Aug 12, 2022
Taron Davtyan joined the company three years ago as the first Junior Campaign Analyst and has since moved to Senior Growth Analyst.
Read on to hear Taron’s story about relocating to Estonia from Armenia and how a team of motivated professionals can help you advance your career.
During the last semester of Taron’s bachelor’s studies, he received an invitation to join a 6-month-long internship at the United Nations Department of Public Information. The internship gave him a new perspective on the world and international organisations.
He worked in a diverse team, which sparked his dream of working and living abroad to learn more about other cultures and different ways of thinking.
Before moving abroad, he gained additional working experience at HSBC in Armenia. He started as an intern in Banking Operations and was soon promoted to Customer Relationship Management and Analytics Specialist. That’s when he began working with data and analytics for the first time and realised how much he enjoyed it. The idea of turning a bunch of numbers and words into essential findings that help businesses to make the right decisions seemed exciting and impactful.
For his bachelor’s degree, Taron chose to study International Economics. It was a popular programme back then, and he assumed he would easily land a good-paying job after graduation.
The main subjects were economics, banking, accounting, and auditing. However, Taron soon realised it wasn’t something he’d enjoy doing his whole life — it seemed too theoretical and dull.
After several years, Taron applied for the master’s program in Innovation and Technology Management at the University of Tartu (UT).
It seemed attractive because of its flexibility and the fact that it focused on many different subjects: Data Analytics, Entrepreneurship, IT, and Business Analytics. Due to the programme’s diversity, Taron could explore various fields and learn about other professions. The programme helped him enhance his analytics knowledge, which was crucial when he decided to apply for an analytics position at Bolt.
Studying outside his home country has always been on Taron’s list of things to do. His father played a significant role in this as he always encouraged Taron to be a global citizen.
After finishing his bachelor’s, Taron started applying to various master’s programmes in different countries. Eventually, he received the offer to study in Estonia at the University of Tartu and was thrilled with the possibilities that it would open.
However, relocating to a new country is a big decision and a significant life change. The thought of leaving his family and friends for at least two years seemed surreal. Besides, Taron was doing well in his previous job.
Looking back, he never regretted his decision. That’s largely thanks to his family, who supported and encouraged him to step into the unknown.
Taron heard about Bolt during his first days in Estonia. There are similar ride-hailing services in Armenia, so he already knew about the industry.
Out of curiosity, he researched more about the company and found a position that suited him well — an entry-level position in Data Analytics. What also attracted Taron was the company’s flexibility and openness. The interview process wasn’t stressful — he didn’t even feel like being interviewed. After the interview, Taron thought that even if he weren’t successful, he’d improve his skills and try again later.
Taron recalls his first day at the office — he expected to see a corporate setup, so he dressed formally. But when he entered the office, he saw everyone was dressed casually.
He immediately noticed how friendly and collaborative Bolt’s working environment was. For example, he was used to seeing the top management sitting in their offices and communicating only through their assistants, but that was not the case at Bolt.
Taron worked closely with his teammates and got a lot of help and support during his first year.
“Looking back, I can tell that I got fortunate with the team as I have learned a lot from them, and it wouldn’t have been possible to grow into a senior role without their help and mentorship,” says Taron.
Besides mentoring and helping each other, Taron’s team also likes to organise team gatherings in Tartu or Tallinn with pizza, drinks, and chats on various topics. It never gets boring!
Taron joined Bolt as the very first Junior Campaign Analyst. Besides him, there were three other Senior Analysts on the team. Now they’re a team of more than 40 people.
Like most junior specialists, Taron experienced imposter syndrome. He felt out of place when he compared himself to his senior colleagues, as the difference between their experience and knowledge was immense. But soon, he changed his perspective. He realised it was an incredible chance to learn from such intelligent people.
Three years later, Taron moved to a Senior Analyst role. Currently, he’s working in Food Campaigns as an Experimentation and Research Analyst. As Bolt moves and grows fast, so do different parts of the company. For example, Taron’s position is so new that it’s still challenging to describe the exact responsibilities. The main goal is to improve Food Campaigns’ performance and benefit the Food vertical and the company in the long run.
Taron isn’t afraid of challenges — he actually enjoys them. He says that his team often faces challenges, and they always learn something new and get a little smarter, whether creating something from the ground up or figuring out how to best measure and analyse complex topics.
For example, the most difficult challenge is understanding how Food Campaigns run by Restaurants are performing. It’s still an ongoing project for the team, but overall, too many variables affect the usage of discounts and campaigns in the Bolt Food app. Thus, it’s tough to analyse the precise impact of those campaigns.
What motivates Taron is the impact that he can see from his work. As soon as you start running a new campaign, you can immediately see people making more orders in the Food app or the ride-hailing app and drivers and couriers driving and delivering more.
As campaigns are becoming essential in all verticals, there’s a plan to add 70 more people to the team in 2022.
If you’re interested in joining the Growth team, these are the basic requirements that Taron notes:
If our mission to build cities for people, not for cars, sounds like something you want to be a part of, visit our Careers Page to see all open vacancies.
And if you’re worried about the practicalities of moving, remember that our Relocation team is here to make your move as smooth as possible.
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