15x4 Munich Interview
with Viktorija Dimova
On 24.03.20, we had an online chat with Viktorija Dimova. Currently, she manages the “15x4 Munich Alumni group”, but she has undertaken different roles in the organization. Here, she shares a bit of her experience with us and offers a glance into the structure of 15x4 Munich:
You come from Macedonia, right? How was it for you to move to Germany/Munich?
I’ve been in Germany for almost three years. First, I lived in Dresden for three months while I was doing an internship. I worked in the same team as three other Macedonians, so somehow I had a very gradual transition into the German culture. I guess that’s why I have never had any big cultural shock.
After Dresden, I moved to Munich to do a Master’s degree. The biggest difference that I noticed was in the way that people behave. People in Dresden are very quiet. If you talk loudly, you’ll get strange looks. Here everyone is loud. So in Munich, I feel comfortable chatting with people without being stared at.
And how was it to make friends here?
I don’t agree with the stereotype that Germans are not friendly. I have German friends who I mainly met while I was working in a company as a student. I also became friends with my classmates from my Master’s program. We were only 23 students. In such a small group, it’s easy to connect and make friends. Also, I have relatives here in Munich. That made my life very easy at the beginning. I’m actually in a very multicultural environment. There are people from the whole world here and I don’t have problems finding friends. In addition, events like the ones from 15x4 helped me to meet new people and make new connections.
The 15x4 Munich events have indeed a very nice atmosphere. When did you get involved in 15x4 Munich?
I became involved one and a half years ago. I went to a 15x4 event in the first few weeks after moving to Munich and I liked the event a lot. But then I had lectures that overlapped with the events, so I couldn’t attend another one for a while. Then, in summer, 15x4 organized a hike and I joined. That was when I met my boyfriend, who was a very active volunteer at that time. Because of him, I got very involved in 15x4. Initially, I joined the social media team because it lacked volunteers. And I liked it a lot. It especially helped me to develop my writing. Then, the team coordinator left, so I took over.
How was the experience of being the coordinator of the Social Media team?
It was a very interesting experience for me. It was also challenging because I had to find a way and the right time to approach the people, post on Facebook, and send the newsletters. But I was the coordinator for a very short time because I knew that soon I would start working on my Master’s thesis and that would keep me very busy. I also started taking driving lessons, which took a lot of my free time… So I had to hand over the position to someone who would have more time to dedicate to the events of the next season.
You said that being part of the Social Media team helped you to improve your writing. How so? You were in charge of the newsletter, weren’t you?
Yes. I was in charge of the newsletter and I wrote Facebook posts that were mainly related to the talks. I’m very curious and when I find something interesting I want to learn more and more. So I would jump from one article to the next although I only had to write two or three sentences about each topic. In the beginning, I used to spend something like 2 hours to write one single post! With time and practice, it got faster. I definitely learned many things from this experience.
Did the experience in the social media team influence your personal social media presence?
Not really. I’m mostly active on Facebook and I use it to keep in touch with my friends and to see the events in their lives and, of course, to find events in Munich. Still, this experience in the Social Media team made me value more the work of the people behind social media accounts. Now I know how it feels to prepare the content and how much time and thinking goes into it.
You also organized 15x4 Munich events, right? You were the coordinator of the 15x4 Munich participation in the Münchner Science & Fiction Festival in the Deutsches Museum last year. And how was it? Have you organized events before?
I had not organized events in Munich before. I had organized events in Macedonia during my undergraduate studies, but they were very different. They were competitions for students. We would have a workshop for five days and then a competition at the end. So, I had some experience in organizing events, but the Science & Fiction Festival was different. Basically, I had to adapt myself to the idea of a festival where you go to have fun and learn something. This is also the goal of 15x4: to share knowledge. I think that we managed to bring fun and knowledge together nicely. I am very happy that I was part of the organization!
Would you organize events again?
Yes, I would definitely do it again. Unfortunately, I’m currently very busy. I don’t have much free time. That’s why I am not involved more deeply in the 15x4 Munich activities. Once I have more free time again, I would like to take a more active part again. For now, I’m just managing the “Alumni group” (in which former and current members stay in touch) and creating social events. We have events every week, like quizzes and (before the quarantine) hikes.
You also gave a talk in a 15x4 Munich event. How was your experience as a speaker?
Yes, I gave one talk last year. It was very nice. The most important thing is that you should feel comfortable in front of people. And if you do it, it’ll be great! I gave a talk at the birthday event, which happened in the Deutsches Museum. It was so special! The room was beautiful and the occasion was very official. So many people attended! The best thing was to see their reaction to my talk. When you see that the public likes what you’re presenting and that they smile at you, you get lots of positive emotions.
One nice thing about 15x4 is how much time the “Speakers Preparation team” puts into each event. How did you find that? How was your experience with their feedback?
Yes, they put in a lot of time indeed! I also put in a lot of hours on my talk. Apart from the talk itself, I spent time in the demo that I did together with my friend Tanya. The feedback sessions with the Speakers Preparation team were also very important for the end result. I think it is very demanding to be a speaker because of all the time you need to invest, but it is all worth it. If you dedicate yourself, you’ll like your talk.
Was there any advice or tips from these feedback sessions that you always keep in mind when you give a talk?
I used to have a background in color. They advised me to change it. They said that it can look very strange if the beamer is not good. Then they said that I could think of it in terms of creating my personal brand. So I should select a style and use it everywhere. And that’s something that I keep in mind. So when I create new presentations, I tend to keep the same style.
It’s interesting that you mentioned the creation of your personal brand. Do you actively think about that?
Not yet. There are many people on LinkedIn that advise you to do that, to have somehow your brand and try to associate it with your community. So far I haven’t done that, but I’m considering doing it. It’s quite challenging to find what’s the brand that you want to sell. And make the best of it. I think that if you have selected a direction for yourself, it’s a bit easier because you already know where you want to go. The problem is that I’m still not sure of it. The topic of my Master’s thesis is very interesting for me, but I don’t want to stay in academia, I want to work in the industry. Unfortunately, there is no big industry around this topic here, so I need to switch a bit. I think that if I was staying in the field it would be easier to know how to start building a personal brand around it.
Finally, tell us a bit about your Master’s thesis.
I’m studying Neuroengineering. I collect electroencephalographic data from people. That means that I measure the electrical activity of the brains of people. I have designed something like a game that a person plays together with the computer. The goal is to bring one object to a specific position. There are some parts where the person is controlling the movements and there are some parts where the computer is controlling them. The results will be useful for the design of human-robot cooperations.
We hope you enjoyed this interview and will come back for more stories about 15x4 Munich team!
Meanwhile, stay tuned for more events and knowledge:
