No one has the full playbook when stepping into a new role, and this goes double for Ksyusha Parfisheva. From a law student moonlighting in consulting and even customs to becoming an office manager and eventually a CEO at Allcorrect, her story is that of learning on the job and growing into the role along the way.
What did you do before joining Allcorrect? How did you come to work there?
Oh, that takes me back! It was 2012, and I was deep into my fifth year of law school, working on my degree and building dreams of a successful legal career. It was then that I decided to look for something small on the side, a part-time job to tide me over until I graduated. I tried my hand at legal consulting, customs, and even landed in the Federal Antimonopoly Service at one point, but it wasn’t much of a happy journey. Instead, it was a path of overwhelming bureaucracy and rather pointless tasks. A road to nowhere. I guess all that made me feel a little lost, and that’s when my sister, Yulia Tregubova (pictured below) reached out to me. She was leading the translation department and needed an office manager, and I decided to give it a shot—again, just until I was done with my thesis. But as it often goes, there’s nothing more permanent than a temporary solution… so here I am! :)
Ksenia Parfisheva and Yulia TregubovaWhat did you think of the job at first?
Oh, it was a stark contrast after civil service and law! Took me a long time to get used to the fact you don’t have to get the go-ahead on every little thing. If you see something that you can improve, everyone encourages you to go ahead and do it. You see the impact of your actions right away, and their value to the team, the project, and yourself. I finally felt like I was doing something meaningful and useful.
There was none of that pecking order I witnessed before, and that made me feel at home. I was surrounded by like-minded people that became my friends, and that’s the kind of environment that moves you to be your best creative self!
So you applied for the office manager job at first? How long did it take you to work your way up?
Well, I applied for the temporary office manager position, but I wasn’t hired. xD They were looking for someone with prior experience as an office manager at the time, but I was lucky that their candidate didn’t show up. That’s how I ended up working at Allcorrect! My journey as an office manager was rather brief—about two months. Just long enough to streamline some processes and win the hearts and minds, you know the drill. Then Yura Petyushin (co-founder) brought me on to help out with managerial accounting. I ended up working in finance for three years. The department started out with just me, but as our studio grew, so did the team. Expanding also meant new opportunities, and I was more keen on improving things rather than just keeping them going. We eventually took on an assistant, and then brought on a vendor manager to work with freelancers. That was the beginning of our small and humble finance team.
Working in finance naturally means you’re working with each aspect of the business. So, after those three years, when they needed someone to step up as a deputy CEO, our other co-founder Demid Tishin gave me that chance—a huge opportunity I’m grateful for to this day. Another year later, I moved into the CEO role!
Ksenia Parfisheva and Yuriy Petyushin (Allcorrect co-founder)
Ksenia Parfisheva and Demid Tishin (Allcorrect co-founder)What is your most vivid memory from your time with the studio?
Oh, my most vivid memory isn’t some single moment, but rather this lasting feeling that at Allcorrect, everyone can leave their mark. If you see something that is not quite right, you don’t need any greenlight to go ahead and fix it. See an opportunity, go for it—get it done! This freedom to make things better was an eye-opening experience for me then, and it still makes all the difference to me now. This was an eye-opener for me when I came, this is what was important to me then and remains important now.
Denis Khamin (Allcorrect co-founder), Igor Sheynikov (CBDO), Yuriy Petyushin (Allcorrect co-founder) and Ksenia ParfishevaHave you joined any training programs or initiatives? If yes, in which ones? If so, did any of them stand out to you? What skills did you develop?
Well, one could say my entire career path at Allcorrect has been one giant training program. :) I’ve been with this studio for almost 13 years now, and I don’t have to tell you about how things changed on the inside. The entire industry is in a different place now—I’m talking tools, processes, practices, trends. One thing that stays true for Allcorrect is the opportunity to grow.
But if I had to pick one, it’d be our Performance Management approach. The way it works is each employee, myself included, has a roadmap of sorts for the next 6 to 12 months, outlining some areas within their expertise that need improving. This also comes with a training plan to help us hit those goals. Each of us would present this Performance Management plan/roadmap to their manager and the CEO, and based on our results, we could change roles, move up the ranks, or just get a raise.
The best part about Performance Management is that it connects each of our goals to the studio’s broader objectives. This means we get to see how our actions and achievements lead to better results enjoyed by all. In the meantime, your training plan helps you develop the necessary skills to meet those goals.
In a sense, Performance Management didn’t just teach me the skills, it gave me a vision for how to approach my work. The industry is ever-changing, and there’s always something you can improve. At the same time, it helped me deconstruct and leverage my different responsibilities in a way that allowed me to stay balanced—like breaking down these large goals into small, achievable milestones, working together with our cross-functional team to achieve them, setting and reaching SMART objectives, and ultimately communicating results effectively.
Marina Turkina (Head of Localization Allcorrect) and Ksenia ParfishevaIf Allcorrect could be described in one word or phrase, what would it be?
Allcorrect is:
- A place where bold ideas take shape and come alive.
- A platform to grow and adapt to the ever-changing “rules of the game”.
- A world of its own, with vibes and culture like no other.
- A team of like-minded people eager to make a difference.
