Kirill Sidorets, a senior product designer, decided to start his life anew in the United Kingdom. Upon applying for a Global Talent Visa, he won our social media contest that offered free end-to-end case preparation from Immigram, which eventually helped him get the visa 🇬🇧⠀
Check out our interview with him on changing a stable and secure corporate job to a fast-paced startup environment!
Mikhail Sharonov: Hello everyone, my name is Misha, I'm the co-founder and CEO at Immigram and I'll be hosting today's conversation. I'll be trying to talk a lot less than Kirill because he is the main guest here. Kirill is the product designer who has an extremely diverse and interesting career in product design and he recently left a corporate giant, Revolut, to join, for some reason and he will tell us more about these reasons, the blockchain startup, Notcoin. We'll talk about the transition, we'll talk about previous jobs, we'll talk about the current setup of Kirill's life and what's happening with the visa as well. Kirill, hello!
Kirill Sidorets: Hello, Mikhail. Thank you so much as well for that introduction, that's very kind.
Mikhail: Are you joining us from London?
Kirill: Yeah, I'm joining from London. The weather here has been perfect since the start of March, so I think I got some tan because we went to a park last weekend.
Mikhail: Kirill, what's up with design? Why did you ever choose design in the first place?
Kirill: I started doing design when I was 18, it was like my hobby and my passion and I’ve been doing design right now maybe seven years because I'm 25 right now and so I just love building things that are useful and beautiful, and design helps me to turn my ideas into real products that people enjoy and also I like, you know, building some things such as design systems or the whole flows of interfaces. So I didn't mention that I work as a designer with mobile and web interfaces. So yeah, I think I like beautiful things like UI or UX, how products work in terms of these things.
That's why I choose design and product design in particular.
Mikhail: Okay, what was the first thing you ever made?
Kirill: I actually noticed that thing in my Google Drive recently and it was a very poor design that I designed when I was 18. It was an application where you can earn some currencies, some eternal currencies.
Mikhail: Why is a well-designed app better than a white screen with a button on it if it does the job?
Kirill: That's a perfect question. I think product design and especially beautiful UX and UI might bring you more customers and, for example, we started to work with you and I really liked your platform, Immigram platform, because it was very well organised and the UX and UI was perfect.
If I design, for example, a nice thing, I see that it works and I understand that it earns some money as well.
Mikhail: Makes sense, I'm not gonna argue with that. What shaped you as a designer, Kirill?
Kirill: I would say that some of the companies where I worked previously such as VKontakte, for example. Also work at Revolut where I learned how to work with developers in English as well.
Mikhail: Let's start from the beginning. How does living in London shape your work and your career and your design abilities, your spidey sense?
Kirill: London affects me in terms of community or, for example, some events that I visited so far and in terms of people that I met. I think events, community, my new network connections and yeah, London and the UK in general. It's the place where I can think globally, not just about, for example, Russian users, about Russian people, but also about international ones.
Mikhail: How have you changed the structured, safe, and stable life working at a company like Revolut to the life in the hectic, stressful, full of anxiety and pain environment of a startup? How did it ever happen and why?
Kirill: I would say pretty easily. In a big company you have a safe job but often your input is pretty small. For example, you can design one button in a corporate job for a while, for one year or even more. But in a startup I can make real decisions and see fast results and actually I enjoy the speed, the risk and the feeling that I build something from zero.
That's pretty hard, I would say, in a startup because you work not as a designer… Sometimes you work not as a product designer, you sometimes work as a graphic designer, you work as a brand designer and sometimes as product owner, project owner. So everything in all.
I hope I've answered your question.
Mikhail: Fair enough, fair enough. But still, I will not let you off the hook. As far as I understand you moved to London firstly to work in the Revolut office. But you left Revolut, what's the point of continuing to stay in the UK?
Why didn't you leave for Madeira island or Tenerife or Bali or whatever. You continue to pay extreme money for your apartment, for your groceries, for your taxes, for your everything and even though you work remotely. Why is that?
Kirill: Yeah, that's a perfect question. Sometimes I think about that. I don't want to, I don't know how to hide that… But as I said before, I think that's community, events, some other opportunities and also – I really crave to learn English and that's a perfect way for you to stay in the culture when you stay in the country and you learn English here. You can meet your neighbours or – I don't know – you can talk with somebody in the coffee shop or at an event and improve your English as well. And also if you want to get a passport. (laughs)
So that's a very obvious thing. You need to stay here for a while, for five years. And I also like that the UK is my second home right now and I feel like I'm settling down and I can’t just leave to Madeira because I have a lot of things.
Mikhail: Because my chairs… How would they be without me… (laughs)
Kirill: Yeah, that makes sense. I was thinking, I don't know… to buy a car or… I bought a bicycle recently… I wanted to just settle down in the country and I feel that I accomplished my goal right now.
Mikhail: So, buying some chairs to anchor yourself and make it feel like home, that's the way. What would you say are the biggest differences between your life while working at Revolut and your current job at a startup?
Kirill: I would say that right now I have more freedom because I can push some new features or products more easily than at Revolut. Because, for example, Revolut has a strong design system that I needed to use literally in every feature or product that I built there. But right now I can be really more free and more independent of the design system.
I can build my own design system for example. In my current position I feel like I can build new things that we don't have in the market right now. I would say that we work right now on one thing and I'm really curious to work on it.
Mikhail: Okay, fair enough.
That is actually the most interesting part in working at a startup or building a startup from my side. Because you cannot copy anyone really. It's a coin of two sides but still I would consider it better.
But still, as far as I understand, you moved to the UK via the Global Talent route and this is the visa you found your job at Revolut on?
Kirill: Actually when I was talking with Revolut I was in the process of getting the Global Talent Visa. And for them and I think for most of the companies in the UK when you have a visa, when you have a Global Talent Visa, that's a really crucial part for your future work at the company. I preferred for example my path of the Global Talent Visa because I didn't want to depend on the company.
So for example the Skilled Worker Visa is tied to your job and you have to work for a long time at one company. But I wanted freedom. Yeah, I wanted the freedom to change direction.
For example, if I realise that I don't like my current position, I can freely change my work. And the Global Talent Visa gives you an opportunity to change your work very easily. For example, I can quit my job and build my own product.
I can do that because I don't need to have a work visa here in the UK. And also the Global Talent Visa gave me more control over my career and future. And it matched my background. I already had strong projects, a strong portfolio, international work and my design focus also fitted my visa very well. So, yeah…
Mikhail: Makes sense. The difference between the Skilled Work Visa and the Global Talent Visa is that the Skilled Work Visa is tied to an employer. And normally if you leave the job, if you are being fired or you quit, you have 60 days to either leave the country or find a similar company that will sponsor you and go through the same process of obtaining the Skilled Work Visa.
And with the Global Talent Visa, you can just quit and that's it. So there is no way of you leaving the UK because of some of the decisions you make with your career, etc. You can build businesses, you can take a gap of four years and then return to your work, etc.
You can open a bookstore, which is actually a case of one of the Global Talents of mine. You can do whatever… Essentially, what I'm trying to say is, with Global Talent, you can be a goose farmer somewhere up in Scotland and everything's going to be fine.
But still, did you ever, before getting the Global Talent Visa, did you ever consider yourself one? Did you wake up one morning and say, I'm a Global Talent, I'm gonna apply! How did it happen, really?
Kirill: Not really. I didn't think that I'm a talent before. So once I got my Talent Visa, I realised that, wow, I got recognition from the UK government!
That's really cool. But before that, I didn't think that I'm a talent, a Global Talent even.
I just realised that I had a portfolio or something like that and I got recognition. But anyway, I was pretty rough to say you need a strong portfolio. Actually, it depends on the case.
But I would say that you don't need to be a celebrity, for example. You don't need to have a lot of subscribers on Instagram or YouTube. You just need to show your good work and if you can show it, you're already in the target group.
Because talent could be hidden in you. You just need to show it, you just need to open it and pack it in the case. And yeah, if you can do that, it's great, especially with Immigram’s help.
Mikhail: So yeah, once again, when I talk to folks who can seize the Global Talent Visa, I often find an imposter syndrome in them when they say – how can I be a talent if my mate got it, but my mate is at Google, I'm not, so how can I ever get it? – In order to get a Talent Visa, you just have to have some experience at a product or a digital technology company. That is what you can start with. That's literally it. The rest you can do. You can do public appearances, you can do articles, you can do conferences, you can describe the products you did in a way that will interest the Tech Nation.
You can get recommendation letters and get the visa, or you can come to us.
I love how accomplished folks like you always say, it was just luck. It was luck… I was lucky to win that… When it happens to you, first, you need to see it. And the second thing, you need to be able to seize the opportunity.
So when the moment comes, you can see it, you can seize it, and you can do something with it. It's not just luck. It's years of hard work.
Let's leave it at that.
Kirill: I could add one more thing. You said that it's about taking the opportunities. And when I won the giveaway from you last year, I had an opportunity to take your help in getting the Global Talent Visa. I could say – I don't want to take the prize, I don't want to get the visa, – but I decided to take that. So, I'm here. I'm here in the UK and everything's sorted. Everything is fine. I think it's about taking the opportunities.
You have a choice every time.
Mikhail: On these philosophical notes, we thank you for coming. We sincerely hope it was interesting. Thank you so much, Kirill. It was great.
Kirill: It was a nice chat. Thank you so much, Mikhail.
