Pavel Jančovič comes from Bratislava, Slovakia. After the high school which focused on mathematics, he started to study at the IES, where he successfully completed his Master's degree in 2017. During that time he managed to complete a semester exchange stay in Brussels, at Ichec Brussels Management School and a number of internships in various companies. He worked in various positions at Slavia Capital, Penta, EYELEVEL, Roklen Fin a.s. and Exxon Mobil. After that he worked full time at Rockaway Capital as Business Associate and later as Project Lead. In 2019, he moved to Czech Video Center, where he still works. In his spare time, Pavel is now mainly focused on his young son and is looking forward to traveling and exploring foreign countries with his family again after the covid pandemic is over.

How did you find out about the IES and why did you start to study? What was the most important thing for you during your studies that influenced you in your future career?

 I originally wanted to go to Matfyz, as I was at the mathematical high school, and I enjoyed Mathematics. I was recommended to go to the IES by our family’s friend and sadly now deceased Mr. Pavol Brunovsky. We talked about my interests and when I said that I was not so much attracted to programming, but rather to problem-solving and I was also interested in Economics, he recommended that the IES would be just the right choice for me.

The most important thing was the very first semester and Mathematics I. I came in thinking it would be easy, but high school math and the proofs that are required at the IES are something completely different. From there I found that I had to go out on a limb and change my approach to learning. I finally gave it a go on the last, 3rd attempt, and it showed me that by changing my approach to problems and pushing hard, I can get results.

You started to gain experience at various internships, for example at Roklen, EYELEVEL, Penta, Exon Mobil, and Slavia Capital. Which of these companies has been the most influential for you in your next steps in your career and why?

It was definitely Roklen. I got a position as a Junior Economist and I dealt with macroeconomic forecasting and nowcasting of the macro situation in the Czech Republic. It was the first job that was related to what I was studying. And it was there that I discovered that I was never going to be a Macroeconomist because it was often very abstract and repetitive for me. That just made me realize that I wanted to be more involved in business and the real problems of individual companies.

You spent almost two and a half years at Rockaway, what did you do?

It was my first "full-time job". I started as an internal business analyst at Mall Group, where I got tasks like setting up board reporting and presentations to shareholders and some development projects. I then became a Project Lead and got into the Mall Group Transformation, where the goal was to get the group into the black. As part of the transformation, we also tackled new start-up projects, which I was part of and helped to get initial funding and shareholder support. We did that with two projects as well, namely MALL.TV (now known as Czech Video Center) and MALL PAY.

Pavel, you are now working as a Product Transformation Manager at CZECH NEWS CENTER (CNC), what exactly is behind the mysterious job title?

Transformation is a link in my career which is returning for the second time in my professional life. CNC is currently going through one digital transformation that I am a part of, where we are trying to use new IT products to change a large media house and set it up as a technology leader among media houses and flip the company's profit from a pure "offline" environment to today's "online" world. Specifically, we are currently working on a new Content Management System (CMS) for journalists. Historically, for example, we have already brought in a new ordering system that has streamlined the operations of merchants and made the overall ordering process faster. So, in simple terms, we are working with the team to prepare product briefs for developers and trying to uncover and deliver what will help the company in the long run and of course, bring profit.

What do you enjoy in your free time? Do you have any long-term plans you want to fulfill?

At the moment I'm enjoying my free time mainly with my little son, who has just turned half a year old. Whenever I have time, I try to devote myself to him and see how he develops and learns something new every day. Personally, I would like to fulfill my long-term plan to travel as much as possible with my family and discover new worlds and cultures. As for my professional life, my plan is to be a part of a good team of people, not to fall into a stereotype, and maybe create a product that will work at least on a European level.