Sorin Chiru, Alten Romania: Globalization allows engineers to work in Romania in the most advanced fields, they no longer have to go to France or the USA. Romanian engineers are working to implement the latest technologies, from autonomous cars to 5G, but the market needs even more specialists.

Alten Romania, an IT and engineering consultancy company, which collaborates with companies from industries such as banking, chemical, IT, retail, technology or even digital commerce, has continued its recruitment plan during the pandemic, given that competition for engineers is an increasingly fierce one.

"The hiring process was not interrupted during the state of emergency, but it changed radically. It has moved online because we want our employees and partners to be safe. Everything is done online, including testing and bidding and signing a contract. Even today we have a new colleague, and so far everything has been done online. ", said Sorin Chiru, Business Unit Director, ALTEN Romania in the show ZF Investiţi în România!

He believes that Romania has become an IT center due to the quality human resources, but the competition in the market is high.

"We are working on projects in Romania, both us and other technology companies, which could not be done in another country. I had a telecom project with France, they came to Romania for the R&D part thanks to the engineers, and the support part was sent to India because there they can cover the volumes, while the high level jobs were covered from here. People are trained, talented, and the challenge is to attract them to your side, to come and work with you, and the competition is fierce in the market ", Sorin Chiru underlined. Alten Romania ran a business of about 25 million euros last year, up 21 from the previous year and reached 633 employees at the end of 2019, 18% more than in 2018.

He explains that now Romanian companies can compete with companies from anywhere in the world, but the biggest problem is when a Romanian engineer emigrates and implicitly contributes to the consolidation of another market.

"Leaving the country also means competition. We live in an age of globalization, of an open market, and where there is an opportunity for a project, we compete with both a company in France and one in India or Romania. For us, it is even a bigger loss if people choose to go abroad than to another company in Romania. If the person stays here, he or she contributes to the development of the local industry ", said Sorin Chiru.

The race for talent in Romania is given by the deficit of candidates - although "producing" tens of thousands of technical graduates, the market could absorb three times more.

"Now we are running a talent race, the market is getting smaller. Every year in Romania, tens of thousands of students graduate from technical faculties, but the Romanian market could absorb three times more, which creates a lot of competition and forces you to innovate the recruitment process, in the way you retain your people, teach them, develop them.", Sorin Chiru underlined.

"The market allows the absorption of many people with technical training, but an educational system that offers them to the market it is also necessary." he added.

In the case of Alten, the strong point is that an engineer can work in several fields.

"Alten is a launching ramp for people, from the speed with which employees grow, to the speed with which they can change projects. An engineer can work a year in an automotive project, in a year move to a banking project, it's like changing your job, you change your team, your industry, you adapt and learn and that's how you think. We have colleagues who got hired after graduating, and after three years they were in the position of team lead or manager, with 10-12 other subordinate employees.", Sorin Chiru underlined.

Article published by Ziarul Financiar.