From international HR specialist to career coach for individuals

Name

Simona

Old Position

International HR specialist

New Career

Career coach

What are you doing now?

I am a freelance career strategist, mentoring and coaching individuals and small companies. I help people with career makeovers based on tailored methods and programmes that I have designed. My goal is supporting people to find harmony between the personal and professional parts of their lives. 

What were you doing before?

I spent 20 years in senior HR (human resources) management, working for international companies such as Kingfisher Group, based in Bucharest in Romania. I specialised in areas such as talent acquisition, performance management and organisational transformations.  

I was travelling four or five days a week in my corporate roles, and I wanted to spend more time with my daughter and my family.

What made you decide to change careers?

I felt that my role, or my values, were not aligned with the corporate environment. I was thinking that I would like to have more impact on individual people’s careers, aligning their careers and their lives. 

I also felt the need for more freedom and to be more in charge of my time. I was travelling four or five days a week in my corporate roles, and I wanted to spend more time with my daughter and my family. 

My personal circumstances were also changing because my husband had been working in the UK in the hospitality industry since 2014, and my daughter wanted to study here in the UK. He’s now doing psychology at university here.  

I left the corporate world in 2019 but because of Covid, we had to delay our plans. Finally, two years ago, we came to the UK.   

Was there anything that you missed about your previous roles?

I missed the structure from the corporate environment, and I missed the feeling of belonging to a team and having that collaboration, sharing experiences and supporting each other.  

I am more of an introverted person, so sometimes it’s good when your motivation or drives are coming from external source and there is less pressure on you to make things happen. At the beginning, I also missed the predictable income that came with a full-time corporate role.

As a HR manager, one of my transferable skills was actually my knowledge of transferable skills!

What transferable skills did you find that you had?

As an HR manager, one of my transferable skills was actually my knowledge of transferable skills! I consider this to be very important in a career transitions, and it’s a part of my core coaching career strategy approach. 

I am very person-centred in my approach, but I also understand the strategy, structures and processes of HR and I can apply these to my current role. I also developed a lot of empathy and emotional intelligence during my years in the corporate HR environment because I was working on projects like natural acquisition and process outsourcing which meant seeing things from the perspective of the individual. 

What support did you get?

Before I started as a freelancer, I didn’t have any social media accounts, so I took some online courses on personal brand programmes to help promote my business. 

What would you say to other people who are thinking of making a change?

When I talk to my clients about this, I suggest that they work out what truly matters in their lives. I ask them to make two lists; one about what is negotiable in their lives and the other about what is non-negotiable.  

When you start to think about your career change, keep the lists at the front of your mind and ask yourself what can be kept on the list and what areas you could be willing to compensate on because, in reality, it’s difficult to meet all your requirements. It allows you to see how your previous experience and achievements could contribute to the new role you have in mind.  

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