"Consulting Is Not About Comfort, It Builds Character"

Ekaterina Pavchinskaya earned her bachelor’s from ICEF in 2018. Currently a senior analyst in Ozon marketplace management department, she is preparing to become an Ozon certified financial partner in July 2022. In this interview, Ekaterina tells about how to land business travels to Las Vegas and still have personal time while working for a Big Three consulting firm. 

About deciding on HSE and ICEF

I decided to set my sights on ICEF as early as grade nine because I wanted to study economics and finance in English. While doing the preparatory course at HSE I realized it was exactly what I wanted. Many of the guys who were doing that course with me became my fellow students at ICEF – it’s always encouraging to be part of the environment that motivates to move forward and has people you can learn from. That’s exactly what HSE is about, and I knew it way back then. Its students are remarkable people.

About professionalism

In my first year I didn’t reflect much on the practical side of my future profession. My only aspiration was for the job to keep me interested. Job satisfaction is what I still value most, so I’ve always pursued the jobs I really cared about.

Internships are the best thing students can benefit from career-wise and in terms of professional self-discovery

Internships are really a great way to shape and put your skills to work, from basic Excel skills to interpersonal communication to coming across as a competent professional to becoming a good self-presenter. It’s essential that you make the most of your internship. I interned with multinational Sanofi AG while a student, and that experience did prove useful in many ways. It put my mind to pursuing a career in consulting and I subsequently landed a job at Bain & Company – this place had and still has many employees with degrees from ICEF.

Very prestigious, true. But I can’t say embarking on consulting – and at one of the largest multinationals – is an easy thing to do. Quite the opposite. Consulting is not about comfort, it builds character. The uniqueness of consultant experience is that it teaches you to maintain self-control and concentration while feeling overworked and exhausted and trying to squeeze out time for personal life. Bain is a great place to get mature, not only in professional sense.

About working at Aeroflot

I went to work at Aeroflot because the projects I was responsible for at Bain were in civil aviation – the industry I’ve had an interest in since I was a child. Altogether I was happy with my job as a senior business analyst, especially before the Coronavirus broke out. I got to learn all ins and outs of Aeroflot’s flight network and carriages, successfully doing the analytics.

I even got to sit in pilot seat onboard our largest aircraft, B-777, and made a business trip to Las Vegas

About Ozon

I landed a job at Ozon quite by accident. The vacancy was posted by one of the alumni on ICEF Career Services Telegram channel and I found it interesting. My leaving Aeroflot was basically due to the pandemic-caused reduction in its activity. I am currently in Ozon marketplace management team. My duties involve financial analysis but my primary role is to ensure that Ozon remains a comfortable and convenient marketplace for sellers.

With growth opportunities, especially for early-career professionals, Ozon is a wonderful place to be. It boasts a robust team, ambitious tasks, growth performance, friendly atmosphere and good jobs. In fact, my job here is very much like the consulting job I did at Bain, with diverse range of tasks, the difference being that at Ozon there is one specific area I am much more deeply involved in, which enables faster decision-making. Ozon is completely devoid of red tape. It gives its team the freedom to do the work they think matters most. Here, decisions are made and put into action almost immediately – this, I think, is one of the things that made Ozon a success story.

About Ekaterina:

2018: graduation from ICEF bachelor’s degree programme. While a student, Ekaterina interned with Sanofi AG in 2016 and Accenture in 2017.

2018-2019: consultant at Bain & Company. Hired for internship.

2019-2021: senior business analyst at Aeroflot.

2021-present: Ozon marketplace management department, senior analyst.