Babbel’s endgame is getting people to have conversations with other people, in a new language. There are fantastic folks here making that possible. So we sit down with them from time to time, to provide a glimpse into who makes it all work, what they do, and where their heads are at.
What’s your role at Babbel? What do you do on a typical day?
I’m a CRO manager on a newly established CRO team here.
There isn’t necessarily a typical day at Babbel, to tell you the truth. And I genuinely like the diversity of my tasks. My work is mostly defined by the projects I’m responsible for. But ultimately the goal is to spot opportunities within the product to improve the experience of our visitors from the very first interaction up through every stage of their learning journey. That involves the use of various qualitative and quantitative research methods, gathering relevant data, analyzing it, coming up with solutions, testing them and most importantly learning new things almost daily.
What were you doing before Babbel?
Before Babbel, I had been teaching languages for a little over 7 years. So, I know a lot about the obstacles language learners might face out there, and that helps me a lot in my daily work.
A few years ago I decided to shift into IT and see how I could apply my expertise there. It’s been great so far and ultimately led me to Babbel.
Were you looking for an opportunity in Berlin?
With Babbel it was an interesting coincidence. I’d already been working at a startup a year or so here in Berlin, and at some point I just understood that I wanted to move on. And on that exact day I got a message on my Linkedin from Giovanni, a recruiter here at Babbel. I knew Babbel and had wanted to work here from the time I moved to Berlin. So I didn’t let the opportunity slip by.
It was one of the smoothest, fun hiring experiences I have ever had. Super-nice conversations from the very first interaction, well-organized, and totally transparent. I felt like my time was appreciated and Giovanni always made sure I was clear about the process and how long each step might take, with all necessary followup emails, so I didn’t really even have a chance to worry.
What drew you to Babbel?
I like the product, the mission of the company, and had been using Babbel myself, even before I came aboard.
Right now Babbel seems like a perfect match. My previous language teaching experience allows me to relate to most of the pain points learners face and deeply understand the product, which is useful when you need to create more test ideas, think about user intentions, and question solutions.
What’s most exciting at the moment?
I’m excited about the scale of the projects we are dealing with and how even tiny decisions might have a greater impact.
What’s surprised you most so far?
There are several things that were surprising and encouraging at the same time.
First, the diversity that we have here. The company is really international and you can hear various languages every day. As someone who loves languages this is a definite win-win situation.
Probably the most important would be how many talented and open-minded people are working here and I have the privilege to learn from them on a daily basis.
And then there are the various learning opportunities offered. There are so many workshops you can attend to learn more about brand strategy, design thinking, data — and even dives into the topics of mental health and stress management. And you can do it during the workday!
What do you want to do/accomplish/pursue at Babbel?
It’s important for me to develop professionally, so I would love to learn as much as I can at this point in time, to increase my value as a specialist. I’m still in the process of developing my personal plan, so I feel lucky to get challenging tasks that push me to grow every day.
Where did you move from? How was your relocation to Berlin/Babbel?
Initially, I moved to Berlin from Minsk (Belarus), a few years before I joined Babbel.
Relocation is never an easy process, so you need to give yourself some time to feel all the feelings, experience all the initial experiences, and finally accept the changes. What I’ve learned from this relocation is that you can’t plan everything and that is okay. A lot of things might go wrong, stress is unavoidable, but what matters is how you decide to respond to the situation you’re in.
The only thing that I would definitely recommend to those who are about to relocate is to connect with friends of friends of friends. This is how you establish some connections in advance. It makes really a big difference if you have somebody who can talk with you after your first encounters with Auslandebehörde.
Want to work with Masha? We’re currently looking for a Head of CRO!