Hey all! If you’re reading this for the first time, here’s a short intro: #CoffeeWithRW is our Career Growth series where Railswarians share the unique paths and skills that help us build industry-leading products used by over 6 million people.
Last round, Dmytro Zaichenko, Marketing Lead at Coupler.io, shared with us how SEO, art and music can fit into one career path.
This time, Yuliiana Dobosh, Product Marketing Manager, opens up about her own not-so-linear journey: from music school and chemistry classes to law school, startup chaos, product marketing, and even using AI to study Korean.
We know you’re eager to start reading, so Yuliiana, over to you.
Music criticism, chemistry and law
When I was a kid, I started piano at a music school where we followed the standard curriculum, which included intensive theory lessons.
At one point, I genuinely thought: maybe music criticism is my future.
However, when we started studying chemistry in higher classes, I noticed that chemistry tasks range from hands-on experiments to theoretical calculations. I really enjoyed that range and loved solving those problems. It kept me interested for quite a while, yet it didn’t feel like enough to commit to it. And then, when I was 16, preparing for university entrance exams, I had to choose what to study next.
Since I was in a class focused on Ukrainian language studies, I chose the exam subjects where I was strongest — the ones that had the most hours in our school schedule: our national history and language. At that time, I was already considering a career in marketing. But I was also calculating my best chances, and when I weighed law against marketing, I decided that law would definitely require formal education. I thought I could learn marketing on the go.
So there I was, a 16-year-old, entering law school at one of Ukraine’s best universities. I’ll be honest: from the very beginning, I knew this path wouldn’t be my final career. As an early “feedback lover,” I asked older students about their experience.
What they shared wasn’t exactly the dream I’d give up marketing for.
Shaping my marketing journey
So I did the best thing a young and curious person could do: I joined student associations, where I could try myself in different roles. From event planning to research to marketing. It was the time I realized that marketing is indeed where I can be myself and where I could actually grow.
That’s how I got my first internship at a marketing agency. It was chaos in the best possible way. I assisted accounts, juggled project management, and stumbled through client-facing roles. Was it stressful? 100%. But it cracked open the black box of how things actually get done. On the side, I was devouring every general marketing book I could find.
My first real job pulled me into B2B territory. As I started there, business priorities shifted as a new product required more focus from the team. And suddenly I was researching an entire market from scratch: mapping potential customers, reading what strangers wrote on Reddit at 2 am, building a picture out of nothing. I enjoyed that research stage.
After a larger corporate setup, I found myself in a team of 15, where roles didn’t have defined borders. And it was exactly there that I truly understood what a product marketer does. I wore every hat possible: project manager, growth product marketers, customer support, copywriter and business strategist. And that’s exactly what made it a T-shaped journey.
Around that time, I also joined a product marketing community. I found great templates, useful tools, and a space where product marketers openly shared their approaches. That’s when I took my first independent research assignments, explored LinkedIn best practices, and kept pushing myself to learn.
What Actually Helped Me Grow
Looking back at this whole winding road, I keep returning to the same thought: time and patience are underrated superpowers. Here’s what actually helped:
1. Carve out time to learn (even tiny blocks count)
If you want to get sharp with new tools or technology, you have to be comfortable starting at zero.
The “experts” aren’t necessarily smarter, they’re just more consistent. They treat learning like a non-negotiable appointment, even if it’s just 15 minutes a day.
I’ve seen this firsthand while using Claude to help with everything from complex workflows to basic Korean homework. It isn’t about having a master plan. It’s actually enough to stay curious and keep those tiny learning blocks sacred. Regularity is what turns a tool into an extension of how you think.
2. Be open to feedback
I’m very open to feedback, even when it means seeing your work differently than you expected. Miscommunications happen, and that’s fine. What matters is being ready to learn and always willing to try, even when it causes discomfort. Reworking things, pushing through language barriers.
And here’s a skill nobody puts on their resume: getting comfortable with being wrong. The more you ask for feedback and advice, the faster things click. Every uncomfortable moment is tuition paid toward something better.
3. Prioritize like your sanity depends on it (because it does)
You may have access to a million skills, but you need to analyze which ones matter most for your current role. Every company expects a certain skill set, and when you’re juggling different projects, you need to prioritize.
The key is knowing how to apply the right skill in the right context and adapt as your company changes. When the product grows and new features launch, your role evolves too. What was priority one six months ago might be priority five now.
I look at what’s happening with the actual numbers every day. I talk to people, check the data. And separately, I use Claude to describe tasks, get feedback on my approach, and summarize what I’ve done. It helps me stay sharp.
4. Be honest with yourself and your fears
Since German was my main foreign language in school, I didn’t deeply study English through formal education. Instead, I picked it up more naturally through things I genuinely loved: TV series, music, and culture.
Although I immersed myself constantly, over time, I was still afraid to actually use it.
I could understand far more than I felt comfortable speaking. And like many people, I was scared of making mistakes, sounding awkward, or simply not being good enough out loud.
Suddenly, at university, English wasn’t optional anymore. I had to use it in projects, discussions, and presentations. Speaking in front of people felt terrifying at first. It pushed me far outside my comfort zone.
Yet, then I learned that fear doesn’t mean you’re incapable. The knowledge is often already there. What’s missing is practice, confidence, and the willingness to let that knowledge crystallize through action.
For me, one of the best ways to overcome that fear was learning through genuine interest. When you connect learning to something you truly enjoy, the process becomes much more natural.
That’s why I strongly believe it’s easier to grow when curiosity leads you: When you explore because you actually want to, not because you feel forced to.
5. Pick an environment that stretches you without snapping you
It’s great to be in an environment that pushes you to develop without having to artificially motivate yourself. For me, that means being among those who openly share what they’re learning, whether it’s professional knowledge or personal interests.
At Railsware, for example, growth doesn’t only happen through projects. It also happens through the culture around them.
We have Slack channels where people exchange insights on everything from AI tools and productivity hacks to parenting, pets, or even planting. And while those topics may seem unrelated at first, they create a culture of continuous learning and shared curiosity.
AI is cool, but I want to develop skills that matter even more
If there’s one skill I want to sharpen above all others, it’s storytelling. We’re all drowning in noise. The person who can cut through it, who can take complex information and make someone actually feel something, that’s the person who wins.
In B2B specifically, there’s this strange assumption that content has to be dry. It doesn’t. Behind every business product, there are real people making real decisions, and they respond to personality, warmth, and a distinct brand voice. Finding that voice, making it feel close, specific, human — that’s the work that no prompt can replace.
Create your own law
My path was never perfect, and honestly, that’s what made it mine. As I moved through music school and chemistry classes, through law lectures, I already suspected they weren’t my final destination. So I muddled on through stressful first internships, startup chaos, and endless research.
A career doesn’t have to follow a perfect plan to make perfect sense later. Often, growth looks less like a straight line and more like connecting seemingly unrelated experiences until they finally shape something uniquely yours.
Today, AI can absolutely help us move faster. It can help us learn, experiment, and figure out how to do things more efficiently.
But the bigger question is what you actually want to build, what excites you, what matters enough for you to keep showing up for it.
And that part is still yours to define. So take your time and let yourself shine!
