Farangiz Mamadieva

Farangiz, you are originally of Uzbek descent, born in Tajikistan, went to school in Bashkiria (federal subject of Russia) and then returned to Dushanbe (Tajikistan) for your undergraduate degree. Afterwards you worked in Dubai and then Dushanbe before you finally moved to Moscow in December 2013.  Today you are a proud MIB student at the Higher School of Economics. Tell us about your exciting journey and motives behind it.

Well, probably travelling is in my genes. At first it was a necessity, but today I enjoy it and understand all the benefits of learning new languages, cultures and skills. As for my life journey, after graduation from the Russian-Tajik University I moved to Dubai where I worked for about two years at the Oscar de la Renta boutique. It was an exciting and rather challenging time of high peer competition! Then I moved back to Dushanbe where I worked at the Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia. I absolutely loved my job. As a project manager I executed projects in the field of Capacity Building, Civil Education, and Civil Society Development with 44 young community leaders and created an 8-episode TV show on Legal Literacy. Then it was time for me to move to Moscow along with my family. I couldn’t find reasonable job offers in the sphere of society development and so it was the right moment for me to gain new knowledge and skills. HSE MIB program offered me just what I was looking for: a business degree with a good school reputation, flexible curriculum and English as a medium of instruction.  

Farangiz, what an impressive background you have! How impressive has the MIB experience been for you so far? 
I find it really interesting to study here! We constantly grasp new terminology, work in teams, share knowledge and skills with classmates and learn from each other’s experiences. Moreover, we have a lot of practitioners who come to teach us while simultaneously working for the leading industry firms. I must say that’s rather an exception to get knowledge from the industry professionals who virtually shape the business landscape of today and tomorrow.  

Farangiz, any exciting courses or instructors you could tell us about?

I definitely enjoyed International Marketing Strategies course taught by Vyacheslav Buevskiy, PWC and Corporate Strategy taught by Arkadiy Vershebenyuk, Egon Zender.   Also, I found World’s Business Cultures class [by Lusine Grigoryan] a rather fascinating experience as we learned how to break cultural stereotypes. Altogether, courses might have been challenging at times, but my classmates were always eager to support! I do like the atmosphere, the spirit at HSE.