Finding the path to success
It is often said that the road to success or finding your place is anything but a straight one. Most people have been down many different paths and have had to explore a diverse set of jobs and careers to get to where they are now.
Andrew Kolokolnikov is a prime example of exactly this and has definitely tried his hand at many different things before he landed in his current job as Talent Business Partner at Yousician.
But how did he end up there?
“I came to Finland exactly 10 years ago to study for my second bachelor’s degree in international business and logistics. I already finished a master’s degree in economics and management, focused on transportation and logistics in Moscow, where I’m from. It was very theoretical and I wanted something more practical, which is why I ended up going to Finland for my second one.”
Studying in Finland gave Andrew a more hands-on experience, learning the basics of business communication, while at the same time learning everyday words in English.
“Even though I had good grades in English and spoke it well, my vocabulary mainly consisted of words like ‘internal combustion engine’, while I didn’t know words like ‘shoelaces’ since I learned English for engineers at school”, he says with a smile.
At the end of his degree in Finland, he did an internship working as the manager of a hostel in St. Petersburg. That taught him about keeping the big overview, being able to dissect tasks into all the smaller elements and think these through, before making a decision.
This also taught him a great lesson about being a specialist versus a generalist.
“Being a generalist is interesting and important because you see the bigger picture and can break down the bigger thing into smaller pieces and then put them together. I see myself as a T-shaped person in the sense that I’m not only growing vertically but also horizontally. I’m not confining myself to one field.”
After finishing his studies, he spent time working in the Finnish fur industry, which he far from agreed with from an ethical point of view, but which he found fascinating from an international trade perspective since it is a truly global field and the history of fur trade goes hundreds of years back.
In the end, he wasn’t looking to work in a warehouse for the rest of his life and decided to pursue his initial interest from when he was younger.
“My parents talked me out of getting a programming degree back in 2002 since it was right after the dot-com bubble and therefore I ended up in economics and management. After finishing my second degree in Finland I realised that an entry-level job as a programmer was far better paid than an entry role in logistics. I learned later on that salary shouldn’t be the defining factor for deciding on your career. At that time I didn’t want to go back to school, so I decided to learn programming on my own. I hoped it would give me an entry point to this exciting world of startups and mobile games.”
Andrew moved back to Moscow to stay with his family to save rent. For a few months, he immersed himself in the basics of coding.
He did an unpaid internship as a programmer in a small marketing studio in Moscow and ended up as a fulltime full-stack developer. He was still developing his skills in his free time and taking on a few freelance projects. In the end, his days were completely packed and after a while, he started to burnout.
“I wanted to get away from the screen and I missed social interaction. I spent a lot of time alone in front of my computer. I ended up teaching English, doing translations and running speaking clubs. I did all sorts of great things with the students I had in my speaking clubs, doing business cases and simulations.”
After a while, he wanted to get back to programming. He wanted to learn new frameworks and had some new ideas to try out. Since he still had a lot of friends in Finland and the financial crisis was taking its toll in Russia he decided to apply for jobs in Helsinki.
“I ended up applying to Yousician as a backend developer, but they didn’t believe I had the experience. They did like my resume and my diverse background. The back-end guys got my application and somehow decided to give me a chance.”
Andrew emphasises that trying out many different things and not restricting yourself too much can be really beneficial. As he says, you never know when you will be able to utilise all these different experiences.
By March 2015 Andrew was back in Helsinki working at Yousician as a business development engineer. This was the beginning of, so far, three intense years, which has given him the opportunity to work in several different areas, leading different projects and being part of growing the company.
As the Talent and Business Partner, he has helped Yousician grow from 30 to 100 people in three years and been part of many special projects from organising giving away 3000 ukuleles at Slush to organising events at the office and running a marketing campaign abroad, taking care of all the logistics. It is clear to see how he has his experience in logistics and management has benefitted him at many points through his career.
“Working at Yousician feels like it has already been a long journey because I had the chance to try out so many different things. I got to do so many new and exciting projects and that’s also what I really like about working here. I get to grow my skills and experiences in so many different ways.”
Andrew has learned so many lessons through the years and gathered many funny stories. His main learnings include the crucial importance of good communication, keeping everyone informed and discussing the problems openly.
At the same time, he also mentions the crucial balance of learning to say no and prioritise but also say yes to new opportunities. He has worked so many odd jobs and these experiences also helped him realise what he wants to do and what he definitely doesn’t want to do.
Finally, he is a big advocate for setting goals and being ambitious. Taking the big goals and breaking them into smaller actions. Having goals gives you direction, and even though you might not end up where you plan to, you will end up somewhere better, than if you had no plans at all.
So does he still feel he has more things to explore in his career?
“Hell yes”, he says and laughs. “I enjoy so many different things and I’m slowly transitioning out of HR and more into Business Development. I love doing challenging projects and making seemingly impossible things work. I still want to try out so many different things and luckily Yousician gives me the chance to do so. Figuring out the logistics of managing 3000 ukuleles or getting three guitars somewhere by tomorrow are things that really excite me.”
If Andrew has made you feel inspired to pursue some new adventures of your own, it’s your turn to try something new! You can follow us on Facebook or subscribe to our newsletter to learn about The Shortcut’s next events and activities.
