Lina Kulakova, Head of Quality Assurance @ Nezasa

Early years and where you came from?

Born in Ukraine, but moved to Portugal when I was really young and with the ambition to stay here.

How were you introduced to the world of the Portuguese tech industry?

All my friend come from the IT industry and after hearing the discussions about their jobs, I felt a huge interest.

Walk me through your work and what you are doing now in the tech industry.

I’ve founded a QA community in Lisbon. I organise monthly meet-ups, some workshops and am a speaker in some of them. Also, I help people that don’t have any IT background to start their careers in IT, coaching them, preparing for interviews, reviewing CVs and teaching them testing basics. All this for free. Besides that, I am a Head of QA in a Swiss start-up. I am building the QA team from scratch and coaching my peers on quality.

What part of what you do, you love the most?

Helping people find their passion in the tech industry and grow professionally.

How do you think that your background and knowledge impact the way you approach your work in the Portuguese tech industry?

I was a tech enthusiast from early ages and always looked for a way to learn something from others. That helped me to establish a good international networking, learn from different professionals and then share my knowledge with the community. Also, working in different industries before, gave me an ability to adapt and learn fast.

What advice do you have for young women that want to get into tech and don’t know where to start?

Networking! Nothing will replace a real experience of doing things. So if you don’t have any yet, do some networking and learn from others. Join events, meet-ups and conferences, contact Udemy trainers, etc. Most of the people love to help someone who is joining the Tech world.

Walk me through a day in your life as a Portuguese women in tech.

I wake up at 6:30 A.M, have a breakfast with my husband and “run” to the office. I love to be the first one to arrive to prepare and plan my day in an almost empty office. When all the team members have arrived, we have coffee together and discuss different topics. Then, I have a day full with meeting, plannings, researches (and some “doing” as well!). Usually I am the only one that brings food from home, so I use the lunch time to do some networking, check LinkedIn and Twitter QA groups and read some articles related to the industry. After work, I usually head home to prepare dinner for me and my husband or I go to some QA meetups if there are any in town. I finish my day checking some Udemy or Edx online courses and then relaxing.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

“Don’t be afraid to ask!”

What apps/software/tools can’t you live without?

LinkedIn, Udemy and command line are my everything :)

Anything else you want to share?

Come and join QualityTalks, a meet-up that I organise. Would love to meet more women in tech and share some experiences.

👉 Find Lina on Linkedin.