Reply to “Romania in one post” blog post
Posted on September 11, 2007
I didn’t have any time today for blogging, but I’ve read the Romania in one post - The thoughts of an IT professional and it really troubled me and made me unhappy. I couldn’t find who is the guy writing this blog, no about page - it’s like he is hiding from Google but reading in between posts I found out he left Romania 15 years ago.
I’ve read somewhere that Romanians are the nation that hurts itself most from all the other nations in the world by the bad publicity made by it’s own people. It seems this is the case here as well.
NOTE: if you are reading further this post, I don’t have anything personal against the named blog and owner.
Ok, so the reason it got me so discontent and ready to put work aside to answer his story is that while what he is saying might be true, I couldn’t find a single good word about Romania. And I need to make things right by commenting on some of his ideas and bring some more new ones. So from the long list of complains about Romania I will start with one that I can easily fight back:
He says: they “choose a manager for 3 reasons: 1) for spreading wealth into your immediate or extended family (managers are usually paid pretty good salaries), 2) for getting control (an inept manager who happens to be your son in law will be loyal to you) and 3) for spreading wealth into your clan (a friend who gets rewarded with a management position will pay you back in some form or another).“
Now, it might be true what he says about managers for anything else than IT, but I’ve spent my last 6 years in IT companies, got the chance to be in a Management position, and also did hire people. I never ever worked with what he calls: “managers are chosen for family and clan reasons” and not based on efficiency reasons. Now, people, let’s make it clear: one of the main benefits of working with IT professionals from Romania is that they have a fundamental urge to prove that they are better than anybody else in the world at what are they doing..
This desire to prove themselves it’s what’s pushing efficiency levels us and the outcome is a great result in most cases.
Talking about driving around town and cars, he says that the average speed is around 10 km/h and gives a nice phrase: “below the speed of a horse-drawn carriage 100 years ago” (which is by the way an idea taken from here ). Well, in the same article it says (Police official) average speed is in fact 15km/h. Average speed in Paris: 10 to 20KM/h. So…
I have to agree with the blog on the Social layers and Real Estate, although if it’s so impossible buying an apartment how come most of friends and colleagues have one? Of course, some of them will have to pay it in 30 years, that’s true.
OK, I don’t want this to sound like a personal attack on this particular blogger (actually he says he wrote these thoughts based on discussions with people during his Holiday here), so let’s get to my side of things.
The Romanian IT is mostly appreciated (IMHO) for providing IP (intellectual property) at decent price levels. It’s not so cheap anymore, but it’s good value versus money. And it’s not pure outsourcing like for the Asian countries because most of the Managers here realized that there are more money in IP than in outsourcing. (I’m not saying you are not able to get that cheap outsourcing here, but the successful Romanian IT companies are far away from that.)
We do have a lot of cars. But here Renault makes the LOGAN, the cheap car for the masses. I’m proud that a car made at 120 Km from my town is sold all over the world, even if its cheap. Cheap is not necessarily a bad thing if it targets a need in the market. By the way, Ford seems to be coming to Romania as well.
Houses are really expensive. Yes. But there are still so many “virgin” places where you can build your dream house, far from urban areas.
And because we have cars 
Romania is a wonderful place to visit! Not sure if this is the best site, but look at the Romania Guidebook
I have a lot more nice things to say about Romania, but if you are reading this (dear blogger), could you also add some nice words about Romania in “Romania in one post”? That would be a great service to your country and if you would do it, Romania could just be a little better.
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