HSE is about people!
Graduates of Ad & PR, who decided to continue their professional career at their Alma Mater, and talk about why their University is a great opportunity to start a career and gain valuable experience.
All students and staff respond similarly to the question "Why HSE?" - "Because HSE is about people!". Ambition, the desire to move forward, openness to the new and unknown, and, of course, dedication to their work – this is what unites the students who stayed to work at the University after graduating.
We have selected five unique stories of the Ad & PR programme graduates, who had decided to continue their professional career at their Alma Mater. Read about why our home - the University is a great opportunity to start a career and gain valuable experience in the following article.
Editor in the internal communications Department, HSE public relations Directorate
I have a classic "success story" of an HSE student who didn't want to leave. I know a lot of stories like this. All of them are based on the same formula: cool people + experience = “Do you want to work with us?”
In my second year, I decided to master the Fair project and applied to STUDLIFE, which was Ivan Chernyavsky’s project, who was an employee Of the Student Initiative Support Center. Firstly, we wrote only about the Center's work – student organizations, events, and extracurricular activities in all their glory. Then we started thinking about how to make media out of Studlife. And then the editor-in-chief even appeared in it!
I was part of the project for a year and a half. During that time we managed to work closely together with Ivan, I even took a mini-internship with him in the summer of my second year. At that time, he decided to create an internal communications Department at HSE as it was clear that it was necessary.
In April 2019, Ivan invited me to work at the Department. And in July, he passed me STUDLIFE to me. I went to the Department to write texts for the portal and help develop communications within the HSE, but it turned out a little differently. I decided that since I was entrusted with a large project and given complete freedom, I would do it the way I thought was necessary. And texts to the portal had to wait.
To my mind, it turned out great. Statistics don't lie! The project has grown significantly through the year.
I went through it all myself – the pursuit of a rating, and psychological difficulties, and a 100% discount. This helps not to fly into administrative space and look at the situation through the eyes of students.
What is your area of responsibility now?
I have one main project. I manage STUDLIFE, the “media about students'” at HSE. I lead a team of students: these are authors, and more recently, illustrators and designers (Yay!).
On one hand, this is an educational project: I really hope that working with us helps students gain practice and experience. And, of course, write a cool line in your resume. On the other hand, this is a communication project: we talk about topics that are important to students, support their amazing projects and help the HSE community grow and be even cooler.
In addition to the main project, I am responsible for the stories in the HSE App, writing and editing materials for "HSE University Life", and helping students and departments tell about their initiatives in our mailing channels, social networks, and portal materials.
Tell us about your professional experience before your current position?
I've been working at the Department for a year and a half since the end of my third year. Before that, there was freelancing, tutoring, and, for example, helping friends with their business accounts on social networks. For a couple of years, I was an assistant to our Department's classroom teachers. While writing the answer to the question, I realized that I miss this time!
How does the student background help in the current work?
I still feel student pain. It sounds funny, but we understand that memes and jokes about depression, fatigue, and discounts on studying are as close to real-life as possible.
I went through it all myself – the pursuit of a rating, and psychological difficulties, and a 100% discount. This helps not to fly into administrative space and look at the situation through the eyes of students.
Manager in the career development Department, Department of career development and interaction with HSE graduates
Tell us about your professional experience before HSE?
I was lucky enough to work in an advertising agency that specializes in working with celebrities, Russian-speaking artists. For them, I promoted social media accounts and organized meetings with fan clubs.
What are you doing now?
To a greater extent, I work with students of the faculty. I help them adjust their resumes, solve problems with finding a job, and organize faculty events from small alumni meetings to graduation ceremonies.
In bachelor course, your main rivals are your classmates, but now it's just you, and this leads to a better version of you.
Now tell us a little bit about how you got to work at HSE! How did the job search go?
The vacancy was in the public domain on one of the sites for job search – at first, I lit up, because the responsibilities, the ability to interact with students and the sphere of communication in my favourite University made my heart beat faster :) The only snag for me was the required work experience of two years, and I even took into account unofficial employmentI gained that added up to just over a year. In the end, I still tried and applied, prepared well for the interviews, and made a mini-presentation about how I see my job. And they believed in me!
And why HSE?
In a nutshell: for me, HSE is a space for healthy competition. At the bachelor course, your main rivals are your classmates, but now it's just you, and this leads to a better version of you.
What attracts you to work in the educational field?
There is no place for stagnation in modern education, even slowly, but it is undergoing changes and transformation, just like HSE. The University I entered for my first year of undergraduate studies is very different from the current one, and in five years it will be completely different. I really appreciate these changes. Of course, interacting with HSE students is a great pleasure for me.
Editor in the internal communications department, public relations Directorate
What are your responsibilities?
I write materials for the HSE University Life, I administer its Telegram channel, and coordinate Instagram accounts of the HSE buildings.
And to the question "why HSE" I always answer: because HSE is about people. There are a lot of cool people who constantly teach you something
Tell us your story, why HSE?
From the first year, it seemed that the opportunities offered by HSE could not be grasped, but I wanted to do everything. By the end of the second year, I realized that I wanted to look at it from the inside, get to know the people who create these opportunities. And so I did.
And to the question "why HSE" I always answer: because HSE is about people. There are a lot of cool people who constantly teach you something.
I like that my working day is like a Lego constructor. It's great that now I've managed to fill it with the projects and tasks that I'm interested in.
What attracts you in the education field?
I often tell my friends that I don't see myself in the commercial sphere yet. I like that now the work is not about financial KPIs, but rather about the creation of meanings (or rather, involvement in the creation), about the community.
How does the student background help in the current work?
It is much easier to initiate new projects and solve certain tasks when you are the target audience (or were it "yesterday"). Often you don't need to catch some insights when you can formulate them yourself.
Dispatcher at the HSE Cultural Center
I work in the HSE Cultural Center, in the event support Department. All "events'' here are more of a nominal thing. I am responsible for the Analytics, the media – maintaining social networks – and organising different event-based projects, such as the Competition of KTS branding, which lasted a whole year and is now at the general vote (as a PR and media manager I have to mention: please vote for the brand of the Cultural centre!)
The main project now is a Competition for the development of the KC brand. This is a very large-scale project with cool partners (ABCR, LG, Danone, HSE Store) and truly professional brand concepts created by our students, including Ad&PR students and powerful mentors from ABCR.
I also made sure that in HSE you can find people for all occasions. Organize a competition? Create a bot for registration? Make a cool visual for social networks? Easy.
Rekus Anna
How did you find a job at HSE?
To be honest, I wasn't really looking for it. They found me themselves. Quite by chance, at Voronovo (the student Congress), we met the head of our Department, talked, and she invited me and my friend to work in the KC, which at that time was just planning to open. And as it was said in Kung Fu Panda: "Accidents are not accidental" - it changed my life very dramatically :)
Has your perception of HSE changed when you are no longer a student, but an employee?
Of course, it has, in many ways. Working at HSE allowed me to appreciate the work of, for example, the staff of the training office even more, because communication with students is a rather complex process. Also, when you are behind the scenes, you begin to realize how huge HSE is. Seriously, did you know that we have more than 150 student organizations? When I was studying, I knew only 10 of them. This is the kind of shock I am talking about.
What new things did you find out about HSE that you didn't know when you were a student?
The main point is the process of organizing student events. When you look at it from the side of a CO participant, you don't realize how time-consuming and difficult it is. I also made sure that HSE can find people for all occasions: organize a competition? create a bot for registration? Make a cool visual for social networks? Easy.
Maria Eremina