From journalism to lead management, the career story of Daryna Hameliak

It’s always interesting to manage an interview with a journalist, even if it’s a former one. At Avenga we have specialists with unique career stories and outstanding life experiences. And today our guest is Daryna Hameliak, Head of Lead Management at Avenga, who transitioned from journalism to the IT sphere.

Daryna, tell us please, what is your job at Avenga and what does your position mean?

For more than 3 years at Avenga, I’m dealing with lead management. In different companies this position can be called differently: somewhere it’s a sales development representative, somewhere it’s a lead generation manager, it depends.

In general, the main idea is the same: I’m communicating with customers in the first instance when they just come to Avenga. I present to them our services, describe how we can help them grow their businesses with added value and, as a result, I bring them to our Sales management team for signing a contract.

You switched from journalism to lead management. Tell us a little bit about your background, what were you dealing with?

I was always interested in journalism, but, unfortunately, I didn’t manage to enter the desired university, so it became my hobby and additional work. At first, I went to our local newspaper and tried to work there myself. Later I became a member of a student organization and try myself as a journalist and a photographer in a youth paper. I was writing the Art column, so I participated in different concerts and exhibitions, communicated with musicians and artists, and wrote articles about them. My photos illustrated texts, it was like one single review of the event. I was attracted by this atmosphere!

When did you decide that you want to switch to IT, as these spheres are completely different?

At some point journalism caused burnout because it was too much work and plus my student life, I didn’t have enough time to combine them. Then I realized that it was time for a break. And at that time, it happened so I discovered IT for myself. It lit a spark in me and I got more and more interested.

I came into IT because I like constant development, it’s an industry that requires movement and that always requires learning something new. It’s not an industry where you can learn everything in 5 years at the University and then you just work according to the plan. Here you should always develop yourself, search for new information and learn.

Daryna, but there is an interesting thing, as your occupation can’t be trained anywhere, universities don’t teach it. So, where do you learn this?

Mainly, I do it by myself. I take different courses and look for different webinars. It’s all about self-education. We don’t have any profound courses in Ukraine that give you basic information about how to work with future clients. So, usually, I find the information by myself or learn from my colleagues who also work in this field. We have the so-called community and we help each other.

What are your biggest challenges?

Well, talking about the challenges. We are dealing with so-called “cold mailing” or “cold calls” when a person has never heard about us before. So, to gain the trust of this person, make them try our services without knowing Avenga, and make them work with us, is a bit difficult and very often it could demotivate you. But if it works out despite the person’s lack of knowledge about the company, this is, I guess, the best result.

Daryna, is it hard for you to accept refusals?

Well, talking about the challenges. We are dealing with so-called “cold mailing” or “cold calls” when a person has never heard about us before. So, to gain the trust of this person, make them try our services without knowing Avenga, and make them work with us, is a bit difficult and very often it could demotivate you. But if it works out despite the person’s lack of knowledge about the company, this is, I guess, the best result.

You communicate with different customers from different places. Do you feel cultural differences? Do you already have your success recipe formed?

I can’t call it a recipe for success, but definitely, there is a difference between them. Especially Scandinavian countries were the most difficult for us, as in Scandinavian countries a sort of presence is required. There should be someone who you can meet in person. Actually, we can say the same about the UK market, though the UK already understands outsourcing a bit and it’s spread in their market a little bit already. As a result, they are open to it, they have many IT companies and they are good at it, so it’s easy to build up communication with them.

In your opinion, is there already trust in Ukraine and Ukrainian companies?

Definitely, there is. We already have a positive image on the map of the world. When I mention that we are located in Ukraine, they trust us a lot. And I often hear from our clients that they used to work with Ukraine before, or heard good feedback about Ukrainian companies from their colleagues.

Daryna, can you give a piece of advice to those who think about switching to IT and want to change something in their lives?

Just do it. Go ahead, change, and search for yourself in this industry as it is full of opportunities. You can immerse yourself in anything and it is interesting indeed.