Last year, Arina Borodkina graduated from TalTech’s Electrical Power Engineering with a bachelor’s degree. Today, she is working in ABB as an intern of product development engineering. As for the most useful subjects in the university, she brings out basic knowledge about electrical circuits and substations and informatics, which gave her the skills to develop schemes, and calculation skills.
The main working tasks for Arina are drawing up tables and writing documents in different programmes. She is also conducting the comparative analysis of documents and tables. Her main working tools are EPLAN and Excel. After completing her traineeship, Arina would like to work in the industry of energy engineering as an engineer.
How did your find your way to technology education?
During high school, I was extremely interested in exact sciences. I could solve equations and exercises easily. Therefore, it was clear what I would like to study after high school. Everyone in my family is an engineer, and my sister w
How did you find your way from TalTech to ABB?
I was looking for work from different websites and was sending out my CVs and going to interviews. TalTech also forwarded us job advertisements. I was looking for a permanent job as an engineer in my specialty. Since I had no previous experience, there were no results. Then I started sending my CVs to intern positions. Until…
… Until a day when I saw a recruitment ad from ABB on the website of CV Centre. I applied for the position of R&D electrical designer and I was invited to the interview. They offered me an intern position. We came to the agreement and went to work.
Are you paid extra attention in your everyday work when compared to your male colleagues? Is it good or not?
No, definitely not! And I like it this way, as no-one is distracting me from doing my work.
Do you feel that more women are needed in your specialty and why?
I feel that engineering should be open to people who understand what is going on in this field. Male or female – it does not matter.
What kind of opportunities, experiences and skills has technology education given you to succeed in life?
I think that the most important skill is programming. Developing programmes is a fast-paced activity, especially nowadays, and knowing programmes makes their use much easier.
The most elementary and the most important experience is the skill to work in a team. If you know how to reach agreements with people, you can finish your work faster. You can also work alone, but this is much more difficult. Doing things together is easier and more fun.
What do you value the most in ABB?
The friendly team and the readiness to help each other.
What do you like to do in your free time, what are your hobbies?
In my free time I read books and listen to music. Sometimes I like to do gouache paintings and I also like to do origami. At times I make decorations for the holidays. On weekends I like to ride my bike in the city.