I've always been a pioneer...

this time I want to break the rule and write something just about myself...

Funnily, it came to my mind that quite often I was the first one to do things.. or to start the trend.
 

• Yet in high school I was the first girl in the local community to learn computer programming (one among ~15 boys in the class). Not that I knew much about the field, I just didn't like the alternative :)
• Later at university I was the first in demonstrating intentionally that “serious” and “tech-minded” women do can wear colorful clothes and look sexy. Just was tired of that common stereotype that a smart girl must look dull. It was so... dull..
  Was really glad to see some cautious followers a year later
• I was the first to start thinking that good-quality tech translation might make sense. I did not follow this idea and it was implemented by other people, independently. And their success can serve as a proof that the idea was good)
• I was among the first in the city to start working in Enterprise Java (a programming language for big business applications) after my graduation. That time nobody even taught it at universities in the place and experienced people were really scarce
• I was among the first to start practicing what is called “business analyst job” in the same place – under other titles and when still nobody taught it (now they do)
• I joined the IT-gatherings-barcamps-startups movement in St. Petersburg at it's very beginning (and then left)
• I was among the first to start promoting ideas of “liveability” and “city for people” among the active strata of Russian intellectuals 3 years ago (inspired by another enthusiast and then joined by some other pioneers)
• I was the first to try to combine “the IT” and “the city” in urging people to make volunteer-activists civic applications in Russia – together with courageous Eugenia Ovchinnikova and Mihail Kechinov from “Hack Day” - who were not at all satisfied by the weak support the idea met that time in the society
• I joined Coursera almost as soon as it popped up :)

And some more funny points with other people involved:

• I was the first “externally hired” manager in a mid-sized software development company. It was considered as “an experiment”. Hopefully, I served them well.
• I was the first (and for long time the only) internal processes business analyst hired by a bigger and fast growing company who started thinking about systematization of their back-end work
• I was almost the first female student with my scientific advisor:) Shame on me, I didn't come to defend my PhD thesis although did complete the work...

It was not planned, it all. It just happened..

They say, pioneers don't profit from what they start. Consolidators do.

We'll see – maybe, it's possible to combine the two...