After doing her undergraduate degree in a specialized area of Mechanical Engineering in Iasi, Romania, near where she grew up, Irina received a scholarship to study in Spain.

Her plans to continue on to her Masters degree were slightly modified, as with most things in life, by love. Irina met her Argentinean husband in Spain. He had decided to do his PhD in Porsgrunn, Norway, where she joined him to do her Masters degree in Process Technology.

Being in Norway, it was inevitable hearing about Hydro and the Trainee Program.

“Hydro is one of the biggest companies here, so I applied to both the aluminium part of Hydro and the oil and energy part [now in StatoilHydro] and was offered both jobs! After the interviews, I had such a good feeling about the aluminium job I just decided to go with Hydro.”

Exciting work

Irina is excited about the work she is doing.

“It’s great I get to work on so many different projects and processes and get to learn about new things each time.”

It’s also easy to get a sense that Irina likes being in Norway.

“When I go to Romania, it’s nice to visit family. But then after about a week, I start saying to myself, I can’t wait to get back to Norway, the quiet life, my friends, people who are so sincere, not having to worry about corruption. I feel really lucky to live in a country that’s almost perfect.”

Job satisfaction

Knowing that the work she is doing in process modeling will help make Hydro’s aluminium production more sustainable brings a lot of satisfaction.

“This is the ideal situation; there is no other place I would prefer to be right now. That’s how I think about it: I’m doing what I like to do; I have people around me who are really qualified. They are so friendly and helpful all the time. You learn so much from them. How often do you get that chance?” Not very often.

Lucky girl. Lucky Hydro.