This week, we chat to Nejra Suljovic, Head of Restructuring at UniCredit Bank Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Nejra loves change, learning new things and to be challenged professionally. She is a lover of nature and even has her own beehives which she takes care of in her spare time.

2:00 min
Work life
Private life

Who are you, what did you want to be as a child and what do you do now at UniCredit?

It is always difficult to answer questions like “who are you?” because we all have many roles in our lives. My most important roles are as a sister, girlfriend, niece, granddaughter, friend, etc. In short – I am 29 years old, living in Sarajevo and I work at UniCredit as Head of Restructuring. As a child I wanted to be a journalist and I worked as a journalist for 5 years before joining UniCredit. It took me 5 long years to realise that my childhood dreams were not really what I wanted for myself.

 

 

What do you enjoy most about your job and what is the proudest moment or greatest achievement of your career?

I enjoy changes the most and constantly learning new things. I believe that change is the only real constant in life and I really enjoy how we all develop, improve and grow every day. The proudest moment of my career is almost the entire past year, which brought about a lot of challenges for all of us, both privately and professionally. We adapted to situations, changed habits, processes and ways of working almost every day and we managed to come out of it all as winners.

 

 

And what is the hardest part?

The hardest part is also the one I'm most proud of. And that is, as I just said, almost the entire past year. The time of lockdown, bad news every day, illness, caring for loved ones and constant fear was challenging for each of us. I really must say that I am very proud of everything we went through together. Especially the fact that in unknown and difficult circumstances, we were equally dedicated to our work and provided constant support to all our clients.

 

 

What advice would you give your younger self or somebody considering this role as a career?

The advice I would give to everyone, regardless of their current position, is to believe in yourselves, work on yourselves and follow your dreams. Don’t be afraid of new challenges and never let fear stop you from doing something.

How do you balance your professional and personal life?

I must admit that when it comes to balance, I’m not exactly the best example and I’m working on that currently. I had the opportunity to listen to a lot of lecturers and trainers who talked about balance and the importance of balance in our lives. However, they all had more or less the same view of balance and I don’t think it’s the right one, so I mostly don’t do what they advise. What I do is mostly try to have different activities in my free time and to listen to myself - to do what I want that day. Whether it’s reading a book, watching TV, going out with friends, walking, or exercising it doesn’t matter, as long as I enjoy it and fill my day.

 

 

What do you like to do to relax after a hard day at the office?

Long walks or going to my cottage after work is my best vacation. During the lockdown, I spent more time at the cottage. There, I realised that life is more beautiful outside the city.

 

 

What would your perfect day look like when you are not working?

When I am not working and am at home in Bosnia and Herzegovina, then the perfect day is in nature, taking care of beehives that my boyfriend and I bought several years ago. We are nature lovers and buying beehives was our way to contribute to nature. When I am not in Bosnia and Herzegovina, then the perfect day is waking up with a view of the sea and all-day activities on the beach with my loved ones.

 

 

What was the last book or the last movie you loved? And why?

The last book I loved was Personality Psychology: Domains of Knowledge About Human Nature by Larsen R. & Buss D.M. I love psychology very much and I use every opportunity to learn more about it. I am also lucky that my brother is a psychology student, so our house is always full of books. He recommends books to me after he passes his exams. Afterwards, we often comment on what we have learned together. As for movies, I’m one of those people who falls asleep in the first 20 minutes. I haven’t watched a lot of movies lately, because I couldn’t wait for the lockdown to end and to be able to get out of the house, so I almost don’t even watch TV.