Iulia Safin
Just how exciting can data be?
Exciting enough for me to say that I’ve never had a boring day at work. Let me expand on that: we are responsible for a series of products that prevent financial crime in 40 ING countries. There are so many puzzles to solve, a lot of scenarios to explore and plenty of room to innovate.
How does your job contradict the general perception of what it entails?
People are surprised by how much of my work is about collaboration, interaction, creativity and learning from mistakes. We don’t just bask in perfectly aligned figures and databases.
A good day can be filled with aha moments and long brainstorming sessions that help us arrive at an aligned concept that everyone is happy with.
Your work sounds like a big ask. What’s a testing moment you can tell us about?
We work in a fast-paced environment and mistakes made can impact whether we stay compliant or not. On top of this, our global tribe is expanding quite fast, so we often witness transformations, lift-and-shifts that can add to the challenge. Last year we saw the most complex reorg we have gone through so far. It was a testing moment, but we managed to stay on top, with some lessons learned along the way.eaways are: 1. don’t change too much at once and mitigate before rolling out. 2. try not to panic; just like in a natural disaster, panic will only limit your strategic thinking.
How do you unwind afterhours? Do you feel supported to do that?
Most of the time I keep it simple: I start by looking at the sky until I can feel the rush of the day dissipate, I spend time with loved ones, take walks, have tea while reading or listening to podcasts. Sometimes I still manage to paint for a bit.
I have the flexibility to organise my time and that’s golden.
What type of energy do you bring to the team and what are your colleagues like?
I hope they find my curiosity inspiring, allowing them the mind space to ask questions and process things. They often come to me for comfort or to run ideas by, and this tells me they trust my opinion and value our rapport. I always have their backs and they know that. The reverse is also true: they support me in key moments and I can rely on them whenever I need.
My colleagues are quite smart, ambitious, open and willing to try new things. They also have a great sense of humour.
Do you remember a time when you felt especially proud of a team success?
There are too many! My favourite is when we get to look at our accomplishments at the end of each year. We have an event that combines fun activities with a retrospect.
It’s very rewarding to see aggregated figures with tens of complex projects we successfully delivered, billions of transactions processed by our systems, and to receive the appreciation of our global beneficiaries.
As a child what did you want to be when you grow up? And are you happy with the outcome?
I was on the fence between becoming a mathematician or something related to art or philosophy. What I do now combines the structure of mathematical analysis and strings and the multifaceted perspectives of philosophy when dealing with data feeds.
Yes, it is "just a job", but since we give so much time and energy to our jobs, it matters to me that I have the one that suits me. ING Hubs feels like a global laboratory and an entrepreneurial space more than anything, really. I get to work with the best of people, so I’m very happy with where I am.