SHARED KNOWLEDGE: DASHA AMROM
A profile of Warwick alumna Dasha Amrom
Warwick alumna Dasha Amrom (MBA, graduated 2012) is the Managing Director of her own career and business coaching consultancy, Career Coaching Ventures. She is a contributor to the Guardian’s Small Business Network and enjoys passing on the knowledge she has gained from working in large international organisations. Here she tells us why she loves her job and how being daring in your career can sometimes pay dividends.
1. What are you working on?
After graduating from Warwick Business School, I set up my own career and business coaching consultancy in London. Currently, I’m concentrating on running individual and executive career coaching sessions and developing sales and social media marketing training programmes for small business owners and entrepreneurs. I also contribute articles and editorials, both for the Guardian and for a local paper. My article on the Guardian’s Small Business Network was published recently ( ‘If you have an idea for a business, don’t let it slip through your fingers’ ). I was also invited to participate in a couple of the Guardian’s live Q&A career advice sessions to advise individuals about MBAs and placements and internships.
2. Aside from the money, what do you get out of your job?
I love interacting with people, talking to them about their life experiences, dreams and aspirations. It’s amazing to see again and again how different we all are and a lot of people I speak to as part of my job have diverse international backgrounds, so I tend to learn a lot about their countries, culture and specific working practices. So I am lucky to be able to both share my knowledge and receive new exciting information in return!
I also like to see people succeed – if anything, this is one of the main reasons I have decided to set up my company. I wanted to share the knowledge I have accumulated during the years of working for large international organisations so that other people can use it to advance and, hopefully, avoid the mistakes that I made along my career path.
You have to be mentally prepared for a lot of disappointment and difficult times on the way to success
3. How did you get where you are today?
Education, hard work and confidence that I can do what I have set my mind to. I have to say that my parents first instilled the tremendous respect for education and constant self-improvement in me as a teenager, which has eventually led me to complete two Masters degrees and work my way up in the organisations I had worked in. I am fortunate that my husband has also been very supportive of the idea of me setting up my own business and has helped a lot along the way.
4. What’s the best advice you could give to someone wishing to follow in your footsteps?
I would say ‘be daring’ and prepare yourself for a lot of rejections and challenges! You have to be mentally prepared for a lot of disappointment and difficult times on the way to success. I have lived through a lot of low points when you start reassessing whether you have made the right decision but I learned not to dwell on negative points and to move forward through constant innovation. As a manager of a small business, you should never be complacent – strive to amend your strategies on a daily basis. If you see something isn’t quite working out, try something else until you find your optimum.
I would also advise that whatever you do, aim to provide your customers with best-in-class customer service and try to fulfil your promises. I find that people give great reviews and choose to stay with a particular service provider if they have received one-to-one attention – a follow-up courtesy phone call may be all that is necessary to ensure your current customer recommends your firm to others and comes back to you for more work in the future.
5. Tell us something unusual about yourself
I consider myself ‘a citizen of the world’ – I can’t really pinpoint where my home is. I have lived and worked in the United States, Belarus, the UK, South Korea, and Czech Republic and travelled in many other countries.
6. Quick fire round:
Favourite book: ‘Capital’ by John Lanchester
Favourite app: I like all kinds of WordPress apps for website development
Favourite artist: I really like the paintings of Claude Monet
Favourite place: The East coast of Australia
Favourite number: 5 (the top grade in the Russian school system)
Favourite idea: “Things do not happen. Things are made to happen”. JFK
Favourite food: Russian borsch
Favourite thing: Person, actually – my son!
Favourite thing about yourself: My optimism
You can access the interview here: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/knowledge/business/dashaamrom/
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