Using Soft Skills to Progress in Your (Engineering) Career

Coralia Popa, Manuela Patrascu

Using Soft Skills to Progress in Your (Engineering) Career

With ever-changing technology, global mobility aspects, and remote work, workplace dynamics are more complex than ever; and successfully navigating a modern day workplace requires a good set of soft skills.

While technical knowledge, experience, and expertise are essential to landing...

While technical knowledge, experience, and expertise are essential to landing the job, soft skills play an equally important role in successful career growth.

Manuela Patrascu, Engineering Manager, and Coralia Popa, Software Architect, from the Waters Corporation team, have used their soft skills to stay on top of work demands and advance in their engineering careers. Join us as Manuela and Coralia offer practical advice on how to develop and leverage soft skills to grow and thrive in your career.

In this chat, we will discuss:

How to identify and develop your soft skills
Ways to highlight your soft skills in an interview and include them in your resume
How to use soft skills to navigate complex work environments

Meet The Speakers

Coralia Popa

Software Architect, Waters Corporation

Coralia is a software architect, part of an international team of software architects and a recognized informal leader. With a vast experience in software development accumulated in more than 20 years of engineering various software products in Waters, going through various roles, from developer to technical lead, technical architect, solutions architect she continuously learned and experimented, fueled by passion for software and enthusiasm for sharing it with others.

She relates very well with the engineering teams, understanding their challenges and needs, and shares her enthusiasm and passion through peering and brainstorming, teaching concepts and principles and coaching them through discovering their ways in implementation while adapting to predefined architectural directions.

Beyond her corporate responsibilities, Cora is a devoted mother passionate about education and actively involved in various STEAM projects for youngsters.

Manuela Patrascu

Engineering Manager, Waters Corporation

Manuela is an Engineering Manager at Waters Corporation. With an experience of over 20 years of leadership and engineering, she held various roles supporting development of IT solutions in different industries.

Currently she is building up and leading several software development teams, supporting them in developing high quality products our customers love. With her passion for guiding engineers in their career development - both technical and soft skills, she contributes in shaping a company culture of excellence.

Additionally she is leading the Diversity & Inclusion and STEM activities for Romania and coordinating the entry level talent program with the local Universities.

In her spare time, Manuela loves spending time with her family, reading and traveling.