Meet the Team -Interview – Adelina Vladutu

• What is your background and how did you become an Eucom assessor?

I’ve studied Communication and PR in Portugal and since my studies I’ve always worked with the Portuguese and Spanish market and so these 2 languages became my best friends. ???? 

I became an Eucom assessor long time ago when Eucom was just starting and there was a need for a Portuguese speaker to help with the assessment. Back at that time I remember there were very few requests for Portuguese but since then I took over the Spanish tasks as well and here I am, more than 10 years later. 

• What are the challenges encountered during a language assessment?

I believe the main challenge I encounter most of the time is making the person on the line feel comfortable, making the conversation as dynamic as possible, personalizing the conversation according to the things the person I talk to shares with me, and getting people who are shy open up.

• Knowing that the result of the language assessment can bring the candidate closer to the dream job or can shatter that dream, how do you ensure the accuracy of the final result?

I always try to be as impartial as I can, sometimes I simply review our criteria when I am not sure of the level I should assess the person with, give as much time as the person needs on the phone in order to make sure I assess them correctly and yes, I sometimes feel the pressure of knowing my assessing might get the person closer to the dream job or not but I learned that being professional and following the guides is always the right thing to do.

• What is the most important piece of advice you would give to a language assessor who is at the start of his career?

I would say making the conversations as dynamic as you can, not to ask boring questions that everyone is asking during an interview, start the conversation with an open heart and mind knowing that each person you talk to has a story that just needs to be revealed and that each person can teach us so many lessons if we just listen.

• Why Eucom?

If you had asked me why Eucom 10 years ago, I wouldn’t know how to answer this question but I love the fact that Eucom has developed so much in the past few years and that I get to work with beautiful people that are always willing to help and to innovate.

• What are your sources of inspiration?

Nature inspires me so much, the people I get to meet every day, the places I get to visit and the cultural differences are some of the things I get my inspiration from, and of course music is my eternal source of inspiration. ????

• How do you spend your free time?

I travel a lot together with my husband, I enjoy experiencing new things, we love food and we are always in a search of new culinary experiences, I also sing and I take music classes during my free time.

• COVID-19, what changes has this period brought to you? What were the lessons offered?

The main change was that all of the sudden we were not able to travel anymore nor to see our loved ones. The lessons I’ve learned is that in our daily rush we simply forget to enjoy simple things and to appreciate them and be grateful for. I’ve learned that I shouldn’t put my dreams on hold or wait for the best time and simply go for it now and I’ve learned to spend more time with the loved ones and to tell them more often that I love them.

• At the end, 3 recommendations: a memorable book, a must-see movie, a song you would always listen to!

A memorable book = Conversations with God – Neale Donald Walsch

A must-see movie = A good year – with Russell Crowe

A song I always listen to = Melody Gardot – Preacherman