“With PAS, the purpose became the focus and the driving force behind it all.” – Gabriel Chiriac
Job search is stressful and often, people don’t have a plan B. All of a sudden, your daily calendar becomes empty, and you don’t know where to start. Finding a new job aligned with your own values requires hard work, perseverance as well as a positive mindset and openness to change.
Gabriel Chiriac is a Product Development Manager with 23+ years of solid background at high corporate level. After a successful career abroad, Gabriel found himself as many other professionals, laid off during the pandemic. He discovered PAS during his repatriation when he redefined his purpose in his career and rebalanced his life.
Situation
“I have been working for over 23 years in a large multinational tobacco company. Having started my career very young as a Quality Examiner in Romania and worked my way up to R&D as a Product Development Manager in Germany, I have grown during those years, enjoying what I was doing and managing my day-to-day objectives flawlessly. This seemed to be a typical success story until the company decided to close the site in Germany and let us go.”
Challenge
“Suddenly, it became obvious that I was about to face totally new challenges both professionally and personally. The warm comfort provided by years of routine was to be no longer present. To make matters worse, the pandemic came along. Returning to Romania after 9 years in Germany, I needed to readjust myself and align what matters to me and my family. While facing the unknown, the repatriation process proved challenging. I was disconnected from a full-time family life commitment, my former social network, the realities of the job market at home and the inherent cultural differences; all these required readjustment from my side.”
Desired Outcome
“My objective was to have a soft landing, readjust to my home country and family life and secure a new job. I have always been rational, and structured. Though I was very effective, working for so many years for the same company loosened my contact with the job market’s current realities. Additionally, spending so much time away from home and family affected both my social network and my work life balance.”
Path to Success
“With PAS, I was able to identify and spend time on my true priorities, from job searching related requirements through personal development and self-care. The biggest impact created with PAS was the initial coaching discussion with my coach around What Really Matters (WRM). Through it, I was able to set up my priorities and goals, and act upon them. Therefore, the purpose became the focus and the driving force behind it all.”
“With the help of my Coach, Adelina Stefan, I identified my development needs and acted upon them. I redesigned my professional brand to make myself and my skills more visible to recruiters, and secure more interviews.”
“With the PAS tools, I measured my progress on personal life tasks, self-care routine and administrative challenges of home relocation.”
“Basically, with some very effective tools, you get clarity on your objectives, design your actions and achieve the results.”
Actual Result
“I became highly motivated and focused, and acted upon the identified development needs. I also enrolled myself in other courses such as: Agile fundamentals, Scrum methodology as well as upper-level German language. My professional branding documents and my CV were updated and met the current professional requirements. I was able to apply with more confidence to various new jobs. On a personal side, my self-care received its deserved importance and attention, and thus, improved the life balance.”
Support Tools and Success Factors
“Along with the know-how provided by my coach, the Job Description Canvas was very useful in jobs assessment versus one’s expectations. It enabled me to evaluate the potential roles’ challenges against my own strengths, and the terms of the job offers compared to my attributes.Last, the Stakeholder Canvas helped me prepare for interviews considering the objectives and expectations vs challenges, potential for growth and future steps.”