"It's important not to take rejection personally, but to keep looking for 'the one' company," — Roman Lavrentiev on starting a career in IT

Roman Lavrentiev, city — Tashkent, COO Uzum, LinkedIn

About Me

I am a graduate of the Moscow Skolkovo School of Management, IMISP Business School, and Stanford Graduate School.

At the age of 26, I grew bored of doing "classic" business, and after selling my company, I moved into IT. I built and developed FinTech products from scratch all over the world. In 2019, I completed the Founder Institute accelerator in San Francisco. Today, I am the COO of the Uzum digital ecosystem, Uzbekistan's first IT unicorn, and one of the company's earliest employees.

About My First Job in IT

My first employer was myself — in my second year of university, I started a business and opened a logistics company called ARS-Shipping. At 22, I was both co-founder and CEO.

At that time, I was studying at the Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering in the "Automobile and Road Transport" faculty. I decided to launch a business in the same field — I enjoyed logistics and was inspired by the idea of creating a new, modern company in the international market.

Consequently, I didn't go through any job interviews, and I filled out my first employment record book for myself. All of this gave me an amazing experience. Starting a career with your own business significantly changes your mindset and allows you to look at the process of building a company differently, even when transitioning to employment. If you have experience in entrepreneurship and creating your own company, whether successful or not, it shapes a certain way of thinking.

Education undoubtedly played an important role. However, most of my learning happened while working, applying the knowledge I gained immediately in practice. I didn't have any problems finding a job in IT because I had strong meta-skills that can be transferred from any environment: entrepreneurial mindset, the ability to organize people and manage teams. This is what helped me smoothly transition into another field.

About Difficulties

My career path was different — I mostly moved from one project to another based on recommendations, interacting directly with company founders. Regarding rejections, I can say based on my own experience: when I have to reject candidates during interviews, it is rarely a personal decision. It is usually related to the fact that I recognize a mismatch between the candidate's skills and the requirements of a specific position or possible differences in corporate culture. Therefore, it is important not to take rejection personally, but simply continue looking for "the one" company where there will be a perfect match in skills, company needs, and internal corporate culture.

The biggest challenge for beginners is the wide variety of programming languages and positions. Moreover, it is not always clear what exactly is included in the responsibilities of a specific role, as the same role does not always imply the same duties in different companies. For example, in one company, a Product Manager is responsible for how to decompose tasks for development, while in another company, they are fully responsible for revenue and PNL of the product.

Therefore, it is important at the very beginning to clearly and specifically discuss with the employer what exactly they expect from you, so that your skills match the team's needs. If you lack qualifications for a full-time position, it doesn't mean it's impossible to join the company. Often, large organizations launch internship programs, providing opportunities for industrial practice from universities. This can be an entry point and an opportunity to grow within your dream team.

3 Tips to Help You Find a Job in IT

1. It is important to develop and demonstrate your skills. Create a portfolio that includes examples of your projects or work. It is important to remember that IT companies have not only development departments but also marketing, customer support, and project management. For developers, this could be projects on GitHub; for marketers — successful advertising campaigns or cases with specific results; for analysts — reports and data visualizations.

2. Pay attention to networking. Attend professional events and conferences to meet people in the field and stay up-to-date with current trends in your area of interest. There you can tell about yourself, and new acquaintances can lead to recommendations and, possibly, job offers. Use LinkedIn and other professional networks.

3. Look for internships and volunteer opportunities. Even if the internship is unpaid or poorly paid, it is a great way to gain real work experience, understand the inner workings of large companies, and build professional connections.