Andra Tanase

Strategy And Partnerships Manager, Green And Digital Expert, Trainer at Transilvania It Cluster

POSITION, COMPANY

Currently serving as Strategic Development, Membership and Partnership Manager at Transilvania IT Cluster and expert consultant on green and digital transformation, conflict management, non-formal education and development cooperation, I work on strategic programme design, capacity building, intercultural intelligence, policymaking and organisational and civil society development from mainly the perspective of collaborative leadership and innovation. My passion is to create environments of personal, organisational and societal strategic and systemic learning and development, and this only sounds complicated it is only complex and at the same time extremely feasible and magically rewarding when there is a will.

I drive my inspiration from having worked and studied around the world, from my early educational experience in Romania, then the United World College of the Adriatic (Italy), Macalester College (USA), UN-mandated University for Peace (Costa Rica) and then working in Romania, Austria and in missions on 3 different continents.

OVERVIEW OF THE JOB

My current job holds a long title because I am actually involved in a number of things, all related to technology and education to a large extent. I work as strategist, so it means that together with my colleagues and the people and institutions we work with I am looking at creating the long-term plans for our cluster. I also work as a partnership manager, this means that I look and explore possibilities to work together with public , private and academic institutions and partners, because as technology is part of all our lives, we cannot only look at it from one point of view. I also do project management, I work mostly on green and digital projects and for example right now we are engaged in creating a Digital Twin for a block of flats to see what is the best way to act in order to reduce the impact on the environment and increase the quality of life for the residents. And not last, I am doing training programmes on digital transformation, innovation, project management.

WHAT INSPIRED YOU

Life brought me into this opportunity. I have been working for a long time in the field of conflict transformation, peacebuilding and development education and after a short break due to my maternity leave a friend asked me if I want to work on a circular economy project with Transilvania IT. It seems like a bit step going from peacebuilding in an NGO to digital transformation and the business of digitalisation in a cluster. Actually it is not so different if the perspective is the same: sustainable, human-centric transformation.

TYPICAL WORKING DAY

It is hard to think about a typical day, because it is definitely a dynamic job, with plenty of events, with plenty of meetings and often with changes. But, if I were to think about a typical week, I can think of busy early mornings, enjoying the more quiet times for writing and working on deliverables and researching, then meetings, co-creation, trainings and sometimes evenings with networking events, meeting partners and why not from time to time bringing my own kids into these events. I think that complete work-family life separation does not make sense, as you put a bit of your soul in both you need the understanding and approval also from your family for the job, and vice-versa , you need the understanding of your colleagues and partners for who you are in the realm of your family.

STUDY & CAREER PATH

I mentioned above, Romania from kindergarten to 10th grade in highschool, doing a lot of extra-curricular activities and trying to partipate in theatre, human rights activities, Aikido but also Math nationals and other competeitions. Then I got a scholarship for the UWC of Adriatic, one of the BEST educational experiences in the world as it shrinks the world in a bubble of 200 students from 80+ countries and at the same time it expands your own world and knowledge and wisdom into infinite dymensions in a couple of years. Following that I did my BA at Macalester College in the US and my MA in International Peace Studies at the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica. I continue to learn through training programmes to the day. I think it is key to be open to learn formally, non-formally and informally. And definitely not in one place. No, most of my colleagues share very different educational experiences.

KEY SKILLS

First of all I would like to say that I prefer Competence rather than Skills. Competence is Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes, and one needs all.

Critical Thinking is a core competence. Also Creativity, Collaboration, Empathy and Project Management.

I would say it is important for all that you want to do to check out competence profiles and also check out what “future competences” look like at the moment you are reading this .

CAREER PROSPECT

I have gone from peacebuilding to IT. So , I think I can pretty much say almost everywhere , the only conditions being the environment that allows some flexibility.

CHALLENGES

Dealing with complexity. But it is a challenge and an opportunity at the same time.

YOUR ADVICE TO STUDENTS

Seek your authenticity and at the same time look for the guiding star/ light/dream in your career path. What I want to say is that it is very important, especially in today’s world which offers a lot of noise, to have a goal, an ambition, an objective.

YOUR ADVICE TO TEACHERS AND PARENTS

By collaborating. Education is the result of the influence that our teachers, parents, society, friends and ourselves have upon us, so the best way to support the students is to understand that it is everybody’s job, including the students to participate and create the steps in our educational path.