Andreea Turcanu has had to take a number of 90 degree turns before landing a job that suited her skills and background. She arrived in Ireland from Romania five years ago armed with a masters degree in banking and finance but found it difficult to find a job in the sector.
"I couldn't find a job for the first year and was wondering what I was doing wrong," she recalls. "I went online and found Business in the Community. They give support to people in preparing CVs, applying for jobs, going to interviews and so on. They put me on their EPIC [Employment for People from Immigrant Communities] programme which was a great help."
Turcanu took a job placement offer from EPIC in order to gain work experience. “I worked as a classroom assistant,” she says. “I had to do that work placement as I had no work experience in Ireland. I needed to get references if I was to get a job.”
Her strategy worked, and she found a job as a transactional specialist with Dublin-based Microsoft reseller Arvato. "That's a nice way of saying data entry," she says. "I accepted the job even though it was not well suited to my skills and education. But the experience was very good. While working there I was on the lookout for something in the financial area."
Turcanu sometimes found having to explain why she took roles outside of the financial sector a little wearing. “I had to explain that I needed to get work experience here in Ireland.”
Her patience paid off after a year when she found a post working in asset servicing in the tax area of Citibank. “It was a big difference,” she recalls. “I am really enjoying the role and would like to move around more within Citi. I hope to do that next year.”
