Ionelia Starparu

I always remember my first sales conference. It`s the one that marked my journey in ING.

Tell us something about you

My name is Ionelia and I work as Operations Lead for ING Shopping Platform. The initiative is the beginning of a new era inside ING and our plan is to be a role model in setting the grounds for smart shopping withing the shopping category. I took the challenge this year after more than 10 years of working in ING Romania and Germany.

Each challenge is an opportunity and I believe that everything can be achieved when you listen, gather around you the right people with good attitude and positive thinking.

I`m a puzzle maker and take my energy from having things done. My biggest success is that I learn to fail. You cannot progres if you didn`t fail at least once.

In my free time I like reading, drawing and playing with logical/puzzle games.

Why Management Trainee programme?

I joined ING in 2008 as Management Trainee. I was 22 at that moment and ING seemed to me like one of the most innovative banks and a cool place to work in. Management Trainees requirements where a fit with my experience so I said `Why not? `

Tell us your favorite story from your Management trainee programme journey?

I always remember my first sales conference. It`s the one that marked my journey in ING. My first month in ING I attended the sales conference for the Franchises network. During that conference, we had to announce the Office Managers that the marketing budget for acquisition was cut and as you can imagine, this was not received well. I remember one of the managers asking my colleagues `Why a client should come to ING if we do not have incentives anymore? ` We did not have an answer. After a while he turned back and asked me why I joined ING. It was one of the very few moments when I did not have an answer that could help them.