How an Immigrant Landed a Career in the US: Evgeniia Unzhakova’s TripleTen Story

Often, the easiest part of immigration is the trip. Once you land, you can find yourself in a country where you struggle with the language, might not have the right to work, and don’t understand the local customs of finding and beginning a job.

So what do you do? For Evgeniia Unzhakova, you enroll in TripleTen. Here’s how she joined the bootcamp, reskilled, and started a career in the US.

Overturning a decade of experience

In 2009, Evgeniia graduated from Chuvash State University in Cheboksary, a city of roughly 500,000 that is just under 400 miles east of Moscow. After getting her degree, she stuck around at the university, where she found a job teaching math. Had she worked there for two more months, she would have spent a decade in that position.

But in 2019, she and her family moved to the United States. Despite her nearly ten years of experience at the school, it was clear to her that she had to find something new in America. “I decided to choose another career path because I knew I couldn’t teach,” she said.

Her husband was a programmer, but that path didn’t appeal to her. “I’m not a programmer. I tried, but it’s not for me.” So she started looking for something that would dovetail with her background in math. Soon, she found data science_{What’s Included in TripleTen’s Data Science Bootcamp?}.

It was what I was looking for. It’s a science between math and programming. Evgeniia Unzhakova, TripleTen grad

She just had to figure out how to pursue it. Initially, she considered getting a degree, but found the pace unsatisfying. “I tried to go for community college, but it wasn’t for me because it was a slow way to reach my goal.”

Instead, she wanted something that could get her back into the workforce quickly. Her husband stumbled upon TripleTen. “My husband found this course for me. I tried it, and it worked for me.”

She took the plunge and started studying data science.

Multiplying her skills to revamp her career

A few things came together to enable Evgeniia to concentrate on the bootcamp full-time. Her visa didn’t allow her to work in the first place, so she had no job to worry about. And then, a year after she moved to the US, the pandemic struck. “During COVID, I stayed at home with my children and took the courses.”

Her main hurdle was time management_{How Much Time Would I Need to Invest?}, but she developed a strategy to make sure she had ample opportunity to dive into the bootcamp. “I would take a full day, close the door, and say that nothing and no one should interrupt me.”

And the community kept her engaged, too.

We had an interesting group. When I was learning, it was 50% men and 50% women, and there were all different ages and different people. Evgeniia Unzhakova, TripleTen grad

These people from her cohort also stayed in touch to lend a hand when needed. “We helped each other. We had a great discussion group and shared some interesting links. It was a great time for me.”

This community was especially important for her when she was presenting her final project. After gaining all the knowledge and mastering the ins-and-outs of data science, all she had to do was prove her command of the field. And for someone who doubted her fluency in English, that was a challenge. 

But her fellow students came in and gave her the assurance she needed. “My teammate helped me a lot. I was very nervous. I forgot all of the words. I was stressed. But my teammate said, ‘Calm down, relax. You’ll do a great job.’”

Relaunching a career in academia

The prediction from Evgeniia’s teammate was proven correct; she graduated in June 2021. From there, she started looking for data-based jobs. This was where she encountered her next stumbling block. See, different countries do interviews differently. And Evgeniia had no experience interviewing in the United States. “I was asked about soft skills: how do you work with a team? What do you do with problems? It was strange; if you don’t live here, you don’t know how to answer some of these questions.”

But thanks to the career prep_{How TripleTen’s Career Center Helps You Land a Job} baked into TripleTen, she was ready. “The team prepares you to show that you’re positive and involved.”

By the way, that person who was asking her about her soft skills? It was the supervisor who decided to hire her, so she obviously knew what to say. 

Now, she’s back in academia. Only instead of teaching, she’s deep in data. She’s a research analyst at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she’s using her know-how to increase enrollment in the school. For her, “April, May, and June are a busy time.”

And she’s expanding what she can do with data science. Although she’s in an analyst role, she is currently working on a natural language processing project. It’s only adding to her investment in the field. “Modern science is taking place around data — big data, small data. It’s always about data. I think it’s the future.”

Best of all, she’s found a career that she feels confident in. “It’s easy to show my skills,” she said, smiling.

Our pitch to you

If you, too, are looking for a part-time bootcamp that will help you relaunch a fulfilling and exciting career by switching to tech, then check out TripleTen’s Data Science bootcamp.