My name is Dima Ivanov. All my life, starting from school, I have been a man of technology: I graduated from a gymnasium in mathematics, got a higher education at the Novgorod State University named after Yaroslav the Wise, specializing in ‘Software for Computing and Automated Systems’ (Computer Science). And so, I have been working in IT for 19 years. Like other IT folks, I've been living in the world of servers, clusters, services, platforms and systems. And I have been building my career. By trial and error. At a certain moment I changed my career and found myself in a game development company Sperasoft, where all the personnel, even outside the IT department, were the IT folks! But the thing that struck me the most was the Project Managers. Back then, it seemed to me, like to all techies, that it was an easy-to-do job - just talking. And it paid well. Two years later I got a System Engineer job at GGA Software Services. After several projects completed successfully with clients from the top 5 pharmaceutical companies around the world, I realized that as a technical specialist I had fulfilled all my current ambitions. I easily played the role of an architect and built quite complex solutions based on Microsoft products, including clouds, clusters, virtualization, failover features and automation of all processes.
That's why the retrospective of the last three years of work left me stumped: no matter what role I took on a project (System Engineer, Technical Lead or Architect), I managed 1-2 teams each time, built relationships with all employees and interfaced closely with the Client's management. It became clear that I had enough of ignoring the fact that I could manage teams and it was time to move to Project Management. But it was predestined differently - at that moment EPAM Systems, which had just passed over headcount of 10000, acquired our business. While I was awaiting a project, my manager asked me to help with the bench in the location, which was over 40% due to the rapid growth of the company - 400 people were sitting without work. Not because there wasn't any. There was just so much work that even with 100% loading of all the people in the company, there would still not be enough employees to take on all the projects. All because the old processes were no longer working, and no one had invented new ones yet. Two years passed unnoticed. I successfully sorted out the bench issue, and, at the same time, built all the processes for 1000+ people within one location. Later I did the same for the Hybris competency for 15 locations and 2000+ people: I developed and implemented the processes of staffing and bench management and converted them into a global service. After that I built all the necessary services: a unified hiring process, a unified mentoring program, analytics, relocation, career development program, as well as opening a competency from scratch in a location on a turnkey basis. Using the experience and knowledge I gained, I created the MACH Alliance competency from scratch in 2020 and grew it in 15 countries for 1000+ people over 2 years. As a technical person, it was difficult for me to succeed in negotiations as it was a Humanities field. But at some point I realized that all meetings, negotiations and processes were algorithms! Just like when writing code. You use words to describe the mechanism, how it should work and the conditions for all the “what if?” cases Negotiating a raise in salary, a new position, or a new project with your manager are algorithms. The same goes for the business processes and services I've built. Any call with a team, management or business are algorithms and the script that everything follows. If something goes wrong, it means that part of the meeting didn't get enough thought. By working through the missing part of the script, the next time you get a completely ordinary situation. In 2022, I relocated 800+ people to Serbia. Relocation is not just about bringing a person to another country. It is building a process from scratch and optimizing it. It also requires sorting out the work of all internal services and setting up their interface in such a way that they can serve almost a thousand people in 5 months, without losing anyone and without going insane. The result - full automation of all processes and reduction of the staff involved in the relocation from 50 to 8 people in 3 months. An essential part of relocation is working with people, with everyone in need of help. I believe that people are not just some numbers in a report, they are the main asset of any company. After a crisis happens, everyone needs assistance and support. If an employee is in chaos and permanent stress, the delivery of the project will fail. The company will lose clients and, hence, will have to cut costs - lay off people if it fails to find new projects quickly. It's important to realize that clear-cut processes and work with employees in a human way will significantly increase everyone's commitment. As a result, people will be even happier to work for the company and company will benefit from it for many years to come.
A huge amount of knowledge and experience gained on various projects, including crisis projects, as well as the career path I have traveled in companies from 10 to 60000 people all over the world, allow me to solve problems of various complexity and help IT specialists, managers and top managers solve problems related to soft skills at any scale. I take great pleasure in building processes, programs and services in IT companies around the world.