How I met CoinBundle: Anna’s Story
Let’s get acquainted, my name is Anna. As you probably already know, I’m a Marketing Manager and partly Head of Support here at CoinBundle. Well, it’s my turn to talk about myself and you have no idea how difficult it was for me to write up this text. You see, I actually love writing but hate talking about myself; you can’t turn the train back now, so let’s see what happens.
Who am I?
I live in Russia, in the heart of Moscow to be more specific. As of now, we do not have an office in Russia so I work remotely, which means that most of my working days start right from my bed, as soon as I open my eyes. But when your own house turns into an office, it becomes impossible to stay within the same four walls for such a long time, so this summer I started looking for different places to work. I didn’t want to work in a coworking space since it’s the same office only you also have to pay for it. However, the idea of working at a cafe sounded really cool to me — there is something new each time and it isn’t far from tasty food. I already have a collection of cool and convenient cafes, maybe someday when more people know about us in Russia I will write an article with reviews about them haha!
I came to CoinBundle as one of the first people to join the team, fifth to be exact. Now we have more than 30 employees! Alex immediately called me to take on the position of Marketing Manager (the story of our epic acquaintance will be detailed in a bit so keep reading). I’m responsible for community growth so I am heavily engaged in community promotion.
Also, I lead a support team (which is growing by the way, so we are looking for some fresh blood). I manage a large amount of information each day; in fact, 70% of it consists of reports about bugs or any other suggestions to improve the platform on Telegram, Facebook, Twitter and our help portal. Due to all of this, I have very little time for sleep and life at all since we have users from all around the world and only 3 people who support the community. It’s important to always be in touch.
What do I know?
Two years ago I graduated from the faculty of linguistics, so I speak English fluently and a little bit of German. During the first few years I was a huge nerd, but after my 3rd year I was just sitting at the last desk and giggling with my friends. While studying at the University, I really realized how many peculiar people are around me. When I say “peculiar”, I mean a wide range of different mannerisms to explain the peculiarities in the behaviour of these people. For example, at the beginner level for German, we had quite an extravagant professor who was also an elderly woman. She tried to make us read and immediately translate the unadapted “Faust” by Goethe at the level of “at least translate it now, I do not even want you to interpret this in rhyme”, and even gave us instructions for washing machines! Thank God it is ended..
Where’ve I worked?
I started working during my second year of University, but not by profession. Then I began to get interested in film photography and I wanted to know more about the process. So, I got a job in a photo lab. There, I developed films and printed photos. I still remember the smell of fresh paint on photo paper. Additionally, I worked a little with the cashier because we were selling all sorts of photographic supplies. One time during the winter, it turned out to be a slow and quiet day due to the heavy blizzard, which meant that there were almost no customers.
My colleague bought a new camera with a remote control feature but didn’t have time to test it out because of work (just like I am now haha). So we decided to test it right at work and make a cool photo using long exposure (this is when the camera shutter opens for a long time and during this time catches flashes of light in the dark. Even a second is very long, but if you need to make some moves, you need to set up longer). All those famous pictures with writings from the light are made in this way.
While I was sitting on the sofa, my colleague ran around me with a flashlight, controlling the camera with his phone. My task was to move from one side of the sofa to the other, while the camera shutter was open. A colleague turned off the flashlight for a fraction of a second while I was transported in the dark, and eventually, we got two pictures of me in a single photo.
By the end of it all, there were definitely questions from our boss about the strange flashes of light and movements in the dark during working hours. We had to improvise and told him that we supposedly had faulty wiring and that we did our best to bring the light back :)
It was a great time, but because of the inconvenient schedule I had to miss a lot University. In the end, I had to quit working in the photo lab and look for other ways to earn money while studying. It was open for any job but usually I taught children English. On top of that, my friends often asked for help to brush up on the language before a trip or just for themselves. Many people said that I would become a good teacher, but I was brought to another fields of activities. After graduating from University and coping with the panic of adult life, I got a job as Junior Marketing Manager. We worked with a ton of cool companies such as Artox Media and Kuponator, and I learned a lot from them too. And I also moonlighted as a photographer. Then I worked for a year as a commercial photographer only, but I’ll tell more about this in the next chapter 🙂
What is my Alter-Ego?
Like any sensible person who doesn’t want to lose their brain because of work, I have a few hobbies that I like to pursue in my free time. First of all, I’ve been really passionate about photography for many years. I can’t call myself a professional though — I just like to catch moments, work with colour, and show people how beautiful they are. But I should say that before I came to CoinBundle, it was my job for a couple of years.
As time went on, I faced a huge problem that almost every freelancer in any field has to deal with: when a free artist gets into the paws of commerce, nobody cares anymore about their opinion. You can create what you want only when you do it for free and only on your terms. But this option did not suit me, so I decided to leave my favourite thing as a hobby and planned to work and develop in another field.
I still do photography, but now nobody can tell me how to do it better if I agree to work — I dictate the rules. Even if the model seems nice to me, a majority of applications have to be rejected due to the huge amount of work I have with CoinBundle. Anyways, I spent my entire first salary from CoinBundle on a new camera and equipment for it — I’m not a bit sorry :)
It seems to me that, for the time that I photographed, I worked out an individual style. I do not like much to retouch photos a lot but I like to experiment with colours and light, so each picture is not like the rest. I love to play with the light because it significantly affects how the person looks, as it depends on the angle of the light. Also, I don’t like studio light, it’s always plastic and synthetic. As for me, it is better to work with what I already have by nature.
🌠 You can see more of my works on my Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/anne_kester
My second hobby is music. I literally cannot live without it and have been listening since the age of 6. In fact, I was sent to a music school for piano class. Eventually, I mastered the guitar, with which I came to love rock music. I’ve already been to about 50–60 concerts, but I have lost count at this point. However, one thing is for sure: it’s an incredible feeling hearing your favourite song live, and I am ready to spend a lot of money for it.
Sometimes, by the way, I manage to combine two hobbies and shoot at concerts. Not for money, but for myself — I just really like to translate everything that happens around me into the picture.
By the way, it was because of music that Alex and I met, and it was at the INTERNET 10 years ago. There’s actually a really wonderful site called last.fm for discovering new music, that I used to love to visit. It used to be very popular, and it was fun to communicate with like-minded people. So, that’s it, we talked for several years about music and other things while he lived in Ishimbai (you can read his story here). Then he moved to Moscow to study and we started meeting each other at concerts. The last time I saw him was probably two and half years ago at the Mail.ru office, after which he moved to the United States and no one has seen him since 🙈
What about sports?
I am an absolute amoeba when it comes to sports and a relatively lazy person in general. No, I’m a VERY lazy person. Partly because of laziness I work remotely because I do not need to get up early every single day and go to work — woooo! But when you’re sitting at the computer 24/7 to always be in touch or writing articles like this one, you should not forget to take care of yourself. Otherwise, you will have to spend all your money that you earn on doctors :) I choose yoga to knead my bones from time to time. I do it infrequently, just a couple of times a week, but what I love about this kind of activity is the absolute lack of thoughts in my head during the asanas and pure mind after training.
Where have I been?
I’ve never been abroad. Until recently, I did not even have a passport. But I want to dispel the myth that Russia is a boring country to travel to. Over the past two years I have visited Crimea, Altai, and recently came back from Sochi. These are places that I advise everyone to visit. This year I plan to visit Finland but will continue to travel in Russia, of course. You know, in winter, the South of Russia is especially beautiful, so maybe you can find me there :)
What can I say in the end?
As you already know, I work in an all-American time (and this is -12 by the way), so i’m looking for new, hardworking employees for our team to give them part of my salary and make my life easier. This summer in Moscow was really cool, before working at CoinBundle I would never have known that there are so many places to eat and work in my city, keeping my home just a home.
I’m waiting for your questions if any. 🧡
This is our Telegram Chat: https://t.me/coinbundlechat
