On March 14, the students of ICEF met with Artur Khalatov, member of the class of 2014 bachelor’s degree graduates and Head of Business Strategy & Economics at Ozon Premium. Organized by ICEF Career Services and Ozon Fintech, the meeting was held right in the company’s office and was followed by a tour of Ozon and Ozon Fintech’s premises, where the students could talk to the staff in a more informal atmosphere.
Now that COVID restrictions have been lifted, ICEF Career Services is able to hold meetings not only online or on HSE campus, but also in company offices. On March 14, the students of all years of study visited the office of Ozon Fintech, located in one of the Moscow City towers, to meet Artur Khalatov, a graduate of ICEF bachelor’s programme and currently the Head of Business Strategy & Economics at Ozon Premium.
The students had many interesting questions to ask. Some dealt with fintech and its development trends in Russia, how Ozon sees its future in the current situation and what qualities it expects job candidates to have. The answers prompted the conclusion that fintech is a fairly stable career field. While recent economic events have had an impact on the majority of companies, they didn’t put Ozon Fintech’s strategic plans on hold. The company continues to operate according to plan and welcomes ICEF students as its future interns and employees. Students who wish to start careers in fintech and have technology skills are welcome in product development, and those without them in strategy development, market research and competitor analysis.
The official part of the visit was followed by the tour of Ozon’s premises, which occupy several floors in one of Moscow City Towers. Talking over coffee to the employees, the students could enjoy the view of the city lights from the 50th floor. They learned about how they can make the most of the growth opportunities and just made friends with Ozon personally. ICEF students will be able to apply for internships at Ozon and start gaining the required professional experience as early as April.
Andrey Ochev, ICEF, first-year student
Ozon is one of the main components of Russia’s future economic growth. This would be my biggest takeaway from the Embankment Tower, where the company is housed. Ozon boasts a team of very young people, whose main task is to make life easier for Ozon users, which is very cool. I learned that the qualities to be cultivated in the first place by those wishing to work in fintech industry are structured, agile thinking and stress resistance. Ozon is remarkably flexible to changes in the outside world – the strategy which is going to be essential to corporate performance success in the next 10 to 20 years.
Students of ICEF may not have as strong technology skills as MIPT (Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology) or other engineering students have, but we might be Russia’s best experts on customer needs, corporate needs, and how people want their everyday lives to be. I want to be of benefit to my future company and I see my major asset to be structured thinking skills that I could use for developing technologies to help to make average person’s life more comfortable.
For me, the prospects of fintech as a career field lie in its being at the confluence of information technology, finance and economics – exactly what we study every day at our Pokrovka campus. Along with being a swiftly growing industry, fintech is very young and fresh in that it’s focused on fostering advance for the entire civilization. This makes fintech a highly promising direction.
Vera Potekhina, ICEF, second-year student
It’s been a pleasure meeting the company, its people, and enjoying their atmosphere. We could see them work on-site in their office – quite an unusual experience after Covid. We learned a lot about fintech from Artur Khalatov and we now have a much clearer picture of how fintech works at Ozon and what tasks and duties its team have. Also, and importantly, we learned about the prospects in fintech in the current realities.
Ozon is generally seen by students as an attractive employer. Many of my friends are interning with it. I would like to try myself in its fintech department, specifically, Business Development. Arthur spoke in detail about what it is and he got us interested. Also, it’s been a useful experience talking with recruiters and asking them questions.
Artem Gorbatov, ICEF, fourth-year student
This tour let me know that Ozon, which is Russia’s leading marketplace, is intending to promote fintech as its direction for growth. Ozon Fintech products have proved effective, boosting the convenience of services and creating additional contact points between Ozon and its customers, which is bound to have an overall positive impact on customer loyalty and KPI. Artur Khalatov, who is an ICEF graduate himself, shared tips for successful career start – the knowledge that proved particularly useful for me.
I would like to join Ozon Fintech’s Business Development department. It’s a great place for applying many of the skills I learned at ICEF and for experiencing a highly motivated, competent and fairly young team.
I see Fintech as a highly promising field with many unfilled niches. Moreover, as economies are becoming more technologically advanced and complex, there appear more opportunities and needs for the development of fintech products.
