About Me
Hi, I'm Marina! 👋🏻
I know what it's like when everything looks good on paper: a good salary, a solid title, a well-known company... And yet, something inside keeps whispering, "This isn't what I need." If you imagine your life five years from now and think, "Is this really it?" - I've been there.
That moment, when things feel "just fine" but not quite yours, became the starting point of my own shift.
Now I work with professionals who find themselves in a similar place: navigating career fog, quiet (or not so quiet) dissatisfaction, or a sense that there's something more they're meant to bring into the world.
How I got here
I spent over 14 years in Tech: starting in recruiting and eventually growing into senior DevOps leadership. During my journey I've changed my roles 10+ times 😌
I worked across multiple industries: telecom, pharma, automotive, e-commerce, and EdTech. Along the way, I changed roles around ten times - from tech recruiter to software quality specialist, process owner (ISO and industry standards), manual tester, semi-automated tester, test lead, release manager, project manager, defect manager, and finally product manager.
In my last role, I was juggling platform product management and leading a DevOps team. That's when I hit the wall of burnout. My body said "stop" - and this time, I couldn't pretend I could just keep going.
A few months of recovery followed. I didn't want to do anything. Every "must" triggered emotional overwhelm. When things stopped feeling like too much all the time, I slowly began to ask: ok... so what now? There were doubts, a lot of reflection - alone, in therapy, with my partner, and with a coach.
✨ Eventually, I made a choice: to shift toward what feels most alive to me - supporting people. I've been coaching and mentoring professionals for many years throughout my career first as a corporate people manager in Tech, supporting my own team, cross-functional colleagues, and communities beyond the company. Now, I continue this work as an independent coach and sometimes mentor.
I'm currently deepening my practice through the ICF/EMCC-accredited coaching program at Animas Centre for Coaching (until the end of 2025).
Beyond Work
I'm an expat living in Germany for the past 8 years, originally from Siberia. Outside of coaching, I do a lot with my hands, body, and senses. I move a lot with the main goal - to feel better: more flexible, strong, happy and alive. Yoga (I was once certified in Hatha Yoga), swimming, bouldering, cycling, and Alpha Gravity - a bodyweight practice in the air, which I even have installed at home. Sometimes I need something more intense, and then I go for crossfit or HIIT.
I'm deeply interested in somatic topics: I believe our system is a complex mix of physical sensations and the brain. We spend so much time in our heads and forget about the body. I love exploring that connection and helping others do the same. I'm also fascinated by how the brain works: all its beauty, patterns, and quirks. I know a lot about cognitive biases and use this knowledge in my everyday life (and in coaching, too).
Nature and travel bring me a lot of joy: I've visited 28 countries so far, and I'm definitely not done yet.
Music has a special place in my life: I play drums and sometimes record ambient compositions: layering textures, imagining a story (like a night walk through cornfields), and turning it into sound. I run a small project just for the love of it.
And then there's crafting. I go through different phases, but right now I'm into making custom resin dices for DnD (Dungeons&Dragons). It's an oddly satisfying process: tiny details, shiny colors, endless designs. Sometimes the results are stunning, sometimes not. but that's the charm of it. Life is an experiment.
So yes, it's pretty diverse. But somehow, it all fits together - and each part plays its own role in shaping who I am, both as a person and as a professional.
About all of my adventures and thoughts you can read in my Telegram Channel (Russian)
Curious how it feels to work with me? → [Read more here]
Marina Matveevskaia
Copyright (c) 2025