Most children dream of traditional jobs when they grow up: doctor, engineer, airplane pilot, and very few consider the more modern and lesser known professions, such as life designer, playground host or even creative fitness trainer. Sandra Ghitescu's resume includes these last three left field jobs, and she's now working on her development as creative fitness trainer.

By Corina Dumitrescu

Back in communist Romania, people were employed for life. Nowadays, capitalism brings a more diversified career path that the older generations or traditionalists may not understand. Some say that it is not ok to change jobs too often, while others beg to differ, adding as many entries on their CVs as possible. Sandra is definitely one of latter group.

In her early thirties, sporting a rebellious haircut and a colorful tattoo on her wrist, she comes across as a mature and fulfilled professional, a nonconformist, who is constantly on the move, pursuing whatever path to which her feet take her. Having met her in a crowded café, she begins to tell her story in a confident and clear voice. Sandra started her studies in psychology and sociology, because she had always taken an interest in the human condition, but since she did not feel inclined towards that specific faculty, she decided to specialize in public relations at another college, as well as get employed while studying.

“My parents used to tell me that I tend not to finalize things, that I get easily excited about something in the beginning, and eventually lose my initial momentum. At first, I believed this to be a flaw, but then began to realize, after all the books that I read and all the courses that I attended, that this is just a different way of being, which can be turned into a quality, that I could adapt to projects and contexts and that I don’t really need to change myself,” she says. Constantly pursuing new work experiences can, she believes, be turned into an advantage. Sandra created a work pattern for herself, which gets her involved in a certain activity that she helps grow and after it reaches its desired level, she can move on to the next challenge.

Creativity boost in four steps

The creative fitness activities developed by Sandra and her colleagues include a complete training cycle that lasts for four weeks of individual and group exercises, as well as evaluation forms. There are also special meetings when various inspirational speakers bring their input in order to inspire the attendees. However, the core of the courses lies in the concept that a creative process is made of four steps: analyzing the problem, generating ideas, choosing an idea and developing it and, in the final stage, implementing it. This central idea is then wrapped in certain themed exercises, aimed to engage attendees as much as possible, maximizing their creativity levels.

The people that Sandra teaches come from the most varied of backgrounds – some are still students, others work in IT, PR, marketing, NGOs, corporations, transport and anything in between, with ages between 20 and 50. Through these courses, people seek personal development above professional improvement, as, if they manage to become more spontaneous and imaginative in their day-to-day life, they will surely manage to apply the same principles in the work environment.

Life seems to have always taken Sandra in the right direction, even though she sometimes seems to have gone against the flow. Completely by accident and unaware of the fact that she would later work in training, she started her job with a training company, doing office work at first, and later moving on to marketing. At the time, she refused to become a specialized trainer, because she felt too young and unprepared. After a detour in marketing and PR, she returned to the training company, became a trainer and started holding various programs in communication, team building and even creativity development.

When she saw a presentation held by creative thinking consultant Edward de Bono, who said that creativity is a muscle like any other, needing to be trained in order to develop, and not some sort of talent that only few have access to, Sandra felt that she could help others overcome their own misgivings and develop their imaginative spirit. This had been her path too. She considers herself creative but confesses that this was mostly gained through 'exercise.'

The turning point

After finding an opportunity as an editor, writing content for a youth “lifehack” and lifestyle website, the financial crisis emerged and she found herself at a turning point in her life, finally deciding that it was time for her to start working on her own, despite it being a very difficult time in Romania. Since she had become quite well known in the market and had a strong personal brand, it was not hard for her to become a freelance life designer and creativity booster, as well as continue with her PR and marketing consultancy projects, mostly as a community connector. Yet the most difficult part emerged when she had to tackle all the administrative work of being self-employed on her own.

And, as she was feeling more and more overwhelmed, new opportunities came along. She found another job as innovative as herself, as a playground host, developing fun-shops and idea-generating tools. Now she is also working as a trainer at Creative Fitness Studio, an initiative started by Friends for Friends Foundation, that aims to turn Romania into an international creative hub by 2030. This is where she aims to stay and help develop the project, with an aim to create customized programs for companies as well, starting this fall.

After all the challenges that she was faced with through her professional development, that eventually brought her towards her current calling, Sandra embraces her desire of constantly taking on new experiences and turns it to her advantage, looking forward to whatever the future brings.

Corina Dumitrescu, corina.dumitrescu@romania-insider.com 

(photo source: Sandra Ghitescu's personal archive)