AIESEC didn't just give me an experience. It gave me the space to make mistakes, to figure things out, to learn, and to grow through situations I wasn't sure at the time I was ready for.
I joined AIESEC on a friend's recommendation, she was already a member of the organization at the time. I was in my third year of university, and honestly, I've regretted more than a few times not joining sooner. Not because I would have gotten "one more line on my CV," but because I quickly realized this was one of those places where you don't just learn what you do, you learn who you become while doing it.
What drew me in was the idea of stepping outside my comfort zone. Trying something new. Being around people with a different kind of energy, people who were open, supportive, ambitious, but not in that cold, competitive way. They were just cool. And I had this feeling that something was happening there. Something alive. Something you can't really explain until you become part of it.
My first interview and a million questions in my head
My first team was the incoming exchange team, ICX back then, later known as IGV. After just three months, I became Team Leader of that team, which sounded like a big deal at the time, but in my head it looked more like: "Okay, great, but who exactly decided I was ready to lead people?"
One of my first big challenges was interviewing a student who was supposed to come do an exchange in Serbia. It sounds simple to me now, since I've since run a serious number of interviews and selections, but back then my head was full of a million questions. Will I know how to run an interview? Will I be able to judge a person properly? Will I ask the right questions? And of course, the most important question we all have but rarely say out loud: what if I completely embarrass myself?
And I did make mistakes. Of course I did. But that was exactly the value of AIESEC. None of us were finished leaders, finished recruiters, or finished versions of ourselves. We were given the space to try, to take responsibility, to mess up, get feedback, and keep going. Confidence isn't something you get by waiting for the fear to disappear. You get it by doing things while your voice is still shaking a little.
The Global School of Entrepreneurship and a new level of responsibility
Later, once I became Team Leader, a new level of responsibility came with it. I was no longer responsible just for my own work, but for other people's growth, their motivation, and their experience.
One project that stuck with me in particular was the Global School of Entrepreneurship, which I led as a TL in IGV. I had four team members and six students who came to do their exchange from Japan, Greece, Portugal, Turkey, and Tunisia. My job wasn't just to introduce them to the project, it was to track their progress, be a support system, solve problems, and keep the energy up even when things weren't going perfectly.
That's when I truly understood, for the first time, that leadership isn't a title. Leadership is the moment when someone gains more clarity, more courage, or more belief in themselves because of you.
How I fell in love with HR
I also remember the school visits, where we had to present and "sell" the project. Before every one of those meetings, the same questions kept spinning in my head: what if I embarrass myself, what if I fail, what if they don't take me seriously? Today I know that those exact moments were training for everything I do now.
Through AIESEC, I developed communication skills, public speaking, team leadership, recruitment, giving and receiving feedback, facilitation, and working with all kinds of people. But maybe most importantly, that's where I fell in love with HR as a profession. Not HR as processes, admin, and procedures, but HR as a space where you work with people, see their potential, and sometimes give them a push exactly when they don't yet see what you see in them. And here I am, almost ten years later, still doing exactly that, successfully.
From the Raising team to global leadership
What's interesting to me is that in my final term I was on the Raising team, and I unfortunately left AIESEC because of work and specialist studies. I also remember giving up on applying for an EB position back then. Today, leading Employer Branding on a global level as the head lead for all our offices at a major corporation, that fact is particularly interesting to me.
The skills I developed back then, I still use today. Every time I talk to candidates, leaders, or colleagues from other countries, I go back to what I learned in AIESEC: how to listen, how to ask a question, how to recognize potential, how not to rush to conclusions, and how to help someone see something in themselves before they see it on their own.
What AIESEC really gave me
AIESEC gave me confidence. It gave me a network of people. It gave me my first real sense of leadership. It gave me situations I was afraid of, situations that later shaped who I am. And maybe most importantly, it gave me proof that you don't have to wait until you're completely ready to start. Because the truth is, you'll never be fully ready for every situation ahead of you, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't start.
Today, looking back, I don't just see an organization I was a member of. I see the space where I first seriously tested myself. I see the people who pushed me forward. I see the mistakes that taught me more than any perfect moment could have.
That's why, for me, AIESEC was never just a student organization. It was the first real space to make mistakes, learn, and grow. And if you're a student who feels like you need something more than lectures, exams, and waiting for the "right moment," maybe this is your sign. You don't have to be ready. You just have to start.
And it's absolutely true what they say: once AIESEC, always AIESEC, because today I'm a proud alumnus who's still involved in what's happening with AIESEC and its growth. Just this time, as an older, more experienced colleague, and something like an "external consultant."
