[1] Before the Romanian Revolution, Stolojan worked at the Committee for State Planning, together with Nicolae Văcăroiu, who subsequently became President of the Senate between 20 December 2000 and 14 October 2008.

[2] During the rule of Nicolae Ceaușescu, he worked at the Ministry of Finances between 1972 and 1977 as an economist in the State Budget Department, then between 1978 and 1982 as Chief of Accountancy of State Budget and then as deputy director of the Department for Foreign Exchange and International Financial Relations[3] until the Romanian Revolution.

He was the Prime minister of Romania from September 1991 to November 1992, then worked for the World Bank and for a Romanian private company.

[5][6] In 2000, he re-entered politics as a member of the National Liberal Party (PNL); he ran for the presidency of Romania in the November 2000 elections, but came in third, behind Ion Iliescu and Corneliu Vadim Tudor.

The PDL won the most seats in the 2008 election, and on 10 December 2008, Stolojan was designated prime minister of Romania by President Traian Băsescu.