Meet Silvia – a developer in the Solutions & Upgrade Team at VMware Bulgaria. After an 8-year career in banking she felt she needed a change. Fast forward five years, Silvia had already graduated from Telerik Academy, had her first baby and she’s now a developer at VMware.
Tell us more about your career switch.
I had a 8-year career in finance and felt ready for a change. So I quit my job. Getting away was essential for new thinking and simply dust off cobwebs and routines in my brain. I was interested in product management, but I didn’t have any technical background. My first step was to apply for the Telerik Academy’s front-end program. I got accepted and after graduation I started working for a small outsourcing company. And then I got the news that I was pregnant. So, approximately one year after starting my first job in my new career I went on maternity leave.
How did you take the decision to change your career?
It took me a few years. My family’s support, especially my husband’s, was crucial in the decision to leave an established career in finance and start from scratch. It was hard for me, even though I had a clear plan laid out. I was ready to give up at least a few times. In my previous professional field, I was used to speaking the ‘finance’ language so to say. Suddenly everyone was talking in a language that I didn’t understand. I had to sharpen my problem-solving skills and develop my algorithmic thinking. I was way out of my comfort zone, but step by step I moved towards my goal. I am grateful I didn’t let my fears hold me back. I recognize my privilege in having support to embark on this new journey, acknowledging that many others face greater challenges and obstacles. However, I believe it is important for each of us to cultivate our own ‘personal toolbox’ and seek out at least one person to support us along the way.
How did you decide to join VMware?
After my maternity leave, I went back to work at the outsourcing company. My husband used to work for VMware, but I never thought this could be an option for me. I felt VMware was way out of my league. And then a friend of ours recommended me through the company’s internal referral program and I decided to give it a try. I prepared for the interviews as much as I could. I even took a crash course in Data Structures on a platform called Algoexpert. Three interviews and two weeks later I got an offer from VMware. I was so over excited that I said “yes” even before reading the terms of the offer. I was in awe that I was going to work with such smart, progressive, and passionate people. This amazing group of individuals is the company’s biggest asset, and I was looking forward to working with them.
What was the interview process like?
It was not a typical job interview. They were not focused on seeing if I checked all the boxes on a specific list of qualifications. Rather, the interviewees were more interested in how I approached a given problem, how I analyzed its knowns and unknowns, how I reached a conclusion and the way I communicated it. The interview focused a lot on my social and soft skills.
When I joined the team, I was amazed by how different we all were in our personality types, temperaments, approaches to work and problem solving. And yet everyone made me feel welcome. No matter the seniority level, everyone is open to guiding whoever needs help and I never felt inadequate even though I had very little experience compared to some of my colleagues.
How do you balance motherhood and career in a new company?
I believe that you can have it all, just not at the same time. In the beginning, I was trying to be a great mom, to continuously learn on my new job, to make time for myself and my family and I felt exhausted. Then I realized that the key to balancing motherhood and career is to accept that the scales will be shifted in favor of one or the other at different moments in time and life.
However, in order to have this choice you need understanding and support from both your family and the company you work for. Luckily VMware acknowledges these needs, allows for a lot of flexibility and ways to make this balance possible. For example, we have access to a lot of self-paced learning resources, plus we have additional EPIC2 days off for self-recharge, learning something new or catching up with family time. Impossible is nothing, as long as you have the right environment to flourish in.
Read more from our Women at VMware series: Ina Uzunova talks about how her team cultivates an innovation spirit among many other themes.
