There are over 400 Oracle ACEs globally, all with a wide range of stories to tell and technical knowledge to share. We want to introduce you to some of these incredible ACEs and their stories, so we will be highlighting an Oracle ACE member every month or even more often in our Oracle ACE Spotlight series.


MirelaToday we would like to present you Mirela Ardelean, who is an Oracle ACE Pro, co-founder of the Romanian Oracle User Group and a board member of the EOUC, a membership organization comprising a significant number of EMEA Oracle User Groups. She is instrumental in organizing EMEA Oracle Community tours.

You can find her on: Twitter | Linkedin

1.    Hi Mirela, thank you for accepting our interview invitation for the ACE Spotlight section! Let’s start with the beginning: please tell us a little bit about yourself.

Hello, I am Mirela, I’m from Romania, born in the middle of the country. I started working with Oracle technology around the year 2000 as a database developer. After years of professional grow, while I was leading a team of developers, I switched to Business Analyst. Then in 2019 I returned to my first love – writing code – and now I am mainly focused on developing APEX applications.

In 2008 I discovered APEX and I’ve been using it ever since. I used to write code from time to time even when my main role was a Business Analyst, and because some of our products were developed in APEX, I constantly had a connection with APEX.

2.    What was your journey to becoming an ACE?

In my case, it just happened as a natural next step in my evolution. I started being active in the community and getting involved because I liked it, not with the purpose of becoming an ACE. I wanted to help the community, to build the Romanian Oracle User Group, to organize events and to attend events in other countries.

I found out about what is an Oracle User Group in 2010 and I founded the Romanian Oracle User Group in 2012. I started presenting at local events, I did APEX workshops for students as part of collaboration with Oracle Academy. At one moment, when I was spending a lot of time with ACEs, it became obvious that this should be the next step for me – I should join the ACE Program. Heli Helskyaho – better known as Heli from Finland is the one who nominated me and I would like to thank her for that.

3.    What do you remember from the first time you attended events as a speaker. How was it like?

I shall refer to my first speaker experience at an international event – I was very nervous. I’m still nervous all the time, I think all speakers have strong emotions before their sessions, regardless of their level of experience. My first talk at an international conference for a User Group event was at an UKOUG event in 2019, in Brighton. I was a co-presenter on an APEX-related presentation with Alex Nuijten. Alex helped me build the talk; we did a rehearsal – this helped me build the confidence I needed. The room where our presentation was scheduled was not a real conference room, but an apartment turned into a space suitable for a small audience. I was happy that the room was small and that at the same time Connor McDonald, Oracle Developer Advocate for SQL had another presentation.

I though everyone will go to listen to Connor and that my room will be empty. That wasn’t the case – there were people joining my session and half of them were people I already knew, and everyone was supportive. I also got some questions from the audience that I managed to answer, so all went well.

After the session ended, Alex asked me: “Do you know the history of this room?” I said: “No”. Alex continued: “Search for it and read it”. I did, and I was glad Alex did not mention the story before my talk! I invite readers to search by themselves what happened there (hint: the conference took place at Grand Hotel Brighton).

4.    What would you recommend to others who want to start presenting or blogging? How should they start?

Oh, I can create a list of recommendations 🙂
Everyone who is thinking to start presenting or blogging should ask themselves if they are willing to give their time to the community. Writing a useful and good blog post or creating a presentation takes a lot of time. Going to conferences and presenting takes a lot of time and a lot of money. If your desire to share knowledge with others within is strong and makes time consuming an insignificant factor – then go for it!

How to start writing blogs
One thing to remember is that one does not have to be a writer; one has to be able to explain things in order to write a helpful blog post. Build simple examples, go through the process step by step, with short and clear explanations. Don’t copy long text from documentation; write the essence in your own words and put a link to the documentation. Have a look at Tim Hall’s blog (https://oracle-base.com/) and see how Tim builds his posts. Get your inspiration from there. And if English is not your native language, use a grammar and spelling checker.

How to start presenting
Presenting might be easier than writing blog posts, because all one has to do is to ask for help. 🙂 I want to use this opportunity to talk a bit about the program I started together with other ACEs. The program’s name is “Mentor and Speakers Hub“ – shortly MASH Program. Its only purpose is to help new want-to-be-a-speakers to successfully present during public events. Some very good speakers, ACEs and other experts from testing community are listed as mentors in the MASH Program. The program has been running for almost 1 and a half year now and have 3-4 mentees in the learning process on an ongoing basis.

I believe the program is a success: I have seen new speakers on the stage and of them becoming ACEs. One recent example: someone who enrolled into the program this Spring has abstracts accepted by several conferences, including Oracle CloudWorld. He will be very busy this autumn.

5.    What would you say is the biggest (career) achievement you had so far?
 
I really enjoy helping people – in the community and at my job. At work we have a team of six core-APEX experts with the role to drive the application development in APEX in the company and to help others solve any issues. I have been a part of these team for the past three years. Being in this core team and couching my colleagues is a big achievement for me, my APEX knowledge is recognized within the company, and this means a lot to me. This APEX-experts team is the place I want to be now, at this stage of my career.

If the question is how I manage to succeed being part of the APEX-experts team, my answer is: thanks to the fact I was in contact with so many ACEs throughout the years, I was able to learn from them – from their blogs, from their presentations, from their social media posts, from every single informal networking opportunity, including the ACE dinners. One learns new things only by spending time surrounded by so many super-smart persons.

6.    How do you think being part of the Oracle ACE Program has helped you?

I learned a lot since I’ve been part of the ACE Program; it helped me develop not only my knowledge, but also my communication skills. I’m a very shy person, and I find it difficult to speak in public or to have small talks with people I don’t know. Being part of the community made me step out of my comfort zone. Presenting means helping others and ACE Program has helped me to help others and also to develop myself. And I’m still growing professionally every day.

7.    What is something you really like about the Oracle ACE Program and the reason you would recommend someone to join this community?

I really like the networking part of the program. The people I’ve met over the years are so nice, helpful, and supportive – you can get a good friend, a good advice, you can get support when you need it (personally or professionally). It’s an international community; meeting people from other cultures helps you develop yourself, makes you to become open to cultural differences. If someone is keen to learn from different area, to meet different people, to visit different countries, to network then ACE Program is the place to be.

If someone wants to become an ACE but doesn’t want to volunteer or help others – then better give up the plan to become an ACE. Being an ACEs means helping others on your own time.

8.    What do you do for fun? / What are your hobbies?
I like to travel and to see new places. I like walking – I enjoy long walks (over 20 kilometers) – and hiking. I also like dancing, reading, going to concerts. I have “an eye for photography”, but I did not develop much this part. I am always taking waaaaay too many photos. 🙂 As you can see, I have a large area of hobbies.  

Thank you, Mirela, we’ve really enjoyed the conversation! And we hope you also enjoyed reading it! 

 

Take a look at the other interviews from the Oracle ACE Spotlight series: