On April 22nd, the International Day of Girls in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), we invited Kyrgyz women who successfully work and study in this field. In this article, we introduce you to Liya Gurdyumova, who made her dreams come true.

Liya is a 27-year-old graphic designer teaching the basics of graphic design, born and raised in Bishkek. Since childhood, Liya was creative, but she did not even think that her future profession would be related to teaching children. After graduating from school, Liya entered the professional school of communications and information technology.

In addition to visual arts, Liya was also interested in digital arts: animation, video and photo editing. “At that time, very few people used professional editors like Adobe Photoshop, and I did all my work in the most primitive programs,” recalls Liya. “Before entering school, I, like many applicants, had no idea what profession I wanted to choose. When I came to the lyceum, I thought about pursuing video editing, but I didn't succeed. And then I was offered to enroll in a web design course. I had no choice and just went there not really understanding what the essence of this profession is”. According to Liya, during her studies, the IT-sphere was not at all developed and there were not many people willing to study it either. “There were only 3 girls in the group, but I was not embarrassed by the male-dominated environment, since my studies were easy for me and I did not feel psychological pressure.”

Six months later, Liya, together with her teacher, developed a design for a website. This was her first commercial project. This experience encouraged her to study even harder, and thanks to this, a year later, she received an offer to work in an outsourcing company, where she created designs for websites and mobile applications.

“I often doubted my abilities and was afraid to start something new. I once got a job to create a certain product. I needed to create vector characters, but even though I had no experience, I decided to give it a try. After going through some difficulties and tears, I created these characters. I often come across situations where received orders for something completely new for me. Out of fear, I am ready to refuse these orders. But every time, my curiosity wins over the fear. So now I can be proud of myself as a professional, because the area of my competence is constantly expanding, and this allows me to remain in demand as a designer.” says Liya.

Liya recalls with surprise that in school she dreamed of a profession that would bring joy and freedom at the same time: “Now I myself can build my schedule and choose where to work from. So, I managed to combine my main job with freelance orders and teaching at Codify.”

A year ago, the founder of the IT company Codify, Dinara Ruslan, invited Liya to write a graphic design training program for teenagers and teach at the Academy.

Liya agreed, but it was a rather difficult experience for her: “I wrote this program myself and every time before starting a new group I try to improve my program, so I also need to constantly learn. After all, teaching is a big responsibility and I must give my students the best materials. After all, teaching is a big responsibility and I must give my students only relevant skills and knowledge. The first classes were exciting, but my colleagues supported me. Someone thinks that it is difficult to work with teenagers, but it is not so. My students are very curious and quickly learn the material. Already at the age of 13-16, they get the skills that are in demand, thanks to which they can realize themselves in creativity”, Liya shares her impression.

She admits that she is meticulous about her work and sometimes spends more time than she planned because she prefers to give orders only in the best quality: “I can sometimes neglect my sleep and rest, but I prefer to finish the work. The most important thing is that the customer is satisfied. But, despite all this, I have room to grow. I am still not indifferent to the reaction of the client for the design I produced,” said the young web designer.