Ksenia Kotova

Career & current jobs at Deutsche Telekom

Writing user stories or novels. It’s all about the details.

Ksenia Kotova with her own Fantasy-Books

Ksenia, writing fantasy stories is your passion. Where do you find inspiration for your stories?

At first I wrote fairy tales and mystical scenes, but then I was drawn to fantasy stories. I read many books from the period between the early 19th century and World War one. This period of time is really interesting to me. It was my inspiration to develop something on my own. I started to write in a steampunk style about a fantastic world with an alternative history. I’ve always had a good imagination and I just write what comes to my mind. I also dream about the characters in my books. Writing gives me lots of energy.

As an author you are a very creative person. In your job it is the analytical skills that count. How do you bring these requirements together?

When I start to write a novel, I always make a plan. I need to know what will happen in the middle or at the end of a story. The more complex the better. It’s not possible to create a good fantasy story without paying attention to the details, they need to be relatable to the reader. In my job as a business analyst it is similar. When I write user stories for my team I also start by planning and analyzing the details. In my job I need to talk to people a lot and I realized that I like to discuss and explain things to others. Sometimes when I get stuck at a complex user story, I take a short break and try to free my mind. Then I think about any good book. It helps me to see things from a different perspective and afterwards I can continue with my task.

What was your happiest moment in your career so far?

I remember when I met my first editor, a man from “Astrel-Spb” publishing house and a good fiction writer himself. That was unexpected and a great experience. Each time when a magazine or journal accepts my stories for publishing or when a reader writes a good review about my stories it makes me happy. As I’m working part-time at T-Systems I was very happy when I was given the opportunity to develop from my previous role as a tester to my new role as a business analyst. Being able to grow and having the freedom to follow my passion as writer at the same is very valuable to me.


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