Friend Marina Biography

About moving to the valley, I was born and raised in St. Petersburg. Then she worked at the Industrial and Construction Bank, and was engaged in the release of corporate bonds. A few years later, the Finek decided to launch a master's program of a double diploma, together with the French colleagues, and invited me to head it. So I returned to my university and began to engage in international programs.

And in America was 6 years ago: my programmer’s husband won Grinkart. The peculiarity of the valley helps me: employers allow you to have a flexible schedule. It doesn’t matter how much you come and leave, the main thing is to fulfill your tasks. Since I work in an international company and most of the team is in Europe and Singapore, my working hours are shifted.

Meetings can be held at 6 in the morning and at 10 pm, but in the afternoon you can have time to pick up children after classes. True, I would still not be able to engage in my family and the house alone.

You cannot fully work and be with children. Before the pandemic, we had a nanny who took her daughters to mugs. The spouse worked for a long time from home, could insure with the breakdown. Now he works in Google, so we make a schedule - when, who and where he takes children. Our circle of communication is built near the Russian -speaking environment. As a rule, children get acquainted with other children on circles and classes.

And it so happened that initially we made friends with other families on Russian -speaking circles. There is a game club “What? The games took place before quarantine about once every two weeks. For a couple of years I made children's games of the ChGK, but now I took a break - there is not enough time and effort. Because of the pandemic, it became easier, as part of the classes was canceled.

For example, we do not get up for the sake of figure skating in the morning. True, you have to waste time to help my daughter deal with the tasks that they send from school. About the search for work, I faced a typical history of the migrant when your previous experience means nothing. In this regard, it is easier for programmers - they have clear Hard Skills.

I am a person with a financial past. There were two ways: either ask for the help of acquaintances, or participate in open competitions. As a result, I went through such a competition and got into a company that is engaged in consulting in education. She helped improve accounting processes and a time accounting program. It was far from what I did and what I would like to do, but the company quoted in America, after it it was easier to find the next job.

I also got to the second work in the competition - she became a participant in the leadership development program in the company called Flex. This is the international corporation of branches in 30 countries - approx. At first I was engaged in an analytical platform, and when it turned out to be successful, they offered to do Talent Development. In Russian, “Talent Management” sounds strange.

There is HR, there is personnel management - all this is not the same. But all assessments of the results of the campaign, interaction between managers and staff are made in our group. I do not agree about the cultural layers that America is a large boiler where everyone is melted. They are melted, but remain Asian-American, European-American, Russian-American and so on. And everyone needs to conduct a dialogue, taking into account the cultural layer.

But this opens up a lot of opportunities. If I want intellectual games, I go to the Russian-American, if I miss France, Cinema and beautiful chatter-I go to the Franco-American. I had to learn to talk with people from different cultures. For example, everyone in different ways build letters, meetings, communication. Some people have a short capacious style, but this is not an insult, it’s just that their nationality is so customary.

And you need to answer in the same style, otherwise they will not understand you. I know five languages. I say three freely, the fourth - half, and the fifth, Spanish, learned at the initial level for the box. In the valley, the main language is English, so I am happy to rush at colleague French, with whom you can recall French. And in Russian we speak at home. Why the Dudia film does not reflect the truth about the valley, It seemed to me that this is a very narrow look - the valley through the eyes of five people.

This is the experience of one person - he could not find a cheaper house. It can be removed for 5, and for 6, and for 4 thousand. Or another hero says that there are no girls here - but this does not mean that they are not here at all. Just the hero cannot find the one that he will like. You need to look at things wider. Much of what Yuri showed is true. Yes, there are not enough mathematics in schools.

Yes, here you can meet a mask and Brin. I had a neighbor who dreamed about parent meetings at school, because there you could meet the general director of Linkedin. True, the film did not say that there are many mathematical circles where you can record a child. And the director of Linkedin, seen from afar at the parent meeting, will change little in your life. Would I like to stay?

I'm not sure that I want to stay for a long time. I am more than a European man in the warehouse of the soul.He strongly strains that everything is far away here. If you want on vacation, you need to fly for a long time. There are few museums, and they are small. My sister Marina, for example, left. I will not say that this is an ideal place for life. Here everyone runs at a fast pace, even children.

If the child does not go to 10 additional circles, then everyone says that he will not go to Stanford. Everyone is chasing this, but they are unlikely to have time to realize why they need it. I myself would like to live in Europe, but I understand that for a programmer husband it is much more complicated. There are friends who moved to the European offices of Google, Facebook, WhatsApp and did not want to return here.

In Europe, the child is not tied to the car, he can go to school himself. Here, children cannot go somewhere on their own, they need to be taken and taken. After school, they can’t call on to a girlfriend after school, as we did in Russia - a whole story with permits. It is good that all this is compensated by interesting people whom I will not meet anywhere else.

And there are also many opportunities: you will have to work hard, but you can find everything: money, education, talents. Special thanks for the help of creating the Playme and MultiWays project. Found a typo?