Meet Yelyzaveta Losieva
Yelyzaveta Losieva graduated with a Honours Master of Computer Science, Taras Shevchenko National from University of Kyiv, in 2020. Prior to that, she earned a Bachelors Degree in Applied Mathematics, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, in 2018. She's actively searching for work in Data Science field. In her spare time, she likes travelling, discovering new things, skiing, swimming, and also loves visiting art exhibitions and museums.
When did your love of STEM begin?
To begin with, from early childhood I was interested and excited in the technology field. I mean that I’ve always been interested in such type of questions: "How this machine or mechanism works?" and "Why does it work that way?". In middle school, I became really interested in physics and IT and in recent years I was interested in programming. For example, in high school, I learned HTML. In eighth grade I already decided that I will connect my life with programming. Also during the last four years at school, I’ve taken part in the physics and web-design Olympiad. Among the school subjects, I liked mathematics, physics, and programming the most. Then I enrolled at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv at Faculty of Computer Science and Cybernetics with a scholarship program and got a Bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics. That gave me great knowledge of various mathematical disciplines. After that, I decided to get a Masters's Degree in Informatics. During studying Masters I got excited about Data Science and especially Natural Language Processing. During my studies at the university, I met a lot of amazing groupmates that continue inspiring me even nowa. Also, I was very active and tried to attend as many different professional meetings as possible and to communicate with different people. Later, many of these people became my friends and also influenced me to get into the tech field and chose my own way.
What is the best part about working in the field of STEM?
I firmly believe that there are a lot of great things about working in the field of STEM. First of all, there are a lot of different directions and branches, so everyone can find something interesting for themselves. If after several years you are not as interested or excited as was at the beginning of your career or achieved some level in your domain of work, then you can always change or switch to another field (for example, from front-/back-development to data science or even management), since there is always some basis that is similar in many directions and it will not be difficult to re-qualify or learning something new. The whole STEM field is very flexible. There is always room for growth and development in this area. You can also always go to managerial positions and each new job or position is a new challenge and a new interesting chapter of career growth. Also, technologies are developing so quickly and rapidly that working in this area there is always something to learn and find something new for yourself. You will never be bored. No other area has such a huge number of different communities and people who are ready to support, give advice and help as in STEM. The current situation in the world proves that it is possible to work in STEM effectively on a remote on a permanent basis, which is not the case in other areas.
What advice would you give young women interested in a career in STEM?
Believe in yourself and you will achieve everything you want. Even if there are some difficulties and something doesn't work out for you, it means that you are on the right track. It can always be difficult and incomprehensible at first. Try to find like-minded people, go to different thematic meetings, conferences, join different tech communities such as WomenTechmakers, Women Who Code, Google Developer Groups, Google Developer Student Club, Facebook Developer Circles, etc. Most of them are available in each country and in each region. Don't be afraid to come up first and have conversations. Networking is very important nowadays. A lot depends on how you set yourself up.