Lead Energy Market Analyst
“400 rejections, 1 offer, and London in three days.”
Evgenia has been living in London for about three years. She left in May 2023, after searching for a job from Russia for almost a year. Her last day at Gazprom was Friday. She flew to London on Saturday. She started work on Monday.
I model energy systems — the market as a whole, and the European gas market in particular — from demand to production, infrastructure, storage and transportation. Optimisation mathematical modelling on a minimum-cost criterion.
Before that, I worked at Gazprom for over five years in strategic planning — where to go next, how to develop, what flows to build. Earlier, at Gazprom Neft, also in strategy, but downstream: wholesale markets for motor fuels.
A 'classic job search abroad' often takes a year or more. In Russia, two months feels like a very long time. Here it can be six months, a year, a year and a half, two years. That's how the market works.
At that time I felt quite 'toxic' as a candidate — red passport, Gazprom background. Some conversations ended immediately. Others I could push through with dialogue and persistence. Interview quality varied wildly: at Shell the interviewer literally recorded everything I did. At other 'big-name' companies, someone took the call from their car with a coffee in hand.
About 400 rejections in 11 months — that's what I could count. Around 10 first interviews. 3–4 test rounds. One offer.
When my search was too scattered, it didn't work. I was applying everywhere from South America to Australia. The strategy that finally worked was the opposite: focus on one market (the UK), and do an exercise that helped me get my act together — write down my strengths, my hard skills, what I'm really interested in. Then list 10 dream companies and 10 positions. Difficult, but it works.
“Rejection is never about the candidate. It's not that you're bad. It's just that it wasn't a good match.”
I packaged my experience through the prism of what I do best and what I want to do next, then tailored it to each role. The most useful exercise: sit down with the job description and compare line by line. 'What did I do, and how?' If a point wasn't in my experience, I thought about how I would do it — or didn't lead with it.
My current job started with a LinkedIn application. I saw the recruiter who posted it and wrote to him directly. At first I was told that, because of my passport, the company most likely wouldn't consider me. I kept the dialogue going: 'It's a pity, but I'd be happy to work with you if the company thinks it can work out.' A couple of days later, the recruiter came back with one condition: 'we need to make sure you're going to move.' And here I am.
Annoyance. Sadness. Complete self-deprecation. Grief. A sense of injustice. To not get stuck, the most important thing is to answer the question: why do I need this? Without that, nothing works. At some point I wrote my answer on a piece of paper and put it in front of me.
“The most important question is: why do you need this? That's the only thing that will keep you going.”
I learned that I'm capable of great things for the sake of my loved ones. My husband and I have been together almost 14 years. To keep living where we want to live, we both worked towards this goal — and that gave me the strength to move forward.
