On April 11th, ISsoft and Coherent Solutions celebrated another round number: the 50th employee joined the global practice of Project Management. This “anniversary” was the first in the new location of sunny Georgia. Now, when the first impressions have already become memories, we decided to talk with Stas Kuzmich, the very “lucky one”, in order to find out whether his expectations from the new place were justified – not only in the workplace, but also on the globe, is it easy to decide to change jobs in conditions of turbulence and whether the Georgian capital is inferior to Minsk in terms of living standards.
Both moving to another country and moving to a new company knock you out of the usual way of life and for few people come easily. Our hero “collected a combo”: everything happened at one moment. And if the change of work was in his plans, then the move turned out to be spontaneous.
– I was going to go to Gudauri to snowboard, but then I decided not to return from there to Minsk. In general, I once had thoughts of moving to another country – Poland, I kept postponing this moment, but now I think that such a need arose, we need to move on – so I had to cut it off and make such a decision.
The company in which our interlocutor worked at the time of the move was also not opposed to helping him with the relocation – just as he did not want to leave it “at any cost”: Stas speaks warmly of his former place of work. How did he end up at the interview at ISsoft?
— There was no “make or break” moment: in fact, I was not looking for something else much, because everything was pretty good in my last company. I just wanted to see what’s on the market in terms of big projects where I could move towards Delivery Manager. Interviews were rare and targeted, because few companies can offer a project of the level that I was looking for.
The hero of the publication admits: even when the invitation from us was already in hand, the move added doubts about the next step. What is it like to change jobs in turbulent conditions?
— I am a manager, I often make difficult decisions and work with risks every day, so I just assessed them once again and understood how I would deal with them. Only the conditions have changed – in contrast to my intentions. What we agreed on at the interview met my criteria: in terms of the team, work, the application itself. In addition, one of my friends already worked at ISsoft and talked a lot about the company, I had good references about the corporate culture.
Despite everything, our acquaintance nevertheless took place: Stas accepted the offer and joined the ISsoft & Coherent Solutions Family what we are very happy about: the team was supplemented by a really strong specialist. His path in IT began back in 2015 with the study of JavaScript, after which, at the very first workplace, our hero realized that he was closer to high-level tasks – communicating with people, building processes – and began to develop in this direction. Before joining us, Stas managed to work with a variety of solutions and a different number of employees in the team, and in the last year he began teaching project management at the HTP Education Center and even released 3 streams.
Now, the mentoring of future PMs had to be put on hold: the online training format turned out to be uninteresting to our interlocutor, so all attention is focused on the main work. By the way, here the team did not meet him quite usually: we recall that Stas Kuzmich became the 50th “anniversary” employee in our global Project Management practice.
The team in Georgia is still at the stage of its formation, and the office is just getting ready to welcome the first guests, but this did not stop us from arranging a little surprise. On day X, a recruiter came to a new colleague with a basket of gifts.
– It was nice to “enter” the company as some kind of “anniversary” – as if I pulled out a lottery ticket or became the “thousandth customer”. I didn’t know how many people were already working in Tbilisi, so I certainly didn’t expect anyone to come with gifts.
Despite the fact that our new colleague was already in Georgia, he still became a member of the Intercompany Exchange – a corporate program under which ISsoft and Coherent Solutions employees can move from one office to another in those countries where our companies have representative offices. Its participants receive material, organizational and informational support in the process of moving.
According to Stas, this turned out to be a nice bonus, however, not the most important one: nevertheless, the conditions which you have every day are much more important than help in the first weeks. Now that the emotions have subsided, it’s time to draw the first conclusions. It seems that our interlocutor is satisfied with his choice.
— My work involves communicating with people, seeking mutual understanding with them – I think for any PM this is not a soft, but a hard skill. On this point, all expectations converged with reality: I am very pleased with the new place and, if I had known right away that it would be so, I would have had much less doubts at that moment.
What about moving in general? As it turned out, in a few months our hero plans to move to Poland, where he has thought about moving more than once: there is also such an opportunity in the Intercompany Exchange relocation program. However, with Georgia, too, “everything is ok”:
– I can’t imagine how I would have lived here for 20 years – but there is something to see and visit. Living in Tbilisi is more expensive than in Minsk – and the level of service is lower: there are not enough large online stores. But I very quickly found everything I needed: a gym, a convenient store, restaurants, cafes. In general, life here is not much different from Minsk life – but there is much more sun: good weather becomes a given, and it’s cool. I did not notice a big difference between moving to Georgia and between apartments in the same city – but I was always open to changes.
We hope that all the changes are for the better – both for Stas and for other guys who are now deciding to move to another country and build their lives in a new place. We once again congratulate our hero on joining the team! And for everyone who also wants to consider this opportunity and participate in the Intercompany Exchange, we invite you to look at the vacancies section on our website.
