Oksana Abakhina, Product Owner
I have dedicated 20 years of my life to events.Back in the early 2000s, I worked in a hotel —
Around this time, a major client invitedme to work in a subsidiary company organizing and holding events. I decided to move on and literally a year later I took the position of technical director. For seven years in this position, I have learned to hold events anywhere in the world and in any composition. I had to solve a variety of tasks, from the creative design of exhibition stands to the delivery of journalists.
By 2019, I learned to organize verycomplex projects with guest stars, professional directing, in the largest world capitals. And once again I realized that this industry had exhausted itself for me. These thoughts "successfully" coincided with the arrival of the pandemic, which in a matter of months collapsed the entire event industry.
Contrary to popular belief, managing a programming team is not about writing code.
An external factor helped me to accept a radicalthe solution is to go into the IT sector. In QIWI, I found myself in the role of Product Owner. Of course, my friends helped me, who convinced me that the vast experience of project work can be transferred to the tasks of software development.
Contrary to popular belief, team managementprogrammers is not concerned with writing code. Now I am engaged in compiling a roadmap and product backlog, setting and prioritizing tasks for developers, creating acceptance criteria, establishing phased product development processes.
Of course, at first everything was difficult and incomprehensible.All night long I studied a new topic for myself, CPO became my mentor. In addition, intra-corporate events helped a lot. So, for example, my colleagues and I devoted a whole week to synchronization, an educational sprint dedicated to working with the product, where I met everyone who is involved in this area.
The main conclusion from the results of my transformationlies in the fact that there are a lot of tasks in IT, for which you do not need to know a dozen programming languages, but, first of all, show soft skills. And the rest you can learn already "on the run."
Rostislav Arefiev, junior analyst
I worked for Skillaz for two and a half yearsas a technical support specialist. Many people know that customer support can be extremely energy intensive. Despite the well-established processes and positive feedback from users, at some point I began to feel signs of professional burnout.
I wanted to develop, but to get a newpositions in a different profile had to seriously pump up solid skills: knowledge of API, database tools, and analytics. In Skillaz they met my desire. I listened to many lectures, went through more than one internal training course, and borrowed some of the experience from colleagues. I read a lot of professional literature.
I immediately decided that the best option was to continue working at Skillaz.First of all, I didn't want to lose my experience and professional competencies by completely transferring my activities to another soil.Secondly, here I received support and professional growth, as well as claimed a more profitable offer than if I had come somewhere "off the street".
In the end, it did.Now I work as a junior analyst in a project office that implements Skillaz products on the client side. The current income justified all the efforts spent on changing the specialty. And I no longer experience burnout.
Oleg Vlasov, product analyst
I started my career in a companysupplier of dental equipment. The firm was small, 5-6 people, so literally everyone had to work there. He worked as an IT specialist, and a salesman, and a storekeeper.
A few years later I realized that it was time for somethingto change, and began to look for another job, more promising. Then a friend suggested that QIWI had a vacancy in customer service. I thought this was a good opportunity to try myself.
The interview went easily.And as soon as it turned out, successfully, they took me. During the year I performed more and more difficult tasks, career ambitions appeared. In order to continue my professional growth, I transferred from client support to technical support for legal entities that connected to QIWI processing. We call it the department of technical connection and support of partners.
At some point, I began to have enough knowledge that I was entrusted with a separate product, where I became the only analyst
Almost five years passed in the company, and then I began to understand that I was only one step up in my current career track, and I wanted to continue developing.Therefore, based on my knowledge of the product, I decided to try my hand at product analytics.The manager did not stop me, but, on the contrary, supported me in my choice.
There was a vacancy in the company, but for a few more months I lived "for two families".At that time, I was already studying at a new place, at the same time handing over things to colleagues at the old one.
Head of Product Analysts Departmentcompiled a comprehensive self-education program. She also assigned me a mentor during the transition period, with whom we met 1-2 times a week to help me better immerse myself in the curriculum and adjust my self-learning process if necessary.
Initially, I ended up in a small team thatdealt with one product. There were three of us analysts: two juniors (one of whom was me) and one senior, who trained and supervised us in practice. At some point, I began to have enough knowledge that I was entrusted with a separate product, where I became the only analyst.
Despite the fundamental difference in the previous andcurrent responsibilities, the experience of working in support was very useful in the new place. To the point where I can already advise someone from my department on a number of issues. Let me start with the fact that although the functionality of the positions is very different, there are no significant differences in terms of work organization. It’s interesting that I also knew the users of my current product to some extent, because I communicated directly with them in customer service.
Antonina Fedorova, iOS developer
I joined QIWI as an intern product analyst. At that time, I was still finishing my studies at the university, and my diploma specialty was just related to similar tasks.
At the same time, I took a semester course at the universityiOS development. I did a project or two and decided to show my code to a fellow programmer from a neighboring department in the company. He praised the code and unexpectedly offered to join his team in the newly vacated seat.
It was very scary.Still, I already had a job on the main profile. However, in my department, the idea of transition was fully understood. They even promised me that they would gladly take me back if something went wrong and I would not be delayed in development.
For the first two weeks I did not participate inthe main development sprints - just sitting and trying to figure out the project and how everything works in it. A month was spent on inclusion in the production process and closing tasks in the same place. After that, I fully joined the department as a junior developer.
It helped a lot that the company favorablylooks at the horizontal transitions of employees from one position to a completely different one. I'm glad I took the risk. The main conclusion that I can draw is that a person with a technical background is quite enough 6-8 months to learn and come to the position of a junior developer in a new profession.
Alexander Panev, data analyst
I am a biologist by education - I graduated from a specialized university.However, like many in our country, I do not work in my specialty. For the past few years, I have been testing software products at Skillaz. At first, everything was new, I was constantly developing, studying new techniques and technologies. But, as often happens, there was less and less new, and the routine, on the contrary, was added.
At some point, I thought about changing my profession,however, he wanted to change positions without leaving the company. The team is very important to me. If I accepted an offer in a new place, I would have to overcome the attachment to my colleagues, the atmosphere, the usual work processes. In addition, it is always a risk not to take root, to face unexpected pitfalls.
I always wanted to do something at the intersection of biology and IT. These disciplines are united by the profession of bioinformatics specialist
Fortunately, Skillaz is always understanding andsupport related to internal migration. Any employee sooner or later hits a career ceiling, and he has to look for new ways of development. And here they help him.
To work as a data analyst, I had to seriouslyto study the appropriate toolkit, SQL databases and many other things. I got in-depth knowledge of SQL in just a few months. After that, he took several more specialized training courses. As a result, the transition took place and went quite smoothly.
I've always wanted to do something at the intersectionbiology and IT. These disciplines are united by the profession of bioinformatics specialist. This is what I would like to do in the future. And being a data analyst is a great step in that direction.
How to change jobs while staying in a familiar team
These five motivating examples clearlyshow that it is possible to change your life. Even when it seems that you are hitting the ceiling, there is always the opportunity to step aside and discover new horizons.
The heroes of the article are united by several qualities and situations that are worth considering for those who are looking for changes.
First, they all work for companiesencouraging the internal development of human capital. This is a very important quality of an employer that you should pay attention to before you find yourself inside the corporate circuit.
Secondly, each of the heroes took a risk, made"leap of faith" into the unknown, but interesting. And the atmosphere of openness and mutual assistance in the team helped in this. If the heroes had not been sure that they would be supported, these stories might not have happened.
Thirdly, the heroes found the strength in themselves todevote months to study, and at the same time with work. All modern professions are constantly evolving, knowledge quickly becomes obsolete, and in order to succeed, you need to constantly learn.
And, fourthly, the careers of our heroes are builtaround the "applied experience plus IT" bundle. This is the trend of our time, which is still gaining momentum. The examples above prove that when choosing where to hide from the next crisis or professional burnout, you should look in the direction of informatization.
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