Julia Solovyova is a well-known woman in the IT world, because since the beginning of 2013 she has been the general director of the Google representative office in Russia. How did Julia become a director and what was her life like before taking office?
Childhood and youth
Yulia Solovyova is one of the members of the Personnel Reserve of the President of the Russian Federation (this reserve consists of the so-called “presidential thousand” management personnel). And in 2010, according to the rating of the popular magazine Finance, Julia was included in the TOP business women of the Russian Federation.
Julia was born in Severodonetsk in the territory of the Ukrainian SSR. Julia's dad is from the Don, and mom is a citizen of Lithuania. Julia's parents met in St. Petersburg while studying, and then moved to Moscow. After dad went to Severodonetsk on a business trip, mom, being in a position, decided to go with him. Julia and her twin sister were born in this city.
Since dad worked as a diplomat and specialized in African countries, Julia’s childhood passed in Africa and Moscow. Because of this, the whole family spent a lot of time in America, Nigeria, Ethiopia and other countries. In 1993, Julia graduated from Moscow State Linguistic University at the Faculty of Foreign Languages. Julia also studied at Harvard Business School, where she received an MBA degree.
TOP management
After completing her studies, Julia Solovieva found her first job and became the development manager of Global Telesystems (a telecommunications organization). Also, Julia at different times held the following posts in the same field:
- Director of Operations and Development at Mary Kay, a cosmetic organization.
- Director of organizational development of the television organization NTV-Plus.
- A leading position in the Dutch consulting organization Booz Allen Hamiton.
Since the beginning of the 2000s, Julia Solovyova also continued to work as a TOP manager in several of the largest telecommunications corporations. So, she showed herself perfectly in the following companies: Mobile TeleSystems, ProfMedia and Telecom Express.
Since the beginning of 2009, Julia moved to a new position for herself - she became the chairman of the board of directors at Rambler Media. And two years later, in 2011, she became president of ProfMedia, but at the end of that year she decided to resign and resigned.
And finally, in 2013, Julia moved to work for Google, where she immediately took the position of Director General of the representative office of this company in Russia. It should be noted that before her entry the girl underwent about 30 different interviews with many top managers of the organization, and these interviews lasted 6 months.
Such a fairly dynamic marathon can be explained by the relevant policies of Google. According to her policy, it is necessary to ensure the most coordinated team of directors in all regional offices. It is important that the team of directors in regional offices really be a team, and its members are suitable both professionally and in human relationships. According to the general expression of the organization, this interaction means "to be google." That is why newcomers to the company are called Nooglers.
As Julia herself notes, this initiative comes from potential employers. It should be noted that Solovyova, choosing this position, rejected another, more promising vacancy - this is the director’s position in the company of the publishing house Sanoma Independent Media.
Julia’s work in Google and its advantages
In the new position, Yulia had to quickly adapt and adapt to the freedom-loving order of the organization. Yulia also had to get used to the fact that she does not have and will not have large offices, as well as to many other standards of Google’s offices. However, as Julia notes, such standards have advantages.
For example, regardless of where the person is, he will always feel as if he is at home, next to a family of the same workers in a single Google space. Also, the company does not have a dress code, so any director or employee (including the founder) may appear in shorts. However, the company works on the principle of self-organization, because here everyone is the master of his own time. That is, a person can work today, and tomorrow - be at the weekend. Only the result is important in this matter.
Julia notes that the girls in this organization have created very comfortable conditions. This may include:
- Three meals a day.
- Multifunctional kitchen.
- Fresh juice.
- Light snacks and fruits are always available.
- Showers.
- Table tennis.
- Massage rooms and hairdressers.
- Dry cleaners.
Google also has excellent insurance. For example, for women it is pregnancy management insurance, material support after the birth of a child, as well as special programs for children under the age of one year.
At the moment, the specialist is faced with a large-scale task - the organization of joint development of the company's vision and improvement of its work in Russia. She has a lot of time, since in her personal life Yulia was not very lucky - she almost became a wife three times, but she always thought better of it, and never supplemented her biography with her husband and children.
