Continuing our tradition of publishing success stories of Central Asian Tax Research Center‟s (CATRC) representatives, we decided to share with you Elvira‟s story of success during her stay in CATRC, study at KIMEP University and further after graduation. How did she became a tax researcher, how did she managed to overcome all the challenges during her work and study, what experience had she gained – the answers on these questions you will easily find, if you read the story below.

It was the last semester on BSC program when Elvira had to take one elective course. She was planning to do Risk Management, however had to drop it because she was not satisfied with the course content. After searching for some other course, she found that fortunately there was some course on Taxation for Multinational Enterprises offered at the convenient time. So she came there, and what do you think had happened? Elvira discovered for herself a new world – the world of T
axation. This was the beginning of her story. Already in three weeks she participated at the Kazakhstan-Korea tax forum. Moreover, Elvira was involved in other conference in that semester as a researcher and presenter. “It was interesting both to research and to have great team building activities,” – reports to us Elvira.

After her graduation Tomas Balco – the Director of CATRC – recommended Elvira to one of the local tax advising companies. According to Elvira, the work in the tax advising company was a good experience that she further enriched studying at MBA program. Elvira received a merit based scholarship and had to work as a teaching assistant (TA) to maintain her scholarship. She joined CATRC again already as TA of Tomas Balco. “I had been supporting development of the tax specialization, organization of conferences, support the course management and development as well as publishing research articles about taxation in Central Asia. We also had several interesting research projects and I have get chance even to manage one of the project,” – reports Elvira.

Everyone faces various difficulties during the work, Elvira was not an exception. She said: “There were challenges (as in any work), such as managing deadlines, meeting expectations of the management, etc. And I learned to work hard to overcome them. This experience allowed me to develop management, interpersonal and technical skills. The lesson that I can share with those who wish to join CATRC - stay focused, always clarify expectations, and learn to build team and delegate - as a team you can always do more than alone”.

Currently Elvira Haliulina joined tax department of one of the Big Four companies and now is enjoying her work very much.

“I am thankful to CATRC for letting me know about how interesting taxes could be. I am thankful to teammates, Tomas Balco, Vladimir Tyutyuryukov for being supportive and helping to members of CATRC to grow professionally,” – sais Elvira.

To anyone who is freshmen or already had some experience in CATRC Elvira wishes to use the chance for self development that CATRC gives and set priorities in allocation of your time. “Your time is an extremely precious asset that you have. You might have much less time when you will start your real job,” – adds Elvira.

That is the Elvira‟s story of success, but it is not the end of it! This is a big step forward her future successful career as a Tax specialist. We believe that Elvira will achieve all the goals she set for herself and we will publish one more story about her. All of us wish you a good luck!