Christina Balacciu - Certified Testing and Quality Professional

My name is Cristina Balacciu and I am a foreigner living and working in Finland since 3 years. It has been easy and simple for me to adapt and accommodate to the Finnish life style. I am a nature lover and I do appreciate the good common sense, the education and the kindness of the Finnish people.

I've been working for Nico since February 2010, involved in the Testing and Quality Management area. I like working for Nico because of the flexibility of work and because of good employee benefits. Besides, I always know to whom I can address my concerns or questions. In brief, I think that Nico cares about its people.

I mainly work in Nico customer projects. In my working environment I have a great opportunity to meet many people and get to know different cultures, behaviors and personalities. This has helped me to improve my communication and brings added value to my professional capabilities.

Before coming to Finland, I was mainly involved in Service and Project Management. I am a PMP and ITIL certified professional and I also recently got the ISEB/ISTQB Software Testing Certificate.

I always pay attention to the quality of the services that I provide to the customer and always consider the customer satisfaction the most important target in everything I do. I am both a process and a people oriented person. I love working in a structured and methodical environment, without losing the "taste" for innovation and creativity.

Outside the working life my main hobby is travelling. I like to see new places, local architectures, to meet new people and to know other civilizations and ways of life.

I like literature as well. I spend a lot of time reading, either classical, fantasy or science fiction. I also like to go out and socialize. For a non Finnish speaker like me, this is sometimes hard but I am so lucky to live in a country were almost everybody speaks English. And I am eagerly trying to learn Finnish, but it seems to be a long-term process.