Daria Chetverikova

Daria studied on the BA in Modern Languages and Cultures with a Year Abroad, specializing in French and Spanish and graduating in 2013.

What do you do now?

I currently work as Blockchain and Metaverse Senior Manager at Accenture, focusing on bringing innovative solutions to clients across different industries.

What was your favourite module and why?

For me it was definitely between Linguistics modules (Spanish) and Medieval French modules (French).  I loved learning about how languages develop over time and how as humans we actually process learning them.  I also found the historical aspects to the modules fascinating - from rolling your sleeves up and getting to grips with texts in Old French to getting an insight into mentality and culture through literature – after all a lot of the modern events that are taking place today are still very much shaped by our past.

What did you do on your year abroad?

I wanted to make the best of both working and travelling across the year, so I tried to align working opportunities in several countries to maximise my experience. I started off teaching in Spain over the summer, I then moved for a few months to Quebec in Canada, followed by a marketing internship in France. I then finished off my year in Argentina, but travelled to Uruguay and Brazil while I was there too. My trip to Brazil inspired me to take additional evening classes in Portuguese language when I came back to Durham. Overall it was truly fantastic to spend the year in so many places putting my language skills to good use, meeting some of my closest friends along the way and getting great work experience too.

How did your studies prepare you for what you do now?

Studying Modern Languages has given me an array of transferable skills that prepared me for work after university. Aside from using my languages on an almost daily basis as I work in a global company with international clients and colleagues, the research, writing and interpersonal skills that I gained from my studies and the year abroad have been invaluable to me along the way.

What is the most important piece of advice you'd like to give to students of Modern Languages?

The course that you are doing is such a fantastic base to enable you to go into anything you chose – keep an open mind about potential professions and keep that academic curiosity going after you graduate! As demonstrated by my career, Modern Languages can even set you up nicely for a career in the Tech sector.