Aleksandra Averyanova on Her Management Studies and Work at Ecom.Tech
Aleksandra Averyanova graduated from the Bachelor's programme 'International Business and Management' in 2024 but already now, she is working as a coordinator of internal training at the IT company 'ecom.tech'. The graduate started working on her career back at the university—when she joined the Career Centre and then was hired at 'Setters Education'. We talked to Aleksandra about her studies and career path in the sphere of online education.
Admissions and studies
When I was in the 8-9th grades, I already had a wish to start my own business. At approximately the same time, I started to size up universities with strong educational programmes in management—HSE University suited me perfectly. Then, I actively started getting ready for the state exams, participating in the olympiads and became a prize winner of 'The Higher Trial' immediately in two tracks—'Financial Literacy' and 'Basics of Business'. This helped me to enrol in the Bachelor's programme 'International Business and Management' at HSE University-St Petersburg without entrance exams. I liked its content, so I decided to apply here.
HSE University-St Petersburg left only the most pleasant memories. I used all the opportunities which the university provided in terms of studies and extracurricular life. Moreover, I made lots of new acquaintances—with some people, we only crossed paths; with others, we communicated very closely; with others, we had joint projects... Knowing so many people is always nice!
During my studies, I really liked the course 'Introduction to the Profession'. It introduced me to the world of management, and in the second year, I already understood well, what and why we studied. Micro- and macro-economics also turned out to be very interesting, there, we had tasks in the form of a game. It is almost impossible to win in such a game; it goes quite unexpectedly but a victory would give us extra points.
Among minor courses, I chose 'Art of Teaching in the Digital Age': I have always been interested in education. It is a very good minor course, it broadened my horizons very well. The second half year was fully devoted to the best practices of teaching. The representatives of different schools and educational centres came to our classes, told us about the new methods and asked us to plan a lesson or a course. Then, for a half year, we studied the learning peculiarities which depend on the age, and at the end of the minor course, we designed our own online courses.
Start of the career
I have always had an interest in a career but it didn't take its expressive form from the start. In my first year, I tested different spheres and tried to figure out what I would like to do. I gradually integrated into the extracurricular life. The second year became the golden age: I organised lots of events as a member of SFS (students organisation 'Students for Students'—ed. note) and then joined the team of the Career Centre which was attractive because of its proximity to the labour market.
In the third year, I realised: it was time to address my career seriously. In December, in the SFS chat, I saw a vacancy for an assistant at 'Setters Education' and decided to apply. It is hard to say which experience played the biggest role but they accepted me. I started as an assistant in the course on marketing strategy. I attended all the classes, made notes, answered the students' questions in the chat and sent them the necessary materials. It was scary at first, I had to confirm lots of things with my supervisor and study. Gradually, I started to notice how strongly my self-regulation was growing: I checked with my colleagues only in extreme cases and did not bother them about little things. Then, I became a coordinator and was responsible for the whole organisational part of the course.
Career development and transition to 'ecom.tech'
What got me interested was the internal corporate training. There are more stability, continuous communication with people and ways to study. There is only one difficulty: the market of corporate training is not packed with vacancies. They usually look for suitable people inside the community or snatch away from their rivals.
As I couldn't find anything suitable, I applied for a trainee position at a consulting company. The position was related to HR; I could engage not only in recruitment but also in the development of an HR brand. I thought: 'Why not, it sounds great, I can learn a lot there'. As a result, it turned out that there was much more recruitment than anything else, and the tasks were too easy for me. I discussed it with my supervisor, and it started changing gradually. The only thing I still lacked in my workplace was structure. It is important for me to understand at least approximately what my work week will look like. Of course, urgent tasks may come up but I sometimes couldn't predict what I would do in two hours. It didn't really suit me, and I started slowly looking for vacancies.
On one Telegram channel, I saw a vacancy at 'ecom.tech'—this company provides IT solutions to 'Samokat' and 'Megamarket'. The company was looking for a coordinator of internal training, and I met all the criteria. Moreover, I knew a girl who worked there: she also studied at HSE University-St Petersburg, and later, we worked together at 'Setters Education'. She recommended me for this position, and I joined the team.
'Ecom. tech' offers different options for internal training. Sometimes, we invite outside experts; sometimes, the employees themselves share their knowledge with their colleagues. Sometimes, we teach the whole teams a certain skill because there is a demand for it. I coordinate the training of employees in the company, now, I am working on five different courses. For all of them, I create registration forms, work with bases, send organisational newsletters, create chats and video conferences, and this is only a small part of what I do.
Now, I am fully happy with my job: I get to know the world of corporate training, and look at what my colleagues do... Perhaps, now, I took a temporary time-out after the eventful spring and summer. In the future, I would like to work on the educational process in full: understand the course logic, see into its structure and communicate with experts more.
Advice to those who start building their career
'Sign up for the Higher School of Career Development. This is the project of the Career Centre which will introduce you to the labour market and large companies representatives. The project will show the first- and second-year students which professions the modern labour market offers. The senior students will structure their knowledge to enter the labour market prepared—with a resume and good motivation letters.
Don't be afraid to try. Even if you make a mistake in choosing your first job, it is not scary, it happens. You will never know until you try. But you shouldn't accept a job which doesn't suit you at all—you will waste your energy and time.