A hobby that became a job

Let's start with an introduction.

My name is Andrew and I am from Odessa. I am 27 years old.

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I write articles for the company's website blog, I give lectures on presentations design for non-designers and, together with the other guys, prepare the presentation reviews.


I am not new at this. I have been making presentations in Odessa for about a year, but there were not enough orders, so I started thinking about how to combine a hobby and work.


I learned about Reprezent quite recently - in the fall of 2017. In my spare time I opened Facebook. Scrolling through the newsfeed, I noticed a post in which my future colleagues shared the company's news over the past month. "Wow! And who are they? "- I thought then. Indeed, I have never heard of Reprezent, although I have been closely following the sphere. When I went to the company's page, I saw that they were looking for a presentations designer. I was not very fit for this position, because I'm not a designer. Do you think this stopped me? Not at all.


I looked around, thought about the routine in which I had been living for more than four years, and sent my portfolio to the guys at Reprezent. Their answer came suspiciously fast - in 15 minutes. Our COO Anton offered me to talk in Skype.


A week later I was already in Kiev for my second interview, and in three more weeks I went to my first working day at the company.

How did moving from Odessa to Kyiv go?

Fast. Not being an opportunist at all, I have grabbed this insane opportunity with both my hands. Usually I need a lot of time to make up my mind on something, but not this time. I made a decision within one minute, after the interview in Kiev. I returned to Odessa, wrote a letter of resignation, came home and told my parents: "I'm going to Kiev!". To which they asked: "Now?". I was ready to go at that very instant. But I still had to serve out two more weeks.

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Do not you miss your hometown?

I don't miss the city. I'm not attached to places, rather, to people. And I do miss them. My mother lives in Odessa, my friends are there as well. But when you are 26 years old it's foolish to give up on such prospects because of it. Furthermore, it only takes eight hours for me to get home. That's not a problem.

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How did Kiev accept you?

It was a difficult period. No sooner had I really got to work, how I picked up chickenpox. Yes, I picked up chickenpox at the age of 26. Seriously, I thought I would get fired. It is hardly pleasant for a company when a new employee leaves for two weeks without even getting to work. But I got lucky with the employer. I will tell you about it later.

After chickenpox I finally went to work, but after just two days went down with flu. "Now I'm definitely packing my bags," I thought then. But I got away with it. " Amazing luck. There is no such thing in the banking sector. No one would wait for you while you are suffering with the chickenpox, but here they waited. And for me it was the strongest stimulus - I understood that somebody needs me here.

Then I moved from one apartment to another several times, met realtors, cheerful lodgers, and many others. Now I have found a stable accommodation. But I am not sure about that."

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How did the team accept you?

Very warm, with arms wide open. There is no other way here.
I'm quite a modest person, so I am still getting acquainted with the guys, it's not a matter of one day. But I am very comfortable with them and I hope they feel comfortable with me, too.

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What can you say about your managers?

I wanted to write a separate article about them, but they didn't let me

It would be an understatement to say that I was surprised. I was amazed. Struck by the attitude of management to every person in the company. They always support (they are Sasha, Andrei and Anton), they always help, they are always interested. And most importantly - always care. And this concern shows in everything from simple questions like "How are you feeling?" To uneasy, sometimes costly acts. They do everything to ensure that every person in the company is comfortable. And the whole business is built on this. That is why it is successful.

Here, you can not feel that somebody is superior to the other. Here all of us are a team, friends, colleagues. Together we create one big thing - we form the image and reputation of the company, making ourselves better. And our managers help us in this.

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What do you value most about this job?

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Knowledge. For me, this is the most important thing. And here I learn something new every day, because I work with professionals in the field of presentations. It is extremely important for me to communicate with my colleagues in one language. It is important to make new friends and acquaintances, but knowledge is in the first place.

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What is the most difficult thing for you in this job?

Making articles in WordPress. Once I forgot to take into account the side margins, when the article was already on the final revision. And WordPress is nothing like Word, where you just drag the slider and the text adjusts to it. Here, I had to add an empty block with the correct margins, and then transfer all 400 elements from the old block to the new one. One by one! That is amazing. This was a good lesson for me. And besides that, everything else is quite easy.

I enjoy creating presentations, writing about presentations, giving presentations. This has been my hobby for a long time, and more recently, it's also become my job. It's cool when such a symbiosis is possible. The thoughts like "Damn it, I have to work again tomorrow..." disappear immediately. And this is exactly what I has been thinking the last four years, before moving to Kyiv.

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Do you see yourself developing further in this sphere?

At the moment, this is what I do best. Well, I am also good at sports, but that's a different thing. I want to keep making presentations. And I don't want to try predicting where this will happen, when, how long it would last, and what people would be there to help. I don't like predicting and guessing, in general. It seems to me that the more you talk about your plans, the more likely they are to fail. I've seen this happen a lot. Therefore, some of the people I know have absolutely no idea that i have moved to Kyiv. They keep on calling and asking when I am going to come back to the gym. I carefully duck such questions.

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How do you spend your free time?

I dedicate it to my hobbies. Sometimes this means that I work. Like I said, I enjoy it.

I have a few more hobbies except for work:

1. For the last seven years I have been fond of training on a pull-up bar. At the weekends I spend about an hour a day, and on weekdays I go with Anton to a nearby yard. We do this even in the winter, it is not a problem for us. I do not know where I would be, if it were not for the pull-up bars. They have changed my life.

2. I play tennis well. Pretty good, actually. I play seldom, as I need an equally skillful opponent. If there are such people among the readers of this interview - please drop me a line, I will be very happy.

3. Recently I've become a wine enthusiast. My colleagues and I had a very vibrant pre-New Year's celebration program, and wine tasting from the best caviste in Ukraine was a part of it. This tasting upended my attitude towards wine. Now, in my spare time, I read, watch, listen to anything about wine. It does not come easily, to be honest. But I like it.

4. I'm looking for new hobbies. I love board games, now this is a popular activity. I'm new to it, but I believe I am enthusiastic enough☺
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And finally. Imagine that you and your colleagues were hiding a time capsule that would be opened by presentation specialists in 100 years. What message would you leave for them?

Do not finish your presentations with " Thank you for attention! ". Read my article to find out why.