E249 Cristina Andrei

Hello, my name is Aziz, and I'm the son of a divorce mother. She's really my superhero. That's why it's important for me to support women to share their uniqueness, their personalities, perspectives, and emotions about this world. In these difficult times in human history, we need to bring the people of the world together. And when we hear the voices of women, when we listen, to real lives of women from other countries, we connect our cultures without differences or stereotypes, and we get inspired by their stories to live a better life. That's what this podcast is all about. My guest today is Christina Andrey. Christina is a Romanian girl based in Germany who specializes in cybernetics, statistics, and informatics. She loves books, movies, music, art, sports, such as jogging, hiking, yoga, and skiing. She loves traveling, poetry, and pottery, and board games. She also likes volunteering in various organizations. Christina is fascinated with the leadership aspects of any field, and she works as one in her professional career in IT. She speaks fluently, two non-native languages and is interested to learn to more Christina how are you today. Hi, Aziz. Thank you so much for having me. I feel like it's a privilege, and it's a pleasure for me to do this podcast with you. I am very good. I am enthusiastic about this conversation and really looking forward to, yeah, basically have a beautiful exchange of ideas and ensure it with the rest of the girls in the world. Thank you, Kristi. Now, honestly, I'm super excited. It is really a privilege for me as well to spend this time with you and to share your voice and to understand even more about you. So I will begin with this nice first question, which is, if your friends and the people who know you best could describe your personality, what would they say about you? Thank you for the question. It is certainly a very interesting one and I would say that they would describe me as a person that has strong values and that holds on to them firmly. I think they would also say that I am exigent at times but kind in the same time. I can express myself easily and some they have said that I also seem to speak with passion about many things that I am loyal, that I am curious all the time, that I like being uniformed and that many times I seem to inspire them in a way or another. That I am assumed and confident and well as you express to the beginning that I love nature, animals, art and traveling. I think that would be it maybe as a big picture. Thank you, I love that, I have so many questions and I'll begin with this. You said you speak or they say that you speak with passion about multiple things and topics. Well passion is very important and also this project part of it is helping women ignite their passion and develop it even further. So to understand this, what drives you to have that passion in what you're speaking about? Are you someone who's very curious about life? Are you someone who's like trying to seize the day because you understand that life is short or it's just you're born this way or how does it work? Yeah, I used to say and I like to say the fact that I think my parents gave me a big heart that can feel and can sense so many things at once. I think as a child I grew up being happy and grateful for everything that I had, maybe even because we had few resources so I'm coming from an average family with average resources but my parents taught me to be thankful and grateful for everything that I have and I started with very very simple things like you know enjoying what nature gave me or gave us gives us what yeah having animals around, having art, having books they also inspired to meet the curiosity aspect to always want to know more about the world, about the communities that I'm growing up in. They wanted me to actually explore whatever stood out there beyond the little universe that I had around me and the communities. It was very very important for them to to for myself to actually grow in a very creative way to to develop myself in so many ways that I am prepared to actually experiment world because they understood even though they had little resources that there is so much out there to discover to live and potentially I could I could grow myself into so many different ways and yeah I think probably my childhood was like that in such way that I appreciated everything I had around but I stayed curious and the moment that I had the means and the possibilities to actually explore the world I started doing so and ever since I think I enjoy every aspect of my culture or different cultures and I feel like I really need to get to experiment those in a very authentic original way and I like that a lot I like diversity I like traditions I am trying in any way to be happy with my life and whatever it gives me and I think an important aspect of all these stories, the practice of gratitude which I'm very, very thankful for having so I think that would be just being happy with the simple things, the simple experiments and everything that I have around me, friends, family, nature, animals, knowledge and culture in art. I love that so much and then it makes me think you're an IT specialist. Many people will not associate art and creativity and animals and nature inspiration and passion with IT because they view it as a more logical field. How do you express yourself creatively within your work or do you have separate lives where at work you're the logical Christina and outside you're just flowing with emotions and creativity. That is a beautiful question. I always felt that beyond this creativity I am also very rational and I use and apply logic as much as possible. That's also if you look at my career and studies it was more in that sense and in that direction and I have to say that I like vote votes. It might sound very peculiar but yeah at work I try to and especially because I had a couple of leadership or management roles I try to make use of logic and rationality as much as possible but staying human showing emotions and I feel like especially in leadership positions it's quite important to show that you're still a human that beyond your technical skills maybe it makes showing emotions and being a human makes you actually even stronger and this is the way that I'm behaving and even though I know that of course you're at work you have sometimes to take decisions to be tough and there are a lot of challenges throughout the day and with the projects that you work with people and so on. But I think that maintaining this this humanity aspect in work has actually brought to me where I am and perhaps hopefully bringing me further and yeah I've got to say that I like logic I like everything that's related to that and probably it was also inspired by my father. I remember as I was a child watching him play for example chess or backgammon and we used to actually play a lot as well. A lot of games that implied logic applying logic and I was challenged ever since and I grew up in such way that I think that even in real life right now in personal life, voting personal and professional life, I like to be challenged and I am a little bit competitive but in a constructive way I would say because it helps me actually grow and I very much admire people that are smarter than I am that perhaps are well read that I don't know they do well what they do and yeah I think this explanation would hopefully be representative for your question but that's what I would say about it. Thank you and I love that you spoke about your competitive side and how it's constructive and it helps you grow. Nowadays whether it's because of the pandemic or social media or just society or anything there are many women who feel judged if they become they feel limited that it's too much anxiety to go after their goals. So what is your advice for them to find their competitive side and what motivates you and let's you know that being competitive is a good thing so maybe they can hear your opinion and then it could inspire them to allow themselves to be competitive. Wow that's that's really a million dollar question because I have I have of course a lot of discussions with with my female friends that perhaps have the same have the same achievements interests and they are also higher achievers in whatever they do both in professional and personal life and we do question ourselves whether yeah is this a good is it maybe that's actually less than a strength it's a weakness that you sometimes as a woman being competitive and maybe yeah competing with your with the male gender at work or in any other situation would make you actually weaker you you simply yeah big categorized in in such way that I don't know your female but with more masculine attitude in your life and well that's that's not that's not good right it is it is it is an interesting question and it's actually a real challenge in nowadays life I have to say that I haven't personally experienced such a strong judgment in a way I feel like you know hard skills technical skills or or studies should be for sure attributed to both women and men I think their equality definitely applies right we have been born with the same resources to succeed and be good at work the same way that that men did so I haven't necessarily felt like there was a judgment or society trying to put a label on it in my particular case but for sure I have seen examples of that happening with other friends and I must say that I'm trying now at work and in personal life to actually speak about it to participate in conferences there are a lot of them where women come on stage and talk about their achievement and they're quite proud pride of them and I would say that we perhaps lack more of that of that presence of women coming on stage and of course Covid much doesn't necessarily need to be on a stage can be also virtual and actually being proud about their achievements showing the fact and breaking you know stereotypes that certain industries and jobs and roles are probably unconsciously by attributed to men. Probably I would say to this women that they need to trust themselves, trust their capabilities, be proud of them, while of course maintaining their whatever, how society would call their feminine side. I don't think that just for the fact that you're a female you have to think less of yourself or undermine yourself and not actually go and grab that reward. That's to you because you deserve it, you've worked for it. I think generally speaking people and women should live more for whatever they believe in their values remaining strong to them and not what society says. And yeah, perhaps just surround yourself with people that have experienced this kind of situation, listen to them and become more confident in your strengths. I feel like after all, to me that's actually a strength rather than a weakness regardless. And I feel like you can combine you know, keeping your subtle, your vulnerable side, your gender is a female, but also being very much regarded as a professional, as a high achiever and that should be a weakness. Thank you. I agree 100% that's absolutely very interesting. And you are someone who for five years, you have been living away from Romania, from your country, yet you said being connected to culture is important to you. Well, can you describe what is to you the most fascinating or some of the things that are very interesting about the Romanian culture, the culture of Romania and how different is it compared to Germany? Thank you for the question. I have to say that living here, I often had this question from my friends, my colleagues, of course, because probably they didn't know that much about the Romanian culture. So I had to explain and I found myself in the situation where I really needed to think, well, what's the unique aspect of my culture? And I can say a few words for sure. Not necessarily putting them into a good or bad perspective, just objectively looking at things that I have experienced every since I am here, because now, of course, I can say I understand what are the, what is the German culture and for sure, I know what's mine. I think from speaking from my own culture, I feel like we do show emotions easily. I think I even tend to say sometimes that there is an emotional intelligence capacity, very big one there. Sometimes, probably for the Western culture, respectively for the German, might be too much. I had a situation at work where we were just in a workshop and of course I had to express myself. And my colleagues certainly noted that I come from a different culture, probably a southern or a southeastern one, so it was easy. Then I guess that's the point we show emotions more easily or more often. We tend to become more emotional, I would say. Well, we have for sure a lot of traditions and perhaps it is well known that they're in Romania for example religion plays more important role if I'm to say so not for myself personally but I guess that's also a difference to the western culture and Germany specifically. We like to express ourselves and live life um after work um in a more how can I say yeah diverse way if I'm to express myself right even the atmosphere for example in in the city it's um in in Romania it's one that likes to to bring people together you would often see fares you would often see festivals with music uh with arts uh even on the streets or um in bigger places where simply as I said people come together you have um a natively warmer environment to to create relationships to socialize and um to basically yeah come together enjoy and and yeah it's a more welcoming culture to this social side of of life um I often experienced in in in Germany the fact that people are getting together in smaller circles it's sometimes harder to actually um make friends simply because perhaps here it takes more time it doesn't mean that the quality or the depth of friendship is is different it just simply takes more time uh when you come from a a different culture then of course you need to you need to allow a little bit more time until people uh feel like you've created a connection with them that's closer to their culture because one it or not you you live here it's it's the local culture that would prevail in any case so yeah I think these these are um important aspects of of um one culture versus the the other uh there are probably many more but for sure the well-known aspects of um of the fact that yeah in uh in in eastern europe and especially in in romania you have less trust in in in politics for example in the way that the country is uh is led so i think that from a political and social system it is perhaps more a quality that you find in in germany than then back at home which is probably a big downside of of uh when i come from um and yeah i think those would be main points i uh i would perhaps have a lot of things to share but then it would take uh too much time for us to to then uh go too deep into the into the topic thank you thank you too and that was really really fascinating and i felt i learned so much about romania about your culture and to know even more about you let's say there are women and girls who may be because you work a job that is not easy they have jobs similar to you or they're studying and they're like oh my god they have no time to have a life at all how do you find time to explore arts to travel to do all that stuff while uh other women or girls who might be listening could feel exhausted at the end of the work day and they don't have the energy to do more out of the day how do you find the energy are you doing it even if you feel exhausted you try to extract the happiness and experiences from every possibility or do you do something specific like a kind of yoga and meditation and nutrition or how does it work for you? Very nice question I have to say that um I'm working now for 10 years in 19 and it's probably in the last one or two years that I come to the wisdom of the fact that there is so much more out there than then work. I used to work for sure many many hours not the traditional night of five job and even back then it was super important for me that I keep myself creative. I keep myself inspired and I always had the need to combine work with some other creative activities. It was really paramount for me because as I said I like both sides the logical rational aspect but also arts and creativity and so on. So I crave this need of surrounding myself and having resources that would take me out of that very technical and logical life. Even though I was tired I tried as much as possible because I was always driven by this knowledge and curiosity aspect that I always try to plan to plan the weekends or the time after work to be in nature. It was really important for me that after this many hours a day sitting in front of a laptop and perhaps consuming coffee and all that jazz to actually surround myself with nature, something that's for sure missing. At some point of course taking the advantage of being able to work remote I tried to work from places and enjoy sunlight and outside spaces so that I make my working hours more pleasant. Through the years of course I started reducing the amount of hours I was actually spending at work. For one hand side because of course with the years you become better and better at your job that doesn't mean that you need to stay at a certain level but then you acquire some wisdom and knowledge and then you can allow yourself to actually cool down. On the other hand side for sure along the years I started appreciating so much more my free time that it was paramount for me to fit myself with the things that I like and I realized that keeping myself inspired all the time and having that bit of creativity and arts and nature and so on. Having that balance with those aspects it actually helped me being more productive, being more efficient at work so it was certainly the best combination and as I said I really got to this to this wisdom after a couple of years having been driven by this not just competitive but attitude of being a perfectionist, doing well my job, being successful, bringing the things forward, the team, the project and so on. But yeah it comes with time so yeah because I like what my free time looks like, where it could look like for sure, then when there is will then you can do it for sure. So I try a lot to to do sports, to visit museums, go for a movie, having social events, maybe I host something at my place and I cook for my friends and then we play games. We just sit around the glass of wine and debate and yeah so many activities. I love that and I'm wondering because you came more and more to the wisdom that working longer hours is literally given your life away and you wanted to recapture that. I'm trying to understand like what is your future vision for yourself? Is it to stay in your career and move further but always keeping that work life balance? Do you have some dreams of becoming a female entrepreneur and have some idea like that or maybe to become an artist and to have your work shown in an exposition somewhere in an art gallery or something like that? Or what is for you a dream thing that could even be that you only work remotely and you live in the middle of a forest? I don't know but tell me more about that. Yeah, a very interesting aspect with living alone in the woods. Yeah for sure. I want to combine both aspects of perhaps continuing in my career in IT. I think there could be beautiful developments in this area with all the machine learning and AI coming to us and you know there are many questions that are raised in what is the future of human life when all these things take over. So I'm going to be there as a guardian angel to hopefully then keep things so human still. I want to call on to that and perhaps expanded to, I don't know, becoming an entrepreneur in the area. For sure I want to combine my professional career with actually fighting for a cause. A cause that would bring something good in the communities that that I live and that I'm part of. Be that something related to education for children. Be that it's something humanitarian related to to groups that are vulnerable. I don't know elderly or people with disabilities or simply advocating for something related to to nature sustainability and so on. I have recently joined a leadership organization in Romania. It's born in Romania but it's actually international and it's basically a community of beautiful people that have their high achievers in whatever they have as a professional profession but they're also very much devoted to the communities and improving them and there are a lot of there are a lot of resources that you get a lot of inspiration, admiration and I think that recently helped me a lot to come back to this awareness that I have to bring something good into the world and even if it's something small in any community that I'm part of so it was a sort of a call for action even though it was there in the back of my head now it's even clearer or it became like a goal to start bringing an value in any community and fighting for a cause I think this is this is super important it was it was something that I read in in a book and perhaps a purposeful life is certainly the best way to to leave a life and I want to have that so besides my my career I'm one of five for a cause I want to bring something good in a community and from an arts perspective I started dreaming of a small of a small place where I could practice pottery and just have just have a sort of small temple for creativity just relaxing and having a nice way of of combining creativity with with pleasure because it's certainly a well spent time for me. I really like to see how you can create something out of your own hands and thinking that whatever the output is you're the sole accountable for whatever comes out of that and every piece is unique and yeah you're creating something it just feels good to think that well you you have this power of creation even though it's just a small thing I think that that that that would be my dream or my goal for the rest of of my of my life and career. Thank you for sharing that and to end this because you had such interesting perspectives and thoughts about the questions that I ask. I will ask you this what is your advice or perspective on women finding their confidence finding the motivation to dare to go for all their dreams and goals no matter the criticism or anything do you feel this is something that is common and already a success story do you feel it's a bit lacking and if so what's your opinion and advice? Sure I think I would tell these girls to trust and love themselves to be true to themselves to know that the greatest force is within and each one of them and each one of us is unique that truth and love always find a way that it's important to be kind to yourselves and with the others and for sure always stay inspired and inspire others. Thank you so much Kristina. It was my privilege and my honor to have you in this project to share your voice, to listen to you and share your perspective. I wish you all the success. I wish you to find that freedom, contribution and and I encourage you always to keep going. Thank you so much. I thank you all this. Thank you so much for this this action. I am so grateful for having had the time to share these thoughts and I'm pretty sure you're going to inspire girls and women to to become better in whatever they do and whatever they want to thank you very much.