Everything depends on your perception and your personal expectations for development

Introduce yourself in a few words..

My name is Yoana Yotova and for more than 7 years I have been building a career in the field of technology and investments, and recently – also in the field of construction under the brand SpaceOn.

How would you describe your career in a few words?

Building my career is sometimes quite dynamic and challenging, but it helps me to be extremely flexible.

For me, it is a journey, not an end goal.

This way of thinking helps me not to relax, but to continue wanting to conquer more and more heights.

What was the most important choice that shaped your path?

The most important choice for me was to choose technology as the product I want to study and the field to which I want to contribute as much as possible.

Over time, I turned out to be right, because nowadays they play an increasingly important role in our lives.

This trend is yet to become more and more pronounced.

What would you like to know at the beginning of your career that no one told you? ?

I wanted to know that there is no need to seek approval from authorities to feel successful.

The only approval we should seek is that of our personal audience – the people who trust us and buy from us.

They are the ones who give recognition and titles, and only they have the power to take them away.

How can a person understand which profession is suitable for them?

This can be understood at first level on the principle of trial and error and at second – by ensuring that the specific profession aligns with their personal values and perceptions of the change they want to leave in their society.

Which skills do you think will be key in the next 10 years?

First of all – mathematical skills and logical thinking.

Secondly – commercial skills, by which I mean the ability to sell different products at different times and to different audiences. Thirdly – fluency in English in written and spoken form (this requirement will likely soon become obsolete as artificial intelligence aids in dynamic translation in a real environment).

How to build a network of useful contacts without looking interested?

By seeking the right communities for you, where you can mutually benefit from each other and at the same time grow together.

The right communities for everyone are different.

It is important to surround yourself with people who share your values, but at the same time are different from you, so they can complement you when necessary.

What is the biggest mistake you have made in your career, and what did you learn from it?

There are no mistakes. There are lessons.

Without mistakes, there are no lessons.

Without lessons, there is no progress.

Without progress, there is no career!

From mistakes, I learned that they do not make us weaker.

On the contrary – they make us extremely strong and wiser.

How to recognize a toxic work environment and when is it time to leave?

Any environment of people who do not share our values gradually becomes toxic for us.

If we strongly believe in our principles and work for the common good, we should not allow these principles to be lowered to fit into an environment with a conflicting vision.

What would you do differently if you could start over?

Nothing!

Because if I change anything, I would never have reached here today.

Do not dream of someone else's life.

Each one of us is born as an original, building an authentic path of development, which has both many advantages and quite a few disadvantages.

There is no career path without a multitude of problems.

But that is what makes it interesting and most importantly educational.

How to maintain our motivation in times of stagnation?

By not thinking about whether we are motivated or not, but just acting.

This is called discipline and is an excellent lever in absolutely all situations.

I have built it over the years, until it has become ironclad for me.

Anyone can do it, if they set it as a goal.

A habit of discipline is 100 times stronger than any motivation.

How to achieve a balance between professional and personal life?

Balance between the two cannot be built in the general sense.

One must seek balance within themselves.

That is the key.

All desires, answers and motivation are within us.

If we are balanced inside, the world outside will be in the right harmony for us.

When is it time to change our career, not just the job?

When we realize that the career we have been striving for cannot give us the change we need.

My favorite quote is by Mahatma Gandhi, who says: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Well, if you can't be that change, what else are you fighting for?

Move. You are not a tree.

Leave. Change something. Try something new and analyze your results again.

If you had to give just one piece of advice to people seeking success,

what would it be?

NEVER give up.

Absolutely never!

Because success does not come to the most knowledgeable, the most capable, and it does not even come to the most experienced.

It comes only to the most persistent – the one who never gives up and never accepts “No!” as an option.

What is your definition of a “successful career”?

A successful career is one that aligns with your personal vision of it.

One person interprets success one way, another – another.

Both are completely right.

You can be a public servant and still have a successful career that many people with unlimited ceiling for development and opportunities can only dream of.

Everything depends on your perception and your personal expectations for development.