In high school, when thinking about the university degree, I chose Mechanical engineering: it seemed the most promising at the time, to find the interesting job and to realize myself. Apparently, my father and his friend were engineers so I was somewhat familiar with my future profession.
I have chosen the Moscow Bauman university: it was (and probably still is) the best technical university in Russia, I terminated the preparatory courses there, I liked the faculty, and, the university itself seemed to me to be very solid, respectable, and serious. My future colleagues, the community, seemed to be very interested in the education, well-motivated.

About my preferences

My favorite engineering courses at the university were Machine Elements (Machine Parts), Theory of Machines and Mechanisms, the Technology, Mechanics of Materials. Machine Parts was most attractive – it was about how to create something meaningful from the simple well-known elements. Of course, I have to thank the professors who managed to engage us.
Among not-technical courses, I liked the Philosophy: although the program retained traces of Marxism, the approaches had changed, it was a time of discussions; I learned to think freely, and to express my thoughts.

About the programming

Remarkably, I was not particularly interested in programming – it was just a basic course on coding principals and the hardware architecture in the first year in the university, without any understanding of the development process or software capabilities.

About the project management

Although the Bauman university positioned itself as preparing managers for the industry, the biggest and most significant problem with the education was a lack of certain courses or disciplines, and, those which existed, don’t follow the actual trends in this area, so when I finally needed it, I had to catch up on my own later. The only leadership opportunities at the university were the Military faculty or any external activities.

About an important experience

My most useful experience at the university was an internship in Germany, at the Festo company. A total of about 10 German-speaking students were selected, among thousands of students, and, during 2 months, we were being familiarized with the production, the society, the culture, the communication principals and the everyday life.
We also attended at some seminars, one of which I would mention is the Creative Thinking seminar – I kept and revisited the material for a long time afterward.

About taking the plunge

Working in a factory after graduating from university, I felt a lack of human interaction, and realized that engineering alone was not enough for me; I wanted more communication to be satisfied with the job. Manufacturing was visibly declining in Russia; which made it less motivating to continue as an engineer.
And hence I appeared in travel industry, first as a product manager for travel programs in the Sputnik travel agency and tour operator, a big company originated from the soviet era. That brought me a product management experience and an education on the workplace, as well as first leadership skills.

About becoming a Product Manager

After a series of peaks and troughs, trials and errors, I joined the software development department in Natalie Tours, one of top-5 tour operators in Russia at the moment, as a project manager and product owner for a large ERP system that had been in use for nearly 18 years. Eventually, I became the Chief Information Officer of Natalie Tours.

About the first problems and my future development

The biggest challenge was the IT team's lack of practical software architecture knowledge, which was essential for developing a revolutionary software product. The second one, not less significant, was a lack of experience in project and product management: while our predecessor, the software we were migrating from, followed extreme programming, the current team initially chose the waterfall methodology, which was later naturally and logically replaced by Agile. Additionally, the ERP itself was integrated as an inventory system into a newer, more scalable and expandable solution called Natecnia.