Can you tell me briefly about your business career?

I'm a techie girl. I studied computer science, did Java programming before joining Oracle as a technology consultant, and took the role of a technical architect in Oracle for two years and half. Ever since high school, I've always known what I wanted: I've always seen myself as a people-oriented person—but also good at mathematics, informatics, with technical ability. So I pursued an IT career, but always knew that, by the age of 30, I wanted to be a people manager—a combined business-oriented and people-management role. For the last three years I've been managing teams across multiple physical locations. I manage local and remote teams, which is more complex, but it has definitely brought me a lot of learning. To summarize, I'm a technology specialist with a people-oriented approach. Business is important, of course, but business is made with people. So I try to put people first.

Do you feel there are any obstacles to women achieving key posts of responsibility, particularly within the tech industry?

During my studies, more than ten years ago, there was an initiative for the ladies to do some IT courses that, initially, men didn't have access to, with the intention to promote women in IT. Nowadays, in the organization and team that I am part of, there is no difference between men and women. Women have the same level of responsibilities, rights, everything—every opportunity is the same for a man and a woman.

But in the broader IT world, I feel that, in general, the majority is comprised of men, and it takes much more time and effort for a woman as an IT professional or IT manager to build her personal brand and receive recognition, in front of a group mainly formed by men. I've been in different situations where I had senior management comprised of men, and I was, at the beginning of my management career, a young woman, presenting in front of them, promoting my team or sometimes having more difficult conversations—it was not easy because I was young, I was a woman, a Romanian, etc. I've been here for seven years, growing professionally from Java developer, technical consultant, technical architect, and manager. Throughout this time I've invested in my development, time, effort, I've done an MBA as well—because I wanted to expand my knowledge on other non-IT areas such as finance, accounting, marketing, HR. The MBA gave me management knowledge from a business point of view—different lines of businesses and what they do. And I was lucky to have my management team's support to pursue the MBA studies.

Can you tell me about the mentoring you have received?

The mentoring is part of a cross-company mentoring program that Oracle Women's Leadership Group has developed with other companies on the market. I was one of the three mentees selected from Oracle, and I have a mentor from a company from a different industry—not an Oracle partner, nor a competitor. I found the mentee pairing was an excellent match in my case. My mentor is a woman, she leads an organization of more than 1,200 people, and she is a great inspiration for me.

Why did you apply for a mentoring program?

I wanted to get more exposure to a different industry, and learn from the experience of a senior leader. As a middle-level manager, I'm focused on the operations, but I wanted to get insights into a more strategic level, or how to manage managers, for example.

Did you have any preparation before beginning the mentoring program?

There was no official course. We have the HR team coordinating and helping the mentees and mentors. These great ladies are the drivers of the program. We had initial meetings, where we set the expectations and received materials to guide us through this program: how to set objectives, how to meet, when to meet. They touch base with us regularly to ask, “How is it going? Do you need additional support?” or give advice.

How did the first meeting with your mentor go?

It was very open. I was surprised by the friendly atmosphere and the openness of my mentor. At the same time, I was a bit shy about expressing all my needs from the beginning, because the first meeting was still getting to know each other and to see if our personalities match—but in the second meeting, I needed her help. At that time I was direct in expressing my current challenges at work, said exactly what I needed from her as mentor, and that basically cracked the ice.

How long is the mentoring?

It is about six months; I am still in the program. It started in October, and it's going to finish in June. We try to meet every month—we have face-to-face meetings once a month, and we decided to communicate through email and over the phone—we plan to do that on video Skype as well.

What were the aspects that have had the most impact on your business career?

Receiving insight and the perspective of how things are running in another multinational corporation, but in a totally different industry. And at the same time to see how a leader of 1,200 people operates: from communication to leading a management team from a more strategic point of view and learning from her experience.

How would you assess the mentoring experience?

It is beneficial if you know when and how to use it.

The “when” is critical—choose carefully when you decide to do this in your career. I've been meaning to do this for the last three years, and now I realize that three years ago it would have brought nothing to me; now is the time in my career when I am facing a real need and seek guidance, perspectives, experience.

What advice would you give to a woman employee seeking promotion to key posts of responsibility? Or interested in participating in a mentoring program?

I see three areas in terms of career promotion.

First and most important is the Goal. Know what you want. Where do you want to go? What is your goal? and In how much time do you want to achieve this goal? Know what you want and by when.

Second: Go beyond—go beyond your responsibilities, be proactive, take initiatives, take leadership, expose yourself to situations where you learn something: if you stay in your corner and just do your standard job, you will learn nothing. Be yourself—be you as a manager; be natural, because people feel that.

And the third is about visibility: when you do something, something extraordinary, when you do something that is beyond your normal responsibility, do a great job and tell people about it, talk about it to the people who can influence your career. Otherwise, if you just do it, but nobody knows about it, nothing will happen. Make sure that your work has an impact that is beneficial to others. I'm often told, “Make yourself visible; you're doing such great work but people don't know about it, so tell them—otherwise how can you be promoted in the future?”

From a mentoring perspective, the first advice is timing. Choose the timing in your career for a mentoring program wisely; it is critical. Secondly, make sure that you identify one or two areas where you want to develop—but be specific, be realistic, set yourself a SMART objective, don't have more than two areas, maximum three if you can cope with that, because the mentoring will not have a clear focus, and it will not bring any real benefit.

I see you currently mentor five women in Oracle—how does this work?

Probably this goes back to the fact that I am personally passionate about people, their development, and their careers. I'm really open to giving any kind of help or feedback to, let's say, younger people in general, and obviously many younger women see me as a sort of example.

Since they have easy access to me, even if we start with a very formal mentorship program with some specific objectives, then this mentoring quickly turns into a life-long relationship, and randomly, not in a predefined way, they come to me not only to get advice but really to ask for help for specific things and objectives.

Can you tell me briefly about your business career?

This is the most difficult part of the interview! Probably I took risks and embraced every opportunity with focus and dedication. This is also what I usually say when talking about leadership with our top talented people: keep your eyes open to see opportunities, take some risks with passion, and work hard to make your value stand out.

I have been in IT for 30 years and have developed a broad spectrum of experiences. I started as a consultant, and then I moved into completely different positions—from purely technical roles to sales roles, and from sales roles to back office roles, and then back to sales. So, a very broad spectrum of different experiences but two constant elements. I've always been in IT and, at least for the past 18 years, leading international teams with broad multicultural dimensions.

I think I took my first international leadership position between 18 and 19 years ago, and since then, I've carried on with different kinds of responsibility—but always with a multinational, international team. I currently lead the “Inside Sales” organization for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, and this includes demand generation and sales functions for all our business lines, six sites from Dublin to Dubai and more than 30 nationalities, every religion and belief, and I believe I am right in saying there is almost no manager in my organization who leads a team of people with the same nationality.

You've always worked in the IT sector; do you feel there are any obstacles to women achieving key posts of responsibility within the IT sector?

I would say yes—there are evident obstacles, and I will summarize them: the first one, and probably the most difficult one, is ourselves—more frequently than expected we are the first obstacles to our own career development. The thing is that we are not brought up to accept our career and leadership ambitions as normal, and this is due to a nurtured gender difference. We “unconsciously” feel guilty about feeding our leadership and power ambitions. I have a 20-year-old daughter and, while many may think this is a view from the past, I can tell you that is still surprisingly true also for many of the young generation today.

The IT environment is very male dominated—and this is the second obstacle. Despite the fact that we have seen a growing number of women taking chief executive positions, the IT sector remains male dominated and men are very protective of their privilege. That's why having a male sponsor may pay off.

What made you decide to become a mentor?

I would say it is much more to do with giving back. Probably, I was not really aware of that when I started, but now, after a few years of regularly mentoring people, I would say that it is really about giving back. It is a sort of mission for me to help and challenge women to feel really comfortable with their leadership and power ambitions. Helping them to feel comfortable and also be able to speak out about their ambition.

You are currently mentoring a number of women. Do you see any differences between them, or do they all want the same kind of thing?

It is really individual, and the culture plays a role in defining the differences. I hate to generalize, but it is common in some cultures to come to mentoring with clear objectives and a very well-structured career plan. Other people approach their career progression in a less structured way, so it is more common that they just seek advice. Others just come for help with specific identified issues.

What does the mentoring experience bring to you?

First it helps me to know myself better, knowing better what I'm good at. Whatever your business responsibility, whenever it comes to leadership, the more you know yourself and why you are a good leader, the better it is.

I definitely found that the mentorship experience is a great experience in helping me know myself better. Obviously, it is time consuming—it is not just the time of the calls or the meeting, but also the preparation that each meeting requires. I try to be as inspirational as possible, so every meeting requires time.

What advice would you give to a woman employee seeking promotion to key posts of responsibility?

My first advice is look for a sponsor in the male world and ensure he is a true supporter of your career progression. My second is don't be afraid to speak out about your ambition. So if you want to get more responsibility, go and present yourself—be open in saying what is your ambition—let your manager know what you are looking for, let them know what you can offer and what makes you good at doing that job, and let them know what motivates you.

Another thing that prevents us from taking more of the promotion opportunities is that men apply for jobs even when they are only 80 percent ready, while women don't apply—unless we are 125 percent ready. So develop your confidence, don't be shy of your ambition, and speak out about it.

Can you tell me briefly about your business career?

I joined Oracle in 1994; I really enjoyed my job, but within around six months, I was thinking to myself, Is this really what I want to do for the rest of my life? I wanted to understand a bit more about how the company worked—and an opportunity came up to work in the commissions and bonuses department, and I applied for the position and was successful, and that exposed me to the sales teams where I learned about the products that Oracle sold and language and references that I'd never heard of before. After a couple of years, I moved on, and I was working first in an EMEA (Europe–Middle East–Africa)-wide role and then specifically for East and Central Europe soon after a new manager joined the management team, and although he's not officially a mentor of mine, he's had a big influence on me and my career and is one of the reasons why I'm in the job I'm in today. He's given me opportunities to learn and grow in the years that followed.

Do you feel there are any obstacles to women achieving key posts of responsibility, particularly within tech companies?

No I don't think so. I've only got the experience of Oracle—but I don't think that there are any obstacles. If you demonstrate that you're competent, if you demonstrate your desire and your ambitions to try different things, to do different jobs, to move around the organization, I don't think there are any obstacles that stop you—gender doesn't come into the equation.

Why did you apply for a mentoring program?

I went on a training course at Oracle for potential future leaders—and a recommendation from that program was to find a mentor if you didn't already have one. At that time, I didn't have an official mentor, but I discussed with my line manager whether I needed a mentor and what that person would do for me, and how that person would help me, and we decided it was somebody who could help me with my career progression in addition to being someone that I could bounce ideas off or ask advice from.

For example, maybe you're asked to run a project or a specific task—and it's new to you—and you can say to them, “Well, these are the ideas I have and how I want to approach it.” And because they're more senior in the organization with more experience, it is valuable to get their feedback on your ideas and approach, and maybe they know somebody who could help you with expertise in that particular area so you are utilizing their network; you're extending your network through them.

What were your needs when you started the mentoring?

I think for me personally I was relatively new to the role I'm doing now, it was a shift, and I felt I was constantly learning—which was a good thing—but sometimes I was asked to do things, and I was thinking, Okay, I really have to sit down and think. Where do I go? What's my starting point? Thinking of what approach I would take, it was nice to be able to talk that through with somebody who was more expert in that field as well as more experienced in general. Somebody I could get some ideas off or share what I was doing with my work but also, like I say, using their network. Someone who could champion me [so] that when opportunities that they were aware of because of their position [came up], they could say, Hey, do you know what? I know somebody who would be interested in that or who would be a good fit for that role. Someone to sponsor me with more senior management.

Did you have any preparation or follow a course before beginning?

No, the mentor I have today is not through an official program. It's something that came out of this leadership training.

How did the first meeting with your mentor go?

It went well. We laid down the ground rules, and we both said how we wanted the relationship to work so it was very clear from the outset. We didn't set definitive timelines that we'd meet, for example, once a month or once every two weeks, but I told him what I was looking for from him. He agreed to that, and he said that was fine and that's how he saw the relationship working. We agreed on housekeeping, confidentiality, and such things, and even if there was something which did relate, in some way, back to him or his team, I always felt that he was very open to me being transparent, and I knew that what I'm saying stays within those four walls. Setting those boundaries is important at the beginning; as a mentee it is good to be reassured.

How long did the mentoring last?

It's been two and a half years.

What were the aspects that had the most impact on your business career?

There have been a couple of occasions where I've met with him, and I've felt, for varying reasons, in not such a good place about work. It's been good to talk that through with someone. Sometimes it's made me realize that maybe I'm reading a situation wrong or I'm overanalyzing something, and I've come away feeling better, thinking Yes, maybe I was too quick to judge on a situation. And I think access to the network. Networking for me is a big part of career progression: the more people you know, the more opportunities you're going to hear about, and the more people to whom you can demonstrate the value that you bring, the more opportunities that creates for you.

Do you belong to one or more professional or personal networks?

The majority of my networks are informal; I belong to the Oracle Women's Leadership here in the UK. They run sessions—not just for women—and have all sorts of different speakers come in, to talk about different topics. We had an ex-Olympic rower who came to talk to us about her achievements in the boat, and how that can transition across to business. We've had internal speakers as well, so you get to hear more about different parts of the Oracle strategy or particular areas of business that you might not get to hear about through your daily work. The OWL (Oracle Women's Leadership) group is very good, and I was fortunate enough last year to go to the headquarters in San Francisco where there's a two-day Global OWL event that opened up my network to people at corporate and also in other parts of the world that I don't normally interact with.

What advice would you give to a woman employee seeking promotion to key posts of responsibility? Or interested in participating in a mentoring program?

Continually grow your network, and when you're doing that, demonstrate your value as an employee—also make sure you are clear on your brand and articulate that when you meet with someone for the first time. Demonstrating your value and making sure that people know what your key competences are and what you're about, what your brand is, is key. I believe mentoring is also important: if you want somebody to help you in your career progression, then approach someone who is in that position to help you, and do not be frightened to change your mentor if your circumstances change or if their circumstances change.