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Someone who needs nothing but a laptop and a stable internet connection can work whenever and whereever desired. This lifestyle is perfect for someone like Aliaksandra Bakhoryna, product owner at Eveon. We explain how she will soon be working with Belarusian developers from Greece for a Dutch company – and making the world a little better every day in the process.
The sea is blue, the sun is shining and there's a gentle breeze. That's the view from Aliaksandra's workplace – and her balcony, which she's also used on occasion during video conferences. As this article is being written, she is currently working on the Greek island of Crete, but who knows where she might find herself in a few months. Born in Belarus, she never stays in one place for long. After graduating with a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science in Belarus, she began travelling to faraway places. She then received a scholarship for an MBA program at the Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands. After completing her education, she began working for several major corporations and gained experience in building and designing online stores and websites. She also built Eveon's online store. "It's my baby," says Aliaksandra with a laugh.
The greatest challenge is doing everything at the same time
"My job is to make developers understand what we need for our website, so that our customers can use our store as easily as possible," explains Aliaksandra. To achieve this, she works with teams of developers, always checking user data and seeing what can be improved. "The greatest challenge is doing all everything at the same time," says Aliaksandra. "I have to make a lot of decisions under time pressure, so that our developers can do their job. In the process, of course, I always consult with the team, but the final 'go ahead' is often up to me. And we never seem to have enough time." But when Aliaksandra talks about it, you can quickly tell from her tone that this is exactly what makes her job so exciting and why she loves it.
Success through processes and psychology
To achieve a good work-life balance, Aliaksandra likes to get out into nature. At her current location in Crete, she loves being by the sea, though she also enjoys hiking to clear her head. "I'm really happy that I can work so flexibly, also from Greece. That's not always a given!" she says. It is probably the combination of a globetrotter's free thinking and a penchant for psychology and processes that makes Aliaksandra so successful at her job. "We recently designed a new payment process from scratch in half a day. The entire process from start to finish. Today, we see that customers are using it and we are getting good feedback from them," Aliaksandra tells us. "That's something I really enjoy about my job."
Thinking ahead sustainably
In the future, Aliaksandra's team is likely to expand. The goal is to use her network in Belarus to find more developers for Eveon as the online store grows. However, Aliaksandra doesn't just have her career in mind when it comes to her work: "I'm very sustainability focused. Even here in Crete, I find myself picking up trash on the beach, even though it's not my beach. I've always wanted to create something sustainable at work. The fact that I'm now helping make the container business climate-neutral is something I didn't expect a few years ago, of course, but am very pleased about all the same."