HomeBlogEngineeringAnna Gandrabura: CEO & Founder English For IT

Anna Gandrabura: CEO & Founder English For IT

I am a firm believer in ongoing education, I never stop learning.

Anna Gandrabura LinkedIn: @annagandrabura
Womanpreneur (CEO & Founder English For IT), change leader, and founder. Passionate about helping tech teams communicate better across cultures.

Hello everybody! I want to introduce you to an incredibly talented lady, with a strong Ukrainian female talent who will not leave you indifferent. At the age of 21, she started her own business, an English school @EnglishForIT. Anna has been an avid learner, she has taken classes at Stanford and other American schools.

You should definitely follow Anna’s Instagram page (@annglish_), where she shares useful words, expressions, idioms, pronunciation, and other English tips. If you are interested in American English - her blog is a must-follow 🎁💥🚀 In addition, Anna will give you so much motivation to act (not only in terms of learning English, but also in general, regarding changes in life) that you will forget about all your fears!

I'm very happy to meet Anna Gandrabura and sincerely congratulate her on the release of her textbook "English For Tech"! I am sure that it will be useful for all steminists.

🎤 You own a business and run your own team. Please, tell us about the difficulties you’ve faced choosing people for your team? Also, what do you think is the most effective way to build a strong team?

I started my first business when I was 21. It was an English language school for everyone based in Odessa. It was just me and two other teachers, a native speaker and a Ukrainian teacher. In 2015, I decided to launch English For IT having worked with a few tech companies in Ukraine for a couple of years and understood that this is a domain I want to focus on. It was then when my team started really growing. We went from 4 to 15 people in the span of a year. The first lesson I learned was - hire a recruiter when the company is hitting the rapid growth stage.

As a founder you have to be a jack of all trades, juggling many tasks at once. But recruiting people is very time-consuming while there are so many other things on your hands. Another advantage to having a recruiter early on is that the same person can step into an HR role and you can start building a company culture. That’s another key thing for a startup - you have to think about the culture and values from day one. Many founders gloss over that and then struggle to build a strong team as a consequence.

I think the main hiring challenge is the same across all industries - shortage of top-notch talent. That’s why you have to be open to hiring inexperienced talent and be willing to train them. That’s why at English For IT we invest a lot in training our new hires before they get to work with our clients. I am a firm believer in ongoing education, I never stop learning. That’s one of our core values. If you think you know everything, we probably won’t work out.

As far as the team building goes, we have different team activities (now online). Before the pandemic, quarterly team brunches were a big hit with many of our team members. As English For IT is female led and 95% of the team is female, we chose to have themed team brunches that resonated with the majority. We always had a blast! Here are some of the memories of the offline team life.

🎤 Can you share the most interesting case from your experience as a leader?

I definitely like the most challenging cases. They are the ones that make us grow! That’s key for me. Creating the English For Tech course was one such challenge. Myself and the team had gone through a series of content iterations before we finally released the course. But all the hard work paid off. Over a thousand tech professionals worldwide (primarily Eastern Europe and Latin America) have been able to improve their English communication skills with our help. Now, I am excited about the upcoming launch of the very first English For Tech textbook. We are going to present the textbook in UNIT.City on September 22nd

🎤 Have you ever had a bad experience or a tough lesson you’ve learned? Tell us about the worst one (maybe something from the early days, anything you can remember)

I have had many learnings along the way. That's part of the founder’s journey. You don’t necessarily have to see them as bad experiences though. They are just experiences. Most lessons learned have to do with the people you work with. Some key takeaways are:

  • Less is more: don’t inflate your team’s headcount when your startup starts growing.
  • Part ways with people who stop sharing your values at the right time. The company and its people are changing, it’s important that the change is mutual and we all are on the same page.

Always learn from failures. Don’t blame others. Reflect and learn the lesson.

🎤 How do you keep your students motivated?

We offer blended learning experiences. That means you can have on-demand and cohort-based learning. Let me expand a bit on that. On-demand learning is online learning that can be accessed on our platform at any given time. Cohort-based learning comprises private group chats that are led by mentors and that allow the students to learn from one another, network, etc. I believe in the power of communities. That is why I created an English For Tech private community where our students can get perks even after they complete the course.

On top of that, our content is very specific to the tech industry that is why it always piques students’ interest. If there is interest, there is motivation. The people factor is key too. English For IT teachers strive to do their best every time they prepare lessons for their students.

🎤 You have a very strong personal brand. What advice can you give to language teachers? What's the best way for them to use this tool?

I’m going to talk about a personal brand for both teaching and tech jobs. Having a personal brand is key for any modern professional. It helps you achieve your goals in so many ways. You can find clients easier, sell your product, hire people, and let the world see you! The key thing you need to get good at is content creation. That’s not an easy job, but it’s a core soft skill worth focusing on to be able to excel in your career so it’s definitely worth the effort. I believe having a good content strategy is a must for any founder.

🎤 What personal qualities do you consider to be the most useful in teaching?

To be a good teacher, you have to be a people person, empathetic, and a lifelong learner. You have to love and respect your students then you get the same in return. You have to be curious and enthusiastic to learn new things. You have to be willing to share and give. You have to always seek personal and professional growth.

🎤 Have you ever experienced a burnout? What are some ways to avoid it? How can you help yourself recover from a burnout?

Burnouts are tough but you can only identify them if you have enough self-awareness. Then you can listen to yourself and slow down. The things that help me prevent burnouts are:

  • Daily meditation. I use the Headspace app and meditate daily.
  • Regular workouts. Sports releases stress and clears your head.
  • Good sleep schedule. Whatever’s happening in your life, a good night's sleep should always be a priority. Go to bed before midnight and sleep for 8 hours.
  • Eat well.
  • Be mindful about how many hours you work. Give yourself breaks. Don’t judge yourself or feel guilty if you take a break.

If a burnout happens, take a break for as long as you feel it is needed. In 2020, I took off to a different country for a month to recover. I did not use my laptop for 2 weeks straight (that’s a lot ☺), I spent time with my friends, doing touristy things. That helped me recover and get back to life.

🎤 Anna, thank you for your sincerity and important advice!
I invited my subscribers to join our interview. And they asked questions that interested them about your business.
First of all, thank you to those who joined! I never tire of repeating that together we are unstoppable!
And secondly, thank you very much, Anna, for taking the time to answer.

📢 Serge Sotnyk: “As a Data Scientist, I am interested in what machine-learning methods and techniques are actually being used in language learning nowadays. Could you tell me something about that?”

All language learning apps like Duolingo and Elsa are AI based. But what I am passionate about is education in the metaverse. I am sure that is the future of education not only for language learning but in general. The innovation stage for English For IT is a virtual world where you can learn English, improve your social skills and even find a job. That's something I am working on now. The recent EdTech summit I attended in San Diego was all about AI and VR solutions for education. I wrote more about it in my blog!

📢 Amrita Kalara: "How does a "general" language course differ from English for IT?"

English For IT is tailored specifically to help workers in the tech industry improve their communication skills. The lessons are based on specific tech materials where students can practice 5 major skills: vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, speaking & writing. The course also offers a lot of soft skills practice. Vocabulary is tech and business specific. The course covers the most needed grammar topics that you would frequently use when speaking with clients or writing documentation. I specifically added a pronunciation section to each lesson to fix common pronunciation mistakes that tech workers make all the time. To sum it up, English For IT is a very specific, targeted course that helps you become a better speaker of English over a short term.

📢 Yelyzaveta Losieva and Shelli Murati: "What is the advantage of your courses? Who are they meant for?"

The courses are made for anyone working or willing to work in tech: software engineers, project managers, recruiters, founders, tech students, etc.

The main advantage is that you are able to upgrade your English and softs skills in 6 weeks focusing only on the most relevant information. Another thing is the teachers, our teachers understand tech so they definitely know what you need to improve and how to do it. No one else will offer you this.

📢 Amrita Kalara and Oleksandra Porozova: "What's the best platform to build your own courses? What do you recommend? Please share your experience"

Good question. It really depends on what you want to have in your course. Kajabi is very simple and easy to use, but might offer limited functionality. There is Teachable too and it is very widely used in the USA. I’d consider those two if you are targeting an English speaking market.

📢 Yelyzaveta Losieva: "There are IT specialists who do not need standard courses (there is already an Intermediate / Upper Intermediate level) and need to tighten up the gaps and/or need professional programming / mathematical vocabulary (Data Science). How do I find a competent teacher? How can a teacher who most often does not understand the specifics of IT (processes, mathematical terms and mathematics) can help develop professional vocabulary in order to correctly select words to accurately convey a thought? And not just replace it with synonyms."

You come to us ☺

The English For Tech course (https://english4it.online/tech) is exactly that: specific tech and business vocabulary, grammar, reading and listening materials related to tech and soft skills. It’s perfect for the goals you’ve outlined.

Moreover, if you want a one-on-one lesson, our teachers understand tech, we invest a lot in familiarizing our teachers with the tech industry. We also have native speakers who are coders and teach English For IT.

📢 Yelyzaveta Losieva and Andriy K.: "Are you working with students with an advanced level of English? Could you tell us what your value propositions are for such students?"

Absolutely. We have three English For Tech courses organized by levels and we recommend Level 2 (https://english4it.online/tech-lvl2) and Level 3 (https://english4it.online/communication) for higher levels.

In these courses, you will learn more advanced grammar and effective communication skills to bridge the gap between you and your foreign clients.

📢 Andriy K.: "What approaches and methodologies do you use in your courses? How do you measure progress and results?"

We use the bite-size learning learning technique. It’s when you are given small portions of information such as short videos, audio files, pieces of articles, etc but daily. By doing so you soon develop a good habit of making English a part of your life. Even after the course, you keep on this habit! We have a list of resources for our students to use after they have completed the course.

You have a mentor that checks your assignments and answers the questions as you go.

You also have an option to join a live mini-group lesson with a teacher to practice speaking.

You can do a short quiz after each module of the course and, of course, there is a final test and a 1-1 interview with me where you can get my personal feedback on your progress and receive a certificate of completion.

You are welcome to test drive the course by taking our free IT English Challenge https://english4it.online/it-english-challenge.


🎤 Thank you all for your attention! Below are links to Anna's pages, including courses. Join! And remember: English is opening the door to this world!

Linkedin: @annagandrabura
Facebook: @anna.gandrabura
Twitter: @anna_gandrabura
Instagram: @annglish_/
Medium : anna-gandrabura.medium.com

https://annglish.com
https://english4it.online/
https://www.hiretool.io

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