Mariia Naumovets was a Femme Palette mentee, who just finished our Mentoring program. She a Trainer for PisaSales CRM system and an ICF ACC Coach with a background in Cognitive Science and research.. In this spotlight interview, we asked Mariia about her journey towards becoming a trainer and a coach, how she made the switch from academia to a full-time job, what the biggest challenges she faced making the career pivot and so much more.
I am a CRM trainer in an IT company in Berlin and a certified coach (ICF ACC). I got my Bachelor's in Biology in Kyiv, Ukraine and my Master's in Cognitive Science in Kaiserslautern, Germany. My job is training customers of our company on how our Customer Relationship Management system works and how it can simplify their daily processes, as well as creating video tutorials and structuring the CRM Academy website.
After graduating from my Master's, I moved to Austria to pursue my PhD in Neurolinguistics. Studying the brain and how it processes and produces language has always been fascinating for me. But then COVID hit. Because of lockdowns, I could not get enough participants for my experiments. There was not enough data to publish anything, I slowly fell out of love with my field of research and realized that I don't want to pursue a career in academia. So after long consideration, I decided not to finish my PhD and to look for a full-time job that would be more practical and related to helping people. I completed Coaching training and got certified by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Thanks to my Cognitive Science and University Teaching background, I knew how the brain learns and memorizes best, plus teaching has always brought me joy. So I was happy to get a job as a CRM trainer and apply my skills there.
I was a bit anxious about working in a company. During a PhD no one really depended on me and I mostly organized my work on my own. My progress was my own responsibility. Now, as a trainer, I have to cater to customers' needs and deliver good training and video content, I can't let my team and our customers down. However, seeing the spark of understanding and excitement in the eyes of customers always motivates me to do my best, so I really enjoy my tasks and responsibilities. In academia, you need lots of patience to see your work bear fruit many years in the future, but in my job I can see the results of my efforts instantly, which is immensely rewarding. Also, work is fun when you have such an amazing and supportive team!
I have to make training efficient and yet fun to maximize retention. Of course, university teaching is different from corporate training because students often study to pass exams and implementation comes later, while employees study to learn hands-on skills to apply instantly. So at university we often transfer knowledge, while at companies we encourage behavior change. The best outcome is if an employee/client not just understands the material and has fun in the training, but replaces old habits and workflows with new ones and is able to work faster and more efficiently with our CRM. Often everything seems clear when I show various functions, but later they struggle to reproduce the workflows. That's why I include lots of exercises for customers to try things out in the software and to come up with questions. It's also crucial to be patient and to adjust to different levels: some customers master software in no time, while others struggle with new interfaces and need slower explanation in more detail. The most important skill is to be able to put yourself in the customer's shoes: to find what they need, what motivates them, what exercises are relevant to their workflows, to imagine how they can have the best experience and learn the most useful functions for their work.
It was really hard to quit my PhD. I love planning experiments, gathering data and analysing it. But in academia there is often an atmosphere of competition rather than collaboration, there are a lot of rules that make it hard to do pure research. Academia is extremely challenging, which is why in order to succeed one needs to be totally in love with one's topic, to be obsessed about it. And I guess I wasn't. I am fascinated about how the world works and especially the human brain, but I am much more motivated by implementing knowledge to help people right now. That's why teaching and coaching felt extremely rewarding and fun for me. Many people told me that I just had to hold on, gather all my willpower and finish the PhD, that it would be worth it. I thought I was just scared of the obstacles, but when I pictured myself on stage getting my PhD degree after overcoming all the struggles, I felt... absolutely nothing. That made it clear for me that I had no reason to power through and finish it. I was greatly relieved when I made the decision to quit and have never regretted it since.
When I started looking for jobs in L&D, I joined L&D Shakers community and met lots of L&D professionals, I helped them organize an event about various L&D careers, learning a lot about this field in the process. But I had never worked in a company before, so I wanted to find a mentor to guide me on this journey and teach me more about the field. That is how I stumbled upon Femme Palette and met Jana, my mentor. She helped me get the job and prepare for my first full-time job in an IT company.
My biggest goal was to "Get an interesting job offer in HR or L&D within 3 months with a salary of at least XXXX brutto", which I achieved fully, having negotiated an even larger salary. My mentor Jana helped me by teaching me more about HR, L&D and how companies are structured, by telling me about her career journey and by helping me get more confidence for the interviews. After I landed the job, Jana helped me to calm down my anxieties about working in a company, to get a more adult mindset around responsibility and to improve my productivity. She shared a lot of her valuable experience and was truly attentive and supportive, which gave me more confidence to succeed.
The overall experience was amazing: Femme Palette found a great mentor for me, helped set SMART goals and keep track of my progress. My mentor helped me prepare for interviews and make a decision about the job. I received a lot of valuable knowledge, experience and support from my mentor, which helped me become more responsible and confident at my job. Thank you, Femme Palette, for helping women succeed! And thank you, Jana <3 Keep doing the good work!
Are you at current considering making a career pivot and are looking to surround yourself with the guidance of those who understand the field you are interested in? Get support from your mentor and get the support you need through our mentoring program.
