Bio: Cornelia holds a BA in Foreign Languages & Translation from the University of Bucharest and has over 10 years of experience in Europe (Ministry of Defense) and the UAE in HR Consulting with focus on Recruitment. She provides consultancy and advisory services on Recruitment, Headhunting, Training, Social Media Marketing and PR & Communications to several reputed Abu Dhabi government organizations. 1. How do you like living and working in the UAE? The UAE is a great place to live and work in, a diverse multinational environment that promotes intercultural dialogue, with a unique and professional workforce. This country combines gracefully the sense of tradition with state of the art technologies of the future that allows all residents to develop and grow. 2. What is your average day at work like? Every day I face new challenges, I try to find solutions to existing issues that need to be solved, I concentrate on developing retention programs for our current employees and meet new people in order to discover new talents that match the Organization’s high expectations of professionalism, I develop recruitment and customer satisfaction strategies and every day I try to learn a new thing related to the fast developing field I work in (like the new trends in cyber recruiting). 3. What is your biggest professional challenge? My biggest professional challenge is highlighting the importance of continuously developing human capital as an essential part of the corporate culture combined with my constant need of self development. 4. What is the most important thing you look for in new hires? It’s the perfect combination of attitude, commitment, ethics, professionalism and initiative because skills can be gained if one has these mandatory qualities. 5. What is the biggest challenge you face in hiring talent? Bureaucratic and pecuniary issues that can considerably slow or even stop the process of attraction and retention of valuable professionals. 6. What is your favorite part of your role? Recruitment offers me that rewarding feeling of knowing that I had a positive impact in guiding someone to the right career path bringing him/her closer to a fulfilling professional life. 7. What has been the highlight of your career in HR? The involvement in the Emiratisation initiative. 8. What do you read to keep abreast of industry developments? Every day I read HR and recruitment blogs, forums and articles, posts of my fellow peers on LinkedIn HR related groups and E-recruitment magazines, articles, webinars and research reports on the future trends of the GCC job market. 9. What is your advice to someone looking to enter the field of HR? Someone who wants to enter this field has to possess very strong communication and analytical skills, patience and empathy. 10. How do you see the Middle East evolve as a place to practice HR? HR is an essential part in every company because it deals with the most valuable asset – human capital. In my opinion, HR will play a key role in the Middle East fast growing and constantly developing economy. 11. If you could wave your magic stick and make a significant development in one specific area of HR practices worldwide, where would that fall? It would be directed at the employment technicalities that have a negative impact on the development of talented professionals. 12. Anything else you'd like to share with the community of Bayt.com Employers? I would like to thank Bayt.com for their the constant support and professionalism to both the employers and job-seeker communities and for also offering me the opportunity to share my thoughts and read valuable opinions of esteemed members of the HR community in the Middle East.
