Society

The Abrau-Durso group of companies is a leader in the Russian winemaking market. Tatiana Babina, a graduate of the continuing professional development (CPD) programme at HSE University, is working to maintain and strengthen that position. In this interview with Success Builder, she explains why she chose HSE University, why an accomplished specialist needs to continue her studies, and whose opinion in the company reigns on the subject of winetasting.

Having graduated from the bachelor’s and master’s programmes and enrolled in the HSE University PhD programme, Mikhail Zhemkov successfully combines practical tasks with research. As a department head in the Central Bank’s Monetary Department, he actively conducts research while making decisions that diretly affect the country’s economy. In this interview with Success Builder, Mr. Zhemkov explains how conversing with his fellow HSE University students helped his studies, what exactly macroeconomists study, and why the Central Bank has time for everything.

In IT, you can never stop, even to validate your new skills with new certificates and degrees. This is the path taken by Konstantin Zamkov, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the HSE Business Informatics programme and now works as director of project management at VTB. In this interview with SB, he explains how to manage IT projects, why IT specialists need knowledge of finance and what VTB is doing to develop unique software.

Ekaterina Mikhailova graduated from HSE University’s Political Science programme in 2019 and is convinced that the knowledge she gained is relevant to the challenges of modern business. She currently holds the position of Head of Strategic Development at Changellenge. In this interview, she spoke about what political scientists do at HSE University, how HR professionals respond when they have doubts about an applicant, and what soft skills are needed to successfully pass an interview.

For Okko platform users, the decision of what to watch is based on an ideal set of recommendations and an accurate search. The well-coordinated work of that search function is led by HSE graduate and Senior Data Scientist Shukhrat Khalilbekov. In this interview with Success Builder, he explains how he chose a master’s programme, studied and worked up to 16 hours a day, and what a senior data scientist in a major company actually does.

Psychologists Sergey Andreev and Egor Surdeykin are both graduates of HSE University. Together with other graduates of the university, they created a project to provide supplementary education for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The programme for middle- and high-school students covers such subjects as computer science, programming, and mathematics.

HSE University graduates and the Nochlezhka charity organisation have launched a social media project called ‘Gde-to ryadom’ (‘Somewhere Nearby’) about volunteering to help homeless people. The project offers a look at volunteer work from various perspectives through personal stories, expert opinions, and interactive cases.

Russia’s largest bank is no longer a bank, but a whole ecosystem of products and services—all made possible thanks to the work of the Sber AI Transformation Centre. In this interview with Success Builder, Nikita Khudov— HSE University ICEF graduate and Sber AI Transformation Centre Executive Director—explains how artificial intelligence works for us, how sports help with work, and how earning two university degrees is useful in work.

As adept at mathematics as HSE MIEM graduate and Twin3D Chief Engineer Nikita Zimenko was, he turned out to be even more inquisitive, with the result that he fell out of love with math and set his sights on digital technologies instead. In this interview with Success Builder, he explained how to conduct research on astromechanics, what 3D animators do with the human body and whether metaverses have a future.

Katya Melnikhova, a graduate of the HSE master’s programme in Psychology, is convinced that it is necessary to create an educational environment for children in which everyone can succeed. She and her husband head the Kavardak art residence programme that is based on the principle of democratic education. What does this mean? How does a background in psychology translate to coaching? How to raise a person to be happy? In an interview with Success Builder, Ms Melnikhova spoke about this and more.