One Company, Many Careers – From Technical Support Engineer in Ukraine to People Leader in Krakow – meet Nadiya Litvinova
3 min read
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Over the years, Cisco has practiced #internalmobility promotion, encouraging employees to move and develop within the company. Cisco is all about retaining and supporting top talent to pursue their passion. Under the motto #OneCompanyManyCareers, we will be sharing the success stories of our employees throughout the whole year!
Today’s story is about Nadiya, a Leader, Client Operations.
Tell us what has been your career journey at Cisco so far.
I joined Cisco through Adecco in 2013 in the Ukraine office as a Technical Support Engineer. Cisco was well-known for providing the best technical services and I wanted to be part of this team of experts.
After a year I was offered to move to Cracow where a bigger technical hub was evolving. This offer was a surprise for me and I cannot say it was easy to make a decision as I have never considered moving to another country but that offer sounded like an interesting challenge and opportunity to keep growing in a technical role. My personal motivation was also to familiarize myself with the new culture and potentially learn a new language.
After the move, I worked for a while with the same group of engineers but after a while, I started to expand my technical expertise to other products and moved to different teams and roles within HTTS and TAC.
3 years ago I moved to Asset management as a people leader – I was the first manager hired in that team in that location to create and lead a team here in Poland.
What or Who inspired you for the change?
I am always learning and exploring opportunities to grow and I always see change as a change for the better. The biggest shift in my career so far was that move from an individualcontributor role to people management.
Cisco’s culture promotes self-awareness and the company supports employees with the tools to help them to get to know themselves better and play to their strengths. In my case, I benefited the most from meeting Cisco leaders during town hall meetings and skip levels, exploring my strengths with Team Space, mentoring and coaching.
It would be unfair to not mention also my direct managers’ support. For instance, one of my managers suggested me to start with the Aspiring Leader training and leadership stretch assignments. I think this was a very good starting point to change my mindset and make an assessment of what I was missing. This program provided a good background on how Cisco sees leadership, and what knowledge and skills are required to become a team manager. It also included helpful live training and coaching services.
My manager also connected with a couple of people within Cisco who invested their time into my development and assisted me in better understanding the role and duties, preparing for an interview, and finding ways to gain more practical experience.
One of the key milestones in that journey was going for the rotation to CX Academy to work as a team manager for consulting engineers. This prepared me for the next step, and as the rotation was coming to an end, I moved to asset management.
What was your biggest learning through the transition?
If you think about changing a position, the first change should happen in your mindset: acknowledge your aspirations, and start thinking as you are already in that new role.
Change is an exciting journey, but sometimes it might feel like there is no clear path, you might be puzzled about where to start. Start with exploring your strengths, what brings you joy, and where your passion is. Take small steps and keep expanding your comfort zone.
What advice would you give to those who are thinking about a change but are still hesitant?
I would start the change by assessing where I am now and where I aspire to be. Acknowledge your aspirations and clarify for yourself what exactly you want to change. Visualize what you think you will or want to become, and try your skills in volunteering projects or activities Cisco offers. Always look for a good mentor and surround yourself with a group of supporters. It’s so much more exciting to walk this journey together!
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6 Comments
Inspiring. Thanks for sharing, Nadiya. Amazing journey!
Thanks for sharing your journey in Cisco Nadiya. All the best!
Very Inspiring! Keep growing your career Nadiya.
Loved to read about Nadiya's journey!
Thank you for sharing Nadiya's success story!
It inspires a lot!
Amazing story Nadiya! Thanks for sharing with all!