passions, family. What do you do to relax?
Some of my long-life passions are music and nature, so I’m seeking every opportunity to spend as much time as I can with my family in open doors, enjoying beautiful landscapes. I love discovering new people and ways of living, so travelling is another one of my passions.
If now you were starting your career, knowing the present and near future opportunities, what would you do?
I would take the same path all over again.
What are the top 3 skills that you would develop?
I’m continuously seeking to develop skills like critical thinking, empowering others and self-awareness.
What would you do and what would you avoid doing?—practical advice to young professionals
Practical advice to young professionals: give yourself a chance to learn. A profession, a career is a journey, not a destination (to be read as a… job title). Surrounding yourself with people with different backgrounds, personal histories, and different views of the world is the best way to define who you are as a professional and what your needs are. Be patient with yourself and set personal growth objectives at the beginning of your career. Investing in yourself (knowledge, skills, and personal growth) will help you define your professional objectives. Seek out every opportunity to do different things (if you are not amongst that small percentage of professionals with very clear career choices since College) engaging in different types of activities, projects, and jobs will help you understand what best suits you and will offer a broader knowledge of the business sector for your future role (it will increase your business acumen).
Laura Matei, Billing Manager – Mood Media Romania
My name is Laura Matei, and I am the Billing Manager for Mood Media North America clients since July 2022.
How did you start your career? Which were your first steps? How did you envision your career?
After I graduated from Management at Bucharest University of Economics Studies in 2014, having some part-time work experience in entry-level jobs, I envisioned I would find a successful multinational company where I would end up leading a team in a finance department. I was good with math, so I thought I would start as an accountant as my first full-time job, but I was not selected for any accounting positions I applied for. I found a data analyst job where my main responsibility was to research information about companies, create profiles, and go through public documents in multiple languages. The only numbers I worked with were, really, my metrics. I liked the job and the team, but I had bad management, and after a year, the project was shut down. So, I had a choice—stay on another project with the same bad management or leave and find something else. I left, posted my resume, applied for a few jobs, and waited. Again, I was not selected for anything I applied for, so I took a break from all that to figure out what I was going to do next.
I was very close to leaving the country, although I never wanted to. So 2 months later, a recruiting company called me and asked if I was interested in a Collections position for a US company. I worked in Collections before, in part-time jobs but for a Romanian company, and although I didn’t love it, I was good at it because I wanted to be good and have results. Took the interview and started with Mood Media in October 2015.
What were your key career moments?
When I started with Mood, I was very shy, I was not as fluent in English as my other experienced colleagues, but step by step, I learned from everybody and started to know my way around the system very well, and after a few months, I was a Subject Matter Expert for the Collections US processes and that helped me become a Workforce Supervisor in charge of recruiting, training and documenting processes. No direct reports, but I supported the RO and US employees. I was lucky enough to work with great people, and I feel like they were a big part of my career path because they supported me to apply for the Collections Supervisor position when that opened, and because of them and the way we worked together, I was selected. And since then (2017), I have grown as a leader, had multiple teams, completed projects, and trained and accommodated new processes across Accounts Receivable functions. I loved learning how everything works and how it can work better. So my vision for my career was somehow encountered, and that made me think about the next steps because I realised I never allowed myself to dream big, and that was a mistake.
What are the three most valuable career lessons you have learnt?
I’ve learnt that people skills are above technical knowledge or work experience. You can’t have a successful team without a positive work environment, no matter how knowledgeable or skilled they are. So first nurture a strong team culture; teach skills after.
Also, I understood that it’s important to dissect any failure and learn from mistakes.
Why did you choose Business Services Industry? What were the top 3 reasons for choosing your company?
Although Mood Media found and hired me, I chose to stay for 7 years, still counting. I found a great work community, with smart and vibrant people doing their jobs the best they can. I had great mentors I learned from. And, really, working for a music company never goes out of fashion. 9 out of 10 Mood people are artists in one way or another.
Tell us a little bit about your private life: your passions, family. What do you do to relax?
I love my family and friends. Whenever I can, I travel to visit the ones that are far away or travel with them to enjoy new places. I also love music, dance, and art in general. My Instagram is my museum, where I keep memories of travels, art, and people from my life. My favourite daily relaxation time is coffee with two spoons of gratitude for the people I love and my accomplishments and one spoon of hope for future plans.
If now you were starting your career, knowing the present and near future opportunities, what would you do?
I would definitely choose the same or a similar path; I think I fit very well in this industry and I would not see myself anywhere else. I thought about entrepreneurship, but I knew I needed strong skills first to balance the risk and anxiety of starting a new business.
What are the top 3 skills that you would develop?
The top 3 skills that are useful in this area are problem-solving skills, adaptability, and communication skills.
What would you do and what would you avoid doing?—practical advice to young professionals
I would work on my self-motivation from the very beginning of my career; I would listen more, postpone less, ask for help more, and self-criticize less. Also, for all the young professionals out there – know your priorities and doze your efforts on the key improvement areas you need to act on. If you are looking for a management position, choose leadership any second of the day. There are too many managers out there and few true leaders. Follow your team, and you will be successful. They will follow back, and that will come naturally.