‘It's true what the Cap website says: everything revolves around people here'
Adriana Mocanu prefers to take the road less travelled. That’s what brought the Romanian to Belgium, and it was the reason for her to choose a career in IT - without having any IT experience. And that has made all the difference... Adriana’s daring choices led her to Capgemini, where she’s enjoyed working since 2020. Why? ‘You’re not just a number here; people actually see you as a person.’
“I studied Business Administration in Bucharest. The study programme was in French, which I speak fluently. So when I was thinking about a future in another European country, it was either France or Belgium. The first was the obvious choice, so I chose the latter. I wanted something completely different.”
“And here we are, 10 years later. Belgium feels like my second home. I’ve even become a naturalised citizen. In the meantime, I’ve also earned a Master’s in Management Science. That was at a Dutch-language university, so now I can understand that language too. At least I know what my Dutch-speaking colleagues are talking about!”
Good feeling
“My first job was at a bank, BNP Paribas Fortis. I worked there for six years, first as a consultant for private customers, and later for the self-employed and SMEs. That was interesting because it was more hands-on. But after a while, I wanted something with more depth. I was interested in the processes behind the scenes: how do we organise them in order to help our customers even better? That quickly takes you into IT territory. I didn’t have a background in IT, but I decided to try it anyway.”
“When I started looking around, I came across Capgemini. I noticed that their website mainly talked about people. That’s something I think is important: that you’re not seen as just a number. So I applied and was invited for an interview. The recruiter told me not to worry about my lack of IT experience. They had training courses for that. I had a good feeling about it, and I knew I wanted to work there, so I was ecstatic when I got the job!”
Old love
“Now I work in the Financial Services domain as a business analyst. A business analyst serves as the bridge between stakeholders and IT. What does that mean? To me, it means three things. First, that it’s about communications. You have to be a ‘people person’. Asking good questions, making sure everyone is on the same page; whether they’re stakeholders or people in your team.”
“Secondly, you have to find out what the stakeholders really want. A client might say that they want a new button on their app, but actually they want to offer a specific service, not necessarily a button. So you have to ask follow-up questions until you get to their actual goal. If necessary, we’ll build a demo version first and then fine-tune it together with the client. Very Agile. In my team, we do back-end applications for banks. We work in mainframes and in Java. Mainframes because it’s for banks, and Java because we work towards APIs.”
“The third aspect is proper documentation. You have to record everything you do in a disciplined manner, so that there’s a source to fall back on. By doing that you help yourself and everyone who comes after you to know how you dealt with the issue. And everyone can learn from it.”
“One of the biggest clients I work for is ironically BNP, the bank where I started my career. Old love doesn’t fade. It comes in handy that I know the organisation well, although back then I worked at a branch location and now I deal with the main office. But my heart still skipped a beat; it’s the best of both worlds.”
Thank you's
“In addition to my work for clients, I also participate in two Cap communities. One is the buddy community. When a new colleague starts working here, they’re partnered with someone with more experience who can show them around for the first few days. When I started here myself, I really appreciated that someone was there to help me. So now I’m happy to do that for others.”
“Together with four of my colleagues, I’m also part of the core team for Young Talent, a community for Cappers under the age of 30. Once the coronavirus situation improves, we hope to organise a trip together with the Dutch Young Talent community. That would be the first time for me, so I don’t know exactly what that would entail. But from what I’ve heard, it sounds amazing!”
‘These kinds of events are important because they give you a lot of energy and motivation as an employee. That’s something that Capgemini is generally good at: motivating people. The work is challenging, but it also gives you a lot of satisfaction because you’re recognised and appreciated. And because of all the thank-you’s you receive for your performance. What you read on the Cap site is true: you’re not just a number here, you’re a real person.”
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