Lucrezia Pala, Alumna of the HR & Organization Master’s course 2016-2017
24 December 2020“You are exactly what I was looking for”. This statement, that she dedicated to BBS, encapsulates Lucrezia Pala’s experience at Bologna Business School: today she’s HR Consultant for the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). This experience still goes on, because Lucrezia is an active member of our Community.
There are two categories of people in the world: those who already know, when they’re young, what they’ll do when they grow up and they follow their route and those who don’t, therefore they try different ways, have multiple interests and just as many doubts.
I definitely belong to the latter category.
I arrived at BBS with a university degree in psychology and after working in the field, clinically and in hospitals, in Italy and abroad. With my background as a psychologist and my passion for languages and international cooperation, I couldn’t well decide on the next step to take. In that period of uncertainty, by chance and also driven by fate, I discovered BBS and the HR & Organization Master’s. I was impressed by the level of depth devoted to all human resources areas, by the international nature of the Master’s and the close connection with companies, not just for the analysis of real life case-studies, but also in terms of networking. Bologna Business School combines faculty, Alumni, colleagues from your course, participants in other courses, visiting professors, guest speakers and partner companies, thus creating a dynamic space, of personal and professional growth, of new inputs, for research purposes, for improvement and learning.
The relationships formed in 2016 with my colleagues are still a great resource, a source of mutual enrichment and help. Some, like me, went (or came back from) abroad, and having kept the contacts enables all of us to keep on having a perspective and an exchange of views with an international scope in our jobs, whether in the field of human resources, or company management, or in the automotive sector or, again, in any of the many areas of development the School provides.
As far as I’m concerned, I followed the strongest among my interests, the one that, years ago, wasn’t well outlined: international organizations and the not-for-profit sphere. As I now work on internship programs and partnerships with universities, I’ve fostered the relation between the specialized UN organization I’m part of and Bologna Business School, facilitating the intake of students for internships, in the international technical cooperation areas.
Now I find myself “on the other side”, that is, on the companies’ side, and I’m much more aware of how important it is to hire young talents, motivated candidates, with sound technical skills, willing to learn and having experiences to share. In our field, soft skills, like, for example, the ability to communicate in a way that is adjusted to the recipient, an innovative mindset, tolerance, the respect for diversity, flexibility, multitasking are important.
BBS was and is still an excellent training pathway because it strengthens all these abilities, besides the technical ones. It’s a school of life that constantly pushes you out of your comfort zone, to manage unexpected situations, towards the importance of teamwork, the sense of belonging and the ability to establish long-lasting relationships.
As an Alumna, I know I’m always part of the school and I’m happy to help other students define their professional journey. I like taking part in networking events and others when experiences are shared, like for instance the Innovation Talks, because I can share what I’ve learnt over the years and go on learning from all the interesting people you can meet at the school.
In March 2016, I published a photo on my social media, a snapshot of the villa and the garden after sunset, with a caption underneath: “You are exactly what I was looking for”.
I remember that moment dating back to four years ago as if it were yesterday, I remember the feeling I had and the meaning of that sentence in my life. Because even though I’ve changed a lot, that pleasurable home feeling will last forever.
