Once Continental, always Continental.

From the banks of the Faculty of Engineering of the "Lucian Blaga" University of Sibiu, directly in the major projects carried out by Continental Sibiu. Daniel Silea started his career in Continental Sibiu in 2006, when, being in his last year at the Faculty of Engineering, he applied for an engineering position within the company. From submitting his CV to signing the employment contract, there was only one more step. For 10 years, Daniel was part of the Continental Sibiu team occupying various positions, but at some point, he felt the need for a change, this time outside the company. However, this change did not last long, and after 4 years away from Continental, he decided to return.

Together with a college colleague, we decided to submit our CVs to Continental Sibiu, then shortly I was called for an interview for the position of Supplier Quality Engineer. Having the opportunity during the interview to see the technologies and products made in the company, I realized that Continental is the ideal place for a young engineer and signing the employment contract turned out to be a mere formality. I realized that this is where I can develop professionally. I started in Continental Sibiu as a Supplier Quality Engineer (SQM), and the activity developed and in a short time I became Team Leader SQM for the Continental Sibiu location. And, because I was saying from the beginning that here, I felt that I could develop professionally, after 9 years of leading SQM, I felt the need for a career change, so I applied for the position of Quality Category Manager for wiring, also with Continental’s worldwide suppliers. With this new position, I was able to apply everything I had learned over time in more interesting processes and vendor improvement programs. Also, a challenge proved to be the coordination of the international team with more than 50% of new people.

Time passed, the projects took their natural course, but the challenges were not lacking in my work. Of the most cherished projects, I remember the DQ200 - the project of the electronic dual-clutch transmission unit, in which I was involved from the beginning. Experts from all relevant fields were involved in this project and by working in interdisciplinary teams we were able to have a more robust product in the generations that followed in the DQ200. I could write a book with what challenges I faced and what were the lessons learned. Although the challenges at work were all the time, I think the biggest was coordinating the team as a leader. At first, there were small oppositions related to my level of experience as a leader, but after several open discussions, the projects began to take their natural course. At the same time, we stressed to the team their importance and the fact that we have a lot to learn together. After that time, we started to be more focused on activities, we started to go out occasionally and all this had a positive impact on productivity and success within my team.

Although I do not deny that over the 10 years, there have been even more difficult moments, I have not let them overshadow the satisfaction of my work and the pleasant memories that I have with the workplace. My most beautiful memory is from the time when I led the international team and organized a workshop for professional development at the suppliers in Europe. It was a successful workshop with activities that helped the professional development of the colleagues and, at the same time, improved the interaction in the team as well, despite the cultural differences.