Interviewer: Ksenia Kuznetsova

Dr. Evgeniya Vorobyeva studied chemistry, moved to Switzerland for her PhD, and followed a fairly straightforward academic career path - PhD, postdoc, scientist, technology lead at a startup - before making what seemed like a sudden turn: becoming a career coach and career advisor. We talked with Evgeniya about these career changes, what led to it and what it means to her to become a coach.

Ksenia: Was there a certain trigger point for you to make this career switch, or was it a gradual realization that this is what you want to do?

Evgeniya: Indeed, I did my PhD, postdoc, then my first position was also technical, and the turning point was during my postdoc. I'm very grateful to my professor that I had a chance to work with a team of students: three brilliant master's and bachelor's students.

That was the moment when I realized that, oh wow, I really enjoy this type of work, I really enjoy interacting with them, I love explaining them how to do the experiments, how to prepare for the team meetings. And on top of this, with some of them we also worked on their next career step - we checked their CVs, I helped them with preparation for interviews.

After this experience, I'm also grateful to myself that I did not just go with the other tasks, but I paid attention to that joy, to this feeling of excitement. And I realized, maybe this is something I should explore. After this, I was a mentor as a volunteer in several mentoring programs, and I realized that it's actually the type of work that I really like.

Evgeniya wearing protective gear in the lab 

Ksenia: We know each other from Sci.STEPS, which you co-founded. Was this decision a stepping stone in becoming a coach?

Evgeniya: At that moment, when we founded Sci.STEPS, the plan to be a coach was not there on the horizon. I just realized that I like helping people, and I thought it might stay just as a volunteer activity.

At the time, a lot of previous mentoring programs closed, and we realized that this is the time when scientists from post-soviet countries really need much more help to find the PhD, postdoc, or research position abroad. There was a team of us who are passionate about the topic of career mentoring, and Mariia Kuzina got us all together in one Zoom call, under one “roof” to start discussing how can we continue helping.

Now, of course, looking back, it looked like a logical step towards building my professional identity as a coach, but honestly, at that moment it was just an opportunity - I said, okay, why not, let's try.

Kick-off meeting for the first season of Sci.STEPS in 2023

Ksenia: So, it was serendipitous choices that led you to where you are now.

Evgeniya: Yes, I think following what I enjoyed, and not saying "no" immediately: give myself time to test the idea, to test some career choice.

Ksenia: You were going from a stable, as stable as startups could be, job as a technology lead, to building something from zero, making your name, your brand even. What did taking that leap feel like on day one?

Evgeniya: I have to disappoint you probably here - it has not been a 180 degree turn. I'm not that person who can just drop everything and go with a risk, full speed ahead, throwing all my stability away. My choices, when I look back now, all have planning and preparation.

I didn't drop everything immediately: I started having a couple of first clients in my free time when I still was employed. I did an education as a coach also during my free time, studying during the weekends. And even right now I am 80% employed at EPFL as career advisor, so I have the benefit of stability, and 20% I'm on my own.

Ksenia: But at some point, you were doing something completely different from whatever you were doing until then.

Evgeniya: What was important is to switch the identity, to stop saying "hello, I'm Evgeniya, and I'm a chemist," and start saying "hello, I'm Evgeniya, I'm a career coach." This identity change took some time - quite a long time, I think, up to my employment at EPFL.

Evgeniya leading a career workshop for postdocs at the University of Basel

Ksenia: You came from more technical roles in STEM and chemistry. Does it affect which people are approaching you for coaching?

Evgeniya: I start positioning myself as a career coach for scientists after I realized that actually scientists come to me. There is trust between scientists and me, because I also had this path. I had feedback from some of my clients that they tried a different coach without a scientific background, and they had to allocate some time during the session to explain what postdoc or PI mean. On the other hand, I know that it's also beneficial to have a coach from a completely different background, because the questions the coach would ask never cross your mind.

Of course, if I work with a chemist, it is easier for me, because I know maybe more companies, or if we talk about finding a PhD position, I know more professors in the field — if we're even narrowing it to heterogeneous catalysis, then I can use my network to help.

But it's not always required in my work, and I would say it's better not to have it, because I would love to empower my clients to find the answers by themselves - through networking, through Googling, through using LinkedIn - so that they can repeat this process if they need to switch fields or find their next career step.

Ksenia: You help postdocs at EPFL find what skills are useful for transitioning to industry, or whatever career choices they want to make. Can you name the top 3 skills from your academic experience that you still use in your current career?

Evgeniya: First of all, curiosity. I mean this willingness to learn something new, willingness to find out even these tiny little details. It helps me a lot in building my own business - marketing, recording videos, all the admin stuff, taxes, invoices, registration. And also the curiosity in my clients: not assuming anything.

I think also critical thinking, and not being afraid of data, and needing the data. Once I switched the field, I discovered literature on career development, education, body language, and i use it a lot in my workshops. The need to support my intuition with data definitely comes from science background.

And the third one is doing experiments and not being afraid of failure. I think this is so important, also in building my own business - having the hypothesis, test the hypothesis, does it work, and adjust this hypothesis and go for the next one, because sometimes it's not working.

Ksenia: Did the definition of something working also change for you? How do you see success now in your current career?

Evgeniya: Most of the clients, they work on understanding what they need to do, so it's a step before looking for a job - what are their values, what are their long-term career goals, what motivates them, what are they good at. So success could be very different, and it depends on the person. "I found two or three new career hypotheses that I can test." Or "I became more confident, I could now ask my boss for a salary raise." Or "I became faster in doing the task, because I'm now less of a perfectionist." My client defines their own success. It's not up to me to judge.

Ksenia: Was there also a motivation that there was a big gap, in science, that you wanted to resolve by becoming a coach?

Evgeniya: Yes, and this still motivates me. I wish to bring more self-awareness to scientists, more emotional awareness, this understanding of who am I, what do I want, what wakes me up to go to my lab. This was something that I missed in my time as a scientist - I had really zero time to think of these questions.

In my experience with scientists, this is something we don't think about, and I want to bring this space and time of going deeper in yourself, understand yourself, and position yourself towards the future you really want, and not towards the future that is set by someone in our academic path.

We learn to rationalize things: a lot of critical thinking, judgment. But I do believe we need to have connections with our emotions, and not only make decisions rationally - is that good or not, do I study it enough, but also how do I feel towards this decision.

Coaching workshop at Sci.STEPS Retreat 2026 in Dresden

Ksenia: What advice would you give to someone who wishes to start independently or switch a career?

Evgeniya: First of all, don't be afraid - test the hypothesis on the small scale, on the scale that you're capable of. I would never advise to drop everything and just go with this - test it. Take some small task or small project, take one or two clients, maybe for free, to see if you like it or not.

If we talk about coaching, I do believe in education. The simplest one that can give you a very good background is just 60 hours, ICF accredited. And as any independent activity, you become not coach, but you become entrepreneur. Client hours are taken 30-40% of my time, so be ready for that.

Ksenia: And my last question: is there something that I didn't ask you, but you really want to tell other people?

Evgeniya: It took me, I think, 2 or 3 years from thinking that, oh, it would be so great to be a career coach, to actually allowing myself to do it. And I would not wish for you to have all this time. 

If you feel that, oh, that would be amazing, but come on, I'm a scientist, how can I be a coach, it cannot be for me - drop these thoughts, and give yourself the permission to do it.