Discover Stories: Where Are Our Alumni Today

 

Hey there! I’m Ana, an Internal Communication Consultant at Vodafone Romania and a proud Discover alumna. But now you might be wondering... how did I get here?
 

If you want to be part of our team, check out our 2027 Discover Graduate opportunities:

• Commercial, Brand, Marketing or Finance
   
• IT-AI Engineering
   
• Technology
   

It all started three years ago, during a night out with my friends. We were talking about jobs, each with her own stories and grievances, when one of them told us how much she loved her experience in the Discover program. We found out that applications were open, so my best friend and I said: “Why not?”
 

I had graduated from Business Administration, had volunteered in Marketing and HR at a student NGO, and had already had an internship in recruitment. That role had helped me understand that, although I liked working with people, I wanted something more creative, more dynamic, closer to ideas and projects. But since I had no experience, I applied to the program saying that I wanted to, well... work in recruitment (ironic, I know). The plan didn’t work out and I ended up in the Internal Communication & Employer Branding team, a field I knew so little about that I searched the internet for what it meant before the interview. Today, however, I can confirm that it was one of the luckiest accidents of my career.
 

The first rotation showed me how much can happen behind things that, to those who see them from the outside, seem so simple. I still remember the emotions from the first newsletter sent to 3,500 colleagues. Dozens of events followed, employer branding campaigns, projects with students and brainstorming sessions that started with a joke and ended with a good idea. There were many moments that stayed with me, such as the mornings spent at the Bucharest Marathon, where I would go to support colleagues who perhaps had no one at the finish line, or the periods when I worked on employee listening surveys and could see the effects of our initiatives reflected in the feedback from colleagues.
 

Later, I also had the opportunity to help coordinate the Discover program. After experiencing it as a participant, I came to see it from the other side: through recruitment, onboarding, pulse checks, events and community initiatives. Then I explored the commercial area, where I learned to look at things from a business perspective and better understand what makes a product relevant to people and how its value can be communicated. And after all these experiences, I returned to where I felt most at home: in internal communications. First in HR, then in Legal & External Affairs. Looking back, I entered Discover as a graduate trying to find his place and who had more questions than answers. I came out with more confidence, courage and the experience of working with very different people, from students and agents to leaders and stakeholders across the organization. I learned to coordinate projects, ask for and use feedback, advocate for ideas I believe in, and take on responsibilities that, 3 years ago, would have seemed intimidating. But perhaps most importantly, I discovered what I truly love to do.
 

Today, I love that my work keeps me curious. Each project takes me into a different conversation, to different people and perspectives, and days rarely look the way I imagined they would in the morning. And if I look back on that night with my friends and the question that started it all, the answer is simple: sometimes you don’t need to know exactly where a “Why not?” will take you. You just need to have the courage to follow it.