Mastering Order: Building Effective Systems and Knowing When to Move On

What should you do when your beloved profession no longer fuels your growth, and stability starts to feel like stagnation? Daria Kolesnaya has the answer: seek new opportunities! Her journey took her from teaching programming to leading a department in an international IT company, and eventually becoming an independent consultant for business owners. Her path resembles not a career ladder, but a series of conscious leaps into the unknown. Today, Daria finds her calling in helping others find order in chaos and build effective systems. This article delves into her inspiring journey.

The Girl from Orsha Who Loved Order and Meaning

Born in the small town of Orsha, Daria learned early on that life is straightforward and devoid of illusions. If you want more, you have to take responsibility for yourself. With no university in Orsha, she moved to Vitebsk to study computer science education. However, her high entrance exam scores led her to switch to mathematics and programming, a field that resonated with her love for logic, structure, and clear rules.

Daria always sought meaning in everything she did. She didn’t want to follow the crowd or adhere to traditions blindly; she needed to understand the purpose behind her actions. This drive led her to explore pedagogy and psychology alongside her technical studies. Her diploma reads “Mathematician-Programmer. Teacher, Mathematician-Computer Scientist.” She enjoyed teaching, simplifying complex concepts, and witnessing her students’ progress.

Although she hadn’t yet considered management, teams, or business, this period laid the foundation for her future endeavors. Her love for structure, respect for people, and habit of seeking meaning in her work became the bedrock of her career in management, consulting, and working with leaders and teams.

First Steps in the Adult Profession: When Passion No Longer Pays the Bills

After university, Daria stayed in Vitebsk and taught programming and other IT-related subjects at a technological college. She enjoyed working with students, building educational logic, and seeing their progress. Her dedication was genuine: she prepared programs, explained concepts, and supported those who doubted themselves.

Her move to Minsk was primarily family-driven. She continued teaching at the Minsk Innovative University but soon realized that the teaching profession was undervalued and underpaid in Belarus. With limited opportunities for growth and ambition realization, she made the difficult decision to leave a profession she loved. She felt she had outgrown her previous role and needed to find a new path.

Starting Almost from Scratch – At an Adult Age and Without Guarantees

The idea of entering the IT field had been floating around for a while. Her husband, who worked in IT, often told her she had the education, mindset, and experience to succeed in the industry. Despite her initial resistance due to the long break from her studies, she decided to give it a try. She joined an IT company as a frontend developer, starting almost from scratch, making mistakes, and learning on the go.

Within six months, it became clear that programming wasn’t her strongest suit. However, she found herself naturally taking on management roles. Colleagues turned to her for help with organization, task distribution, and taking on responsibilities. She had a knack for negotiation, explanation, and easing tensions to lead her team to success. Her supervisor noticed her skills and offered a 50-50 split between development and people management. A year later, she transitioned fully into project management.

When Management Becomes Second Nature

As a project manager, everything fell into place organically. She no longer had to struggle to prove herself; she could leverage her technical background and do what she did best: build processes and connect people. She started with managing projects herself, then grew her team from 5 to 28 people. She hired, trained, and distributed responsibilities, helping managers grow.

During this time, she completed numerous online courses, and her team established a Project Management Office (PMO). The PMO is a centralized department that sets standards, processes, and resources for project management. She became a manager of managers, focusing on mindset and solutions rather than operations. Her company, which developed betting, gambling, websites, and mobile applications, expanded its geography to Belarus, Russia, and Kazakhstan.

Daria aimed to create a system that worked independently, not just when she was present. When she achieved this, she experienced the true essence of management.

Motherhood as a Point of Reevaluation

After taking maternity leave and welcoming her son Daniil, Daria returned to work within five months. Although her position remained the same, the reality had changed. The team had shrunk, tasks had simplified, and the scale had diminished. She found herself at a loss, with nothing and no one to work with. Everything was too simple, too clear, too… finished.

For some, this might be ideal stability, but for Daria, it was a sign that another phase had ended. She asked herself the question that had changed her life multiple times before: What’s next?