About career choice

The main question I keep asking myself is to what extent parents should influence their children's choice of career. Should they give their kids free rein or, conversely, push them into a certain decision?

My father is a chemist and my mother is a medical worker. I can therefore say that chemistry has always been a part of my life. My sister and I wanted to go to the medical school, but I was lucky enough to fail the exams. Or at least that is the way I see this situation now. I ended up entering an institute of chemistry and technology, completed my PhD and started working as a teacher. I remember how my voice trembled when I first came out in front of the audience. Teaching is a very important skill. To master it, one has to be logical, put forward convincing arguments and rivet attention. Now I can understand how this skill helps me build relations with my family and employees. Partnership and thought leadership are key to building relationships.

I always give my children some advice without pressing them too much so that we can work out together what they really want. With that approach, we can consider potential career paths for them.

I am confident that people should take career decisions based on what they like. Of course, there might be children who think of work as a place for earning money. For example, now it has become trendy to dream of becoming bankers, traders and marketing managers. But I believe that making a career decision based solely on money considerations can lead to a failure. When you choose a profession, you should opt for the one which is interesting to you. That is the only way you can get excited about your job and, if anything, get rich.

About children

I have two sons aged 15 and 11. The younger one is an avid hockey player. When he started playing, I tried to tell him about his mistakes. As a boy, I used to play with local kids in “ice boxes” and got some experience fr om them. My intention was to share this experience with my son by giving him feedback. At some point, I realised that he doubted my words. I needed to find another approach and change the way we communicated. That is why I decided to hit the ice and practice some manoeuvres with my son. This helped him to start perceiving me as a mentor. Now, when we go to the games together, he keeps looking up at me to see my reaction because he knows that I am always there to show him where to make a push.

A “friend” approach works well with him. We understand each other very well simply by looking into each other's eyes. My elder son, on the other hand, needs a completely different approach – an approach based on partnership. He is into IT. I can only give him advice and tell him what I would do if I were in his shoes only after asking him about the problems he faces.

About guests and neighbours

We have a country house wh ere we like to spend time together. I cook outdoors for my friends and family. I developed this passion thanks to my co-worker. He once wanted to cook rice on the grill and asked me for help. Now I am the guy to turn to when it comes to cooking meat. For example, some of our friends knew as early as in June that I would cook chorba on 1 January. Needless to say, they decided to join us. What did that mean to me? I needed to get up really early after a night of celebration.

As an engineer and an amateur cook, I surely know that ingredients are the key to success in both production and cooking. Just like good masterbatches help you produce an excellent BOPP film with the required qualities, good fresh meat and the right type of rice, herbs and spices are the treats that are sure to make your guests come over even on the morning of 1 January. I always buy products at special places. That is why I plan my cooking sprees in advance. Next time I will be cooking dolma. I did not take any formal cooking training – YouTube channels are enough to help me out. My preferred dish is pilaf, I guess. This is a dish for a big group of people, and we often have our friends and co-workers come over to stay with us.

There is an active local community in the village. We have set up a professional hockey rink and volleyball playground together. We often come to see each other and even started driving ATVs a couple of years ago. There is also a group of people in our village who are very passionate about fishing. Who knows? Maybe I will be the next one to join their ranks.

About extreme sports and safety

I like danger as long as I can keep under control. That is why I am a fan of sports like downhill skiing or ATV driving. Perhaps that is the consequence of what I do at work: risk management has now become bred in my bones.

I even think that I have passed it on to my children. Before I let kids engage in extreme sports activities, I always ask them about potential dangers. Now they cannot help but ask themselves the same questions.

At SIBUR, everything revolves around safety. It's the same thing as customer focus – you either have it or not. You cannot simply close the office door and forget about it.

Being on your own

Nature gives me strength and new ideas. I can spend a lot of time sitting or walking outdoors. To get a new breath of life, I need to walk around all by myself or to clear snow in the country house.

I really like winter. That is the best time to enjoy nature in the woods or in the mountains. One of the reasons why I chose skiing is my love for nice views. Sometimes I stop to look at snow-covered peaks or to take pictures to keep them as a memory of wintertime nature.

An aquarium with green rocks and graceful fish movements is my personal piece of nature at home. This is a whole new world of harmony and tranquillity that I like to watch. Now we can also go to oceanariums (for example, at VDNH or in the Vegas shopping mall).

Our children are deeply impressed with the large and rare marine species. Some day we will have enough courage to set up an oceanarium at home. If not, we could have a 300-litre aquarium (like the one we had to leave behind when moving to a new house). I think I could definitely be a manager at an oceanarium if I were not a chemist.

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