Andrea Kovacova
Founder
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“If you want to do something with your life, why can`t you find information easily?” Andrea Kovacova is the Founder of “woppa”, an Online-Platform for young people interested in experience abroad. What she likes most about her job? “Every day, when I wake up I will see, that new dreams have been archieved.” Her advice: “Don’t look for stability, look for risk!”

Transkript

Drei Ratschläge an Dein 14jähriges Ich!

Don't look for stability and look risk. That would be the first one. Second, spend more time with your family and third sort out your priorities.

Was steht auf Deiner Visitenkarte?

On my business card it's written “woppa”. The World of Opportunities. And I am Andrea from Slovakia the founder of Woppa.

Was ist das coolste an Deinem Job?

Because every day when I wake up I know that there'll be something new something different. I will know new people, I will see that new dreams have been achieved and this is what makes me happy everyday and this is why I want to do it tomorrow as well.

Welche Einschränkungen bringt Dein Job mit sich?

Number one restriction is that one day has only 24 hours, I would like to do much more than what am actually doing. Also replying emails takes a lot of time so I would like to somehow restrict that and building a strong team is also, sometimes hinders me in what am doing because I cannot do everything myself but at the same time giving the responsibility to someone else and that's maybe kind of restricting.

Worum geht es in Deinem Job?

Basically what we do on a daily basis, we are gathering all the opportunities from all over the world, youth opportunities, be it studies, internships, language schools or if you want to start a business you will have everything gathered on one place. So this is what we do, gathering it on daily basis. First of all as soon as I wake up I check out my emails and for first three hours, I am replying all the emails from all over the world because people are looking for internships, people are interested to study, they're ready to change the world. I am sorting out all these emails and trying to answer everyone that is interested. Then I'm calling the Universities and trying to tell them who we are, how we started and if they would like to be a part of the project to bring these opportunities to youth and am with my team. We are programming the database. So imagine that you're a young fellow and you would like to do something in your life, you would like to study somewhere abroad plus find internship, plus find great scholarship. You will need million of hours searching for a great opportunity. What we do now we're trying to help people because we're gathering all the opportunities on one place and what is most important not only that you will find the opportunity but you will find a real person behind every single thing. It will be the real story in each opportunity. For example someone already studied the program or someone already experienced language school and they're writing how they found accommodation, how they basically find the first people, how they opened the bank account and everything that you would probably need if you're going somewhere abroad.

Wie sieht Dein Werdegang aus?

I started studying International Relations in University of Economics in Slovakia. From there I decided I would like to travel the world so I went to many different countries all over the world. When I was exploring different natures and different cultures and I decided that I would like to start thinking more globally that's why I decided to study Global Studies at University of in California and also in the University of Vienna. Because I always wanted to do so many things at the same time. I wanted to intern, learn a language, go to school, do a different trainings, I always found myself that I'm searching for something. And that was the time, that was the first hint when I decided okay I want to have everything gathered on one place. That was the first thought. Okay, why it cannot be easier. If you want to change the world, if you want to do something in your life. Why you cannot find information easily? That was the first hint and that was and since then I was doing interviews with people. What they would like to do, what kind of search they would like to use and afterwards I finished my studies. I started to work for a private company because I wanted to get normally daily job. Now I just said, no more. I really want to achieve this. So now we're starting launch, three months ago.

Ginge es auch ohne Deinem Werdegang?

Probably it's much easier if you're already experienced everything because you can start gathering the stories from your own life first. You don't need to ask so many people at the same time. Obviously it will be easier but if you would like to start startup as well. If you're enthusiastic about youth opportunities, you can do it for sure but you need to know the right people. You need to know how to approach Universities. It's not only about having a great stories but you also need to sell the product. You need to teach the Universities. How to promote themselves. You need to know how the students are thinking. Students are, first they like to do things but second they are really impatient. If they don't find the right opportunities within 20 seconds they would probably go to Facebook or do something different. And this is what we would like to, this is what we're doing as well. If you can do it as well then just do it. Basically what I want to tell you about start ups, I think that we're, everyone is really developing the product but they're forgetting like the real world. That you need to have a sales people as well. You need to know how to approach customers. You need to do all these things. So if you have a great team then probably you can do it.