How a girl from the Dagestan village moved to the USA, gave birth to three children and got a job at Netflix
'25.05.2020'
Source: "This is Caucasus"
Albina Yitzchoki works at Netflix, has three children and a blog about successful women. How a girl from the Dagestan village got into Silicon Valley and what does Tabasaran carpet have to do with it, says "This is Caucasus".
Senior researcher at Netflix Albina Yitzhoki was born in “Russia's largest population without traffic lights”, graduated from the Moscow State University with honors, moved to the United States, gave birth to three children, started a video blog to inspire girls, and is considering writing a book about her mother. Albina shared her success story with “This is the Caucasus”.
How I got to Netflix
- I work at Netflix. But not in the department that makes films, but in the one that provides the platform with technical support. I analyze the information to understand what the consumer likes and what doesn’t, and based on this information, the company’s strategy is already being developed and various innovations are being worked out.
One of the main questions that they ask me is how I got there. It can be said, quite by accident. A few years ago I moved to California. My husband worked at Stanford, and I raised two children and was absolutely happy to deal only with them. But at some point I decided that it was somehow strange to live in Silicon Valley, where there are so many cool companies, and not try to work for them. One evening I sat down and submitted my resume to Google, Facebook, Apple, and at this time on my computer, as usual, I played a Netflix movie, and I thought: why shouldn't I go to Netflix too?
I googled their office, and it turned out that he was half an hour from my house! I studied everything about the company, wrote a cover letter and sent a resume. A few weeks later, my future boss called me and invited me for an interview. The process was very long, as is customary at Netflix, and after 12 interviews I was hired.
“There were two dreams. Both came true "
- I was born in a village about which they once asked a question in the program “What? Where? When? ”: The largest settlement in Russia, where there are no traffic lights. Dagestan Lights became a city only in 1990, but as a child it seemed to me that it was a big city. Three schools, Lenin Square, a glass factory! Then the girls just did not walk the streets, it was not accepted. School - home, holiday demonstration. True, I always had my own opinion on any issue. We were raised under the "do not sit back, otherwise they will not marry!" I remember how I shocked others with the answer: it’s wonderful that they won’t take it, I don’t want it myself!
I can say that my childhood was happy because I have good parents, sisters and a brother. But if it were possible to change the model of childhood - I would do it. Because a child from a poor family has, as a rule, only one motivation - to earn money. Therefore, I entered economics, although mathematics was my favorite school subject. I don’t think that this is a good motivation for the girl, but it’s hard to expect another when all your childhood you carry things for your sisters, and after the lessons you four should weave carpets for sale. Everyone is asking about carpets. I am Tabasaranka, this is our national craft. We lived in a small two-story house, but there was no life on the second floor, because there was a loom there. My sisters and I wove carpets after school. And all four of them hated this business together, constantly trying to do other household chores to avoid carpet weaving. Of course, I am good at carpets, now sometimes I think: give me a knife and a ball, I weave a carpet, my fingers remember everything. But when I was 13 years old, I wrote down my dreams. There were two of them: "Never weave carpets" and "Marry a smart guy."
Both came true. I no longer weave carpets, and my husband is a professor at Princeton University and the University of Los Angeles. We, together with student years, classmates. Of course, my family was shocked by my choice, and many did not approve of it. I always remember how my mother jokingly said: “Well, if someone disgraces our family, it's Albina!” Unfortunately, I lost my mother very early, at 18, and she did not have time to meet Oleg. But I think that she would have liked him - all my relatives now love Oleg more than me (laughs).
“There is no money for your math”
- I always studied well, loved mathematics and wanted to study at the best university in the country. In Dagestan, I did not want to study, because then it was customary to act only for bribes. There was no Internet yet, so in 8th grade I wrote a letter to the address of Moscow State University from the library reference book to ask about exams at the Faculty of Economics. And they answered me, sent a list of exams, and I began to prepare for them. In the 9th grade I entered a correspondence school at Moscow State University, where I had to send the assignments in mathematics. A year of study cost 40 rubles.
The first year my family extended this amount, and in the second year my mother said that we have no money for my math. And my teacher Aida Bagirovna suggested she pay for tuition. I understood that I couldn’t take the money, I couldn’t tell my parents about it, because they would not allow it. But Aida Bagirovna said: “Magomedova, take the money! And when you get an education and start working, you buy me perfume. ” And so it happened.
I entered the Moscow State University the second time. I spent a year in Moscow with my aunt, studying at the preparatory department, and this was the year when I literally did not raise my head from books. Once I called my mother, and my mother, who with great difficulty let me go to Moscow, understood from her voice how bad I was and persuaded me to go back, and I sobbed and said that until I entered Moscow State University, I would not return. In the end, I did! And a few years later she graduated from the Moscow State University with a bachelor's and master's degree with honors and medals. I still think that we need to achieve our goal - even if not at the first attempt. Try again and again.
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Every success story has a bit of luck. For example, Aida Bagirovna is a great luck in my life. But there was still a lot of work. In addition, in my fourth year at Moscow State University, I started working in the Moscow office of a Western company and worked and studied at the same time for several years, and after moving to the USA - my husband went to study at Harvard graduate school - started looking for work, almost not knowing English. For four months I sent out a hundred resumes a day, no less. The funniest thing now is to recall how I was interviewed by telephone. I quickly translated unfamiliar words and selected the answer on the computer before answering the question. In the end, I got an assistant in a small company - just check the numbers in the tables. And four years later she became her youngest vice president.
Success and another world - After Yuri Dud showed his film about the successful people of Silicon Valley, where there was not a single woman, I wrote several posts on my Instagram. I asked readers to tell their success stories, and then recorded a video about themselves. It became popular, and girls, girls, women from all over the world began to write actively to me. Many say thanks, because I gave them self-confidence and set an example. I would like to continue talking about women who have achieved something in life. If it inspires someone to change their life, it will be very good.
They write a lot to me from Dagestan. Many of those who saw my video story ask for advice on what to do if they come from a very strict patriarchal family. I see only one way out - to study. And believe in yourself. If it didn’t work out the first time, it’ll work out from the tenth for sure. Moms who are not sure about the future of their daughters also write. The main thing in raising children is the lack of gender roles. Both the son and the daughter must be brought up the same way, it is then that they will be able to choose their own path to happiness and success, and not the one prescribed by society.
Everyone has his own success. Someone has a high position in the company, someone has his own business, and someone just has his family. Incidentally, I believe that working as a mom and a housewife is one of the most difficult. Firstly, the working day lasts 24/7 all year round, and secondly, the society greatly underestimates this work and often treats housewives with scorn. But the world can be completely different.
When I joined Netflix, I only worked with children for three years, and I was sure that it was for this reason that they would not take me. But our company respects people's decisions with great respect, so no one asked me why I had not worked for three years - I told them myself that I wanted to focus on children, and everyone understood me.
Moreover, a month after I got a job at Netflix, I became pregnant with our third child. And I was scared awkwardly in front of my employers, because my stereotypes inspired me that they would think that I had deceived them in this way. But they just told me: “We are happy for you!” And then I found out that the company often hires girls for long periods of pregnancy or even on maternity leave, precisely because they don’t see any obstacle in it, but consider it as a choice in human life - almost all of us in some that moment have children. Netflix believes that a person will do his job best if he is doing well at home. You are not hired as a robot, but as a person with different interests.
Dagestanka, man of the world
- I am often asked if I feel like I am only a Dagestani or a “man of the world.” It seems to me that I have long been a man of the world. And it’s not at all because I “forgot” Dagestan, but because I am comfortable in other cities and countries. And then, you always carry a house with you: on the table I often have tsikabs - our Tabasaran miracle stuffed with meat and nuts, we wear jurabes at home, and when I get angry, my husband assures me that I have a “Dagestani dialect”. By the way, he teased me for a long time that instead of “hair” I said “hair”. Now all my relatives have been scattered throughout the country, so I rarely visit Dagestan, but I would like to take my children there. Yes, my childhood city is small and groomed, but you enter your native homes - you are all terribly happy and fed so that you can’t breathe! Oleg still recalls how he was fed non-stop in Dagestan.
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I have no dreams in terms of career growth, no five-year plan for life. I like my work, I like raising my children, I like my life here and now, I really appreciate it. My husband and I lost our parents early: I’m my mother, he’s the father, and we understand how fragile this thing is family happiness. So I just dream that everyone should be healthy.
I also want to write a book about my mom. Mom lived a very traditional life for Dagestan, and it seems to me that no one has yet described this ordinary difficult life of Dagestan. I want to tell how she lived, what choice she made. First of all, for myself, so that my children know about their grandmother, so that they stay in this way - family, Dagestan.
