Seeking innovative solutions
Lidiia Obolonska (32) likes it best when she has control over numbers and projects. She gets the same feeling when she masters a new trick as a figure skater.
Consultant Lidiia Obolonska (32) thrives with busy workdays and likes to contribute to finding good solutions.
In 2008, Lidiia Obolonska was a young student in Kiev where she took her undergraduate degree within finance and economy. At this time the National University KMS in Kiev signed an exchange deal with BI Oslo, which opened for Ukraine students to come to Norway. Lidiia got the opportunity and traveled to Oslo to undertake her masters degree.
«We were a group of nine people who got the chance to travel to Norway. It was very exciting, but also challenging. Many of the students were several years older than me and had a lot of international business experience. This gave me many interesting and educational encounters during my studies,» says Lidiia about her time in Oslo. Her time as a student was also important for opening doors that gave her an important network in the business world.
Innovation and development
In Oslo she studied innovation and entrepreneurship. She can see a lot of similarities between innovation and the field she is working within now, as a consultant for Omega, with economy and cost control.
«This is also about finding good and innovative solutions. I thrive when I have busy days at work and when we have short deadlines. I like to contribute with developing a solution, not just perform routine work,» she says.
After her studies she tried to look for a job in Oslo, but this turned out to be difficult due to language challenges. Instead, she started an internship in the dutch company, EATOPS, which works with solutions that originally stem from the space industry, but now sell their solutions to the oil and gas market.
«One of my responsibilities as an intern was to represent the company at the oil and gas symposium, ONS, in Stavanger in 2010. At this time, I was on the lookout for a job in the area. Here, I came in contact with the visualization bureau, Visco, in Stavanger. The company creates movies, 3D print and animation tailored to the oil and gas sector.»
After a few years in Visco, she started in Beerenberg Corp, where Lidiia worked until January 2017.
«After a while the oil crisis came and our Department got moved from Stavanger to Bergen,» Lidiia explains. In Bergen she found an interest and passion for figure skating. Even though she had no previous experience with the sport, she became a member in a club for veterans on the ice.
«It is an amazing sense of mastery, and I have learned a lot in a short amount of time,» says Lidiia who likes to see quick results from her own effort, whether it is on the ice or the workplace.
Entering Omega
After a while in Bergen, there was a new round of downsizing in the company, and this time Lidiia also had to leave. Her manager at Beerenberg recommended Omega to her, and this would turn out to give results. Her first job as a consultant via Omega as cost controller was in Bergen January 2017 in Aibel, after this, she moved to Haugesund and started her present assignment in Deep Ocean. Here she works with cost control and project economy on five different projects.
«This means that I have control over contracts, internal and client reports. In this job it is important to be precise and at all times have a full overview. Also, being proactive, solution oriented and helpful are important assets for solving potential problems,» Lidiia explains.
«Important to be flexible»
Lidiia has settled in Norway, and now also at Karmøy in Rogaland. She likes Omega as an employer and the work as a consultant suits her well.
«To be able to do a good job as a consultant it is important to be flexible and adjust quickly,» she says and talks further about how the companies often have limited resources to train the consultants when they start a new job.
The 32-year-old has moved several times because of work and the last time she moved it was also a boyfriend in Kopervik who encouraged her to move from Bergen. The rest of her family is in Ukraine, which in the busy weekdays can feel like a way too long distance.
«They live a long way from here, and we do not get to meet too often. We try to go on holidays together or see each other at least once a year, and talk as often as possible on Skype or on the phone,» says Lidiia.