Tanya Kravtsov is Paving the Way for Others to Flourish in Tech Careers

Tanya Kravtsov is all about creating opportunities for others. As Audible’s Head of Quality Assurance and Tech Operations, she leads a global team in ensuring the reliability of all the features and touchpoints used by our customers, creators and employees, but she’s just as passionate about helping her colleagues grow their own successful careers in tech.

Kravtsov worked with senior leaders from our tech, human resources and customer care teams to create a program in which Audible’s customer care representatives could transition to tech careers with us, via quality assurance (QA) roles. “Our customer care specialists have deep knowledge of our product and customer experience, and are highly motivated,” she explains, which makes them a great fit for QA roles. As a result of the program, customer care specialists have joined the team as full-time QA technicians, bringing their passion for quality to our customer experiences on the web, apps, Alexa, and more.

For five years, Kravtsov co-led Audible’s impact group, Women in Technology (WiT), seeking to “build a community focused on supporting the career growth and retention of women on our tech teams, in service of creating a more diverse and inclusive workplace.” Leading the group was a way for Kravtsov to “pay forward” the guidance and support she’s received from her mentors, managers and team, which she says has been instrumental to her success.

This past December, Kravtsov took on the additional scope of leading our tech operations team, providing support for our employees across Audible and third-party technology infrastructure. Here she shares her favorite quotes, the people who have inspired her to work hard and dream big, and what it takes to be a strong leader.

What’s something you believe is essential to succeeding as a leader?

Self-awareness. By developing self-awareness, you get to understand your own strengths, weaknesses, motivations and values, and learn how to amplify the positive impact you have on others. Leaders with a high level of self-awareness have a deeper understanding of others, can communicate more effectively and build stronger relationships with their teams, enabling them to lead with empathy and authenticity.

What do you love best about your work?

I love what I do, and I love Audible’s product and culture, and our People Principles. What makes my workplace really special, though, is my team. They are an amazing group of smart, unique individuals, and knowing that my work and leadership makes a difference in their lives is what really drives me.

If you could go back and give career advice to your younger self, what would it be?

Make an extra effort to make personal connections, build your network and share your experiences. You'll learn and grow so much and form long-lasting relationships with great people in the process. As Michelle Obama said, “Success isn't about how much money you make; it's about the difference you make in people's lives.”

Who would you invite, living, dead or fictional, to the dinner party of your dreams?

All of my grandparents. They are gone now, and there are so many stories about their amazing lives that I never got a chance to hear.

If we made an Audible Original about your life, what would the title be?

Dancing in the Rain. It’s based on one of my favorite quotes, from author and entrepreneur Vivian Greene: “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.”

Lightning round

• Coffee or tea? Tea. As much as I wanted to, I never got to liking coffee.
• Morning person or night owl? I like waking up early and usually don’t go to sleep until late. Too much to do, too little time!
• Where are you working from currently? I work from our Newark hub two or three days a week, and the rest from my home in New Jersey.
• How long have you been with Audible? Eight years and four months.
• Who is your biggest inspiration, career-wise? My parents. They left their hard-earned careers behind to start a new life in the United States in order to give me and my brother more opportunities. My dad had to start by washing dishes in a local restaurant in order to pay our rent, and is now a senior database administrator. My mom went back to school at 40 to get a master’s degree and made a career in library sciences. Their example inspires me every day to work hard and dream big.
• Dine-in or take out? I like both: dinner outings with close friends and family movie nights with my husband and kids while eating our favorite take out.
• Favorite outside-of-work hobby? Dancing. I used to be a competitive ballroom dancer and now get to relive it through my kids.
• Favorite Audible listen, go. It’s very hard to pick—there are so many. I’ll go with The Innovators by Walter Isaacson for nonfiction, and for fiction, We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter.