Professional Integration HUB

When Alina Stozhok moved to Vienna in November 2022, she brought experience in two fields: academic research and IT project management. In Austria, the challenge was to understand where that experience could be applied within a new professional environment.

Professional Integration HUB 3.0 gave her first-hand experience of working within an Austrian institution. As a HUB participant, Alina joined OeAD, Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation, and worked across several areas of international cooperation in higher education.

The internship later became an important link in her professional path. Today, Alina is back at OeAD as an International Qualifications & Recognition Analyst at ENIC NARIC Austria, while continuing her academic research.

Her story is about professional continuity: bringing previous experience into a new context and finding new ways to build on it.

POINT A: Finding a place for previous experience

I moved to Austria in November 2022. I came directly from Ukraine to Vienna. It was a spontaneous decision driven primarily by safety considerations, and at that point I did not have a clear long-term plan.

My professional background combines academic research and IT project management. Before moving to Austria, I was conducting research at Kyiv National Economic University and working in IT project management at SoftServe. My research interests were already focused on social mobility and the labour market.

Alina arrived in Austria with professional experience, but without a clear understanding of how it could translate into the local context.

At that time, my professional future in Austria felt uncertain. I already had professional experience and a research background, but I did not yet understand how to apply them in the Austrian institutional and professional context. The main question for me was not what I could do, but where and how my previous experience could be applied here.

Before HUB: Looking for a way into the Austrian institutional environment 

Alina had already been exploring professional opportunities in Austria before joining HUB 3.0. She had also applied for the first edition of the program.

HUB was not my first attempt to enter the Austrian labour market, nor was it my first professional experience after moving. But it became my first direct experience working in an Austrian institutional environment. I had already worked in an international corporate environment and had previously applied for HUB 1.0, but HUB 3.0 allowed me to experience an Austrian institution from the inside.

The transition from an international corporate background to an Austrian institution required a different understanding of the local professional landscape.

The most challenging period was when I was trying to understand how to move from an international corporate environment into the Austrian institutional context. I already had qualifications and professional experience, but I needed to understand how local institutions work, where my experience could be relevant, and how to position myself within this environment.

When HUB opened another call, Alina decided to apply again.

I first learned about the Professional Integration HUB through a Facebook post in 2023 and applied for HUB 1.0 at that time. Later, I decided to try again because I saw the program as an opportunity to apply my knowledge and skills in the Austrian institutional environment.

Inside OeAD

Through HUB 3.0, Alina joined OeAD, Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation.

My host institution was OeAD – Austria’s Agency for Education and Internationalisation. During the internship, I worked across different areas of international cooperation in higher education: supporting international students and researchers, administering scholarship and grant programs, working with participant documentation, and learning about foreign qualification assessment processes. At the same time, I was able to draw on the experience I had already gained in Ukraine. Building on my background in IT project management, I proposed ideas to improve the efficiency of internal processes. Drawing on my previous experience in talent acquisition, I also delivered a presentation, ‘Contemporary Approaches to Job Searching’, at the EURAXESS-supported Working in Austria event, where I shared practical recommendations with researchers working in Austria.

The internship helped her understand the Austrian education and research system from within and see where her previous experience could be relevant.

Professionally, the experience gave me a broader understanding of how international academic mobility, support for students and researchers, and foreign qualification assessment work in Austria. I saw the Austrian education and research environment from the inside, learned more about opportunities for researchers, and gained a clearer understanding of how my previous professional and academic experience could be applied in the Austrian institutional environment.

From learning to contributing

A significant moment came during the EURAXESS-supported Working in Austria event, where Alina had the opportunity to share her own professional expertise.

One of the turning points was the EURAXESS-supported Working in Austria event. I was not only learning about the Austrian professional and research environment; I was also speaking to researchers working in Austria and sharing my own professional expertise. It changed my perspective: I realised that I was there not only to gain experience, but that I also had knowledge to share and could make my own contribution.

Her confidence developed gradually. One team event in Wachau became particularly memorable.

My confidence grew gradually, but I remember one moment particularly well – a team event in Wachau. During that event, as well as other activities at OeAD, I felt that I was genuinely part of the team rather than simply an intern from an external programme. That sense of belonging was very important to me.

Building on what was already there

The HUB experience gave Alina local professional experience, new contacts and access to an institutional environment. It also changed the way she viewed her own professional trajectory.

The biggest change was that I stopped seeing my professional path in Austria as a need to start everything from scratch. I began to see it as a continuation of what I had already built in Ukraine. I also realised that I do not necessarily have to choose between professional practice and research. Today, these two areas increasingly complement each other: my institutional work gives me practical insight into education, qualifications and mobility, while my research allows me to analyse these processes from a broader perspective.

The professional network around HUB became part of that continuity as well.

The HUB community gave me something that is difficult to gain through job applications alone: professional social capital and the feeling that I was not going through this journey on my own. I was surrounded by other Ukrainian women professionals with similar experiences of transitioning into a new professional environment, which created space to exchange information, experiences and opportunities. HUB remains part of my professional network, and I value the opportunity to stay in touch with other participants through the community’s events and activities.

Beyond the workplace

Alina describes integration as something that developed gradually through everyday life, language and social connections.

I had already adapted fairly well to everyday life in Austria, but for me that was not yet the same as a sense of belonging. It developed gradually – through language, communication, social ties and participation in everyday life. Over time, Austria became not only the place where I organise my life, but also a place I have come to feel much more connected to.

Her experience also changed the way she felt perceived professionally.

I would be cautious about speaking of a general shift in how Ukrainian professionals are perceived, but in my own environment I increasingly feel that my professional identity is becoming more visible than my status as a displaced person. I have experienced situations in which my previous qualifications, knowledge and experience were recognised and became the basis for professional interaction. For me, this shift is reflected primarily in a gradual move from being perceived through my status to being perceived through my professional experience and competencies.

POINT B: Back at OeAD

Today, Alina works at OeAD in ENIC NARIC Austria and continues her academic research.

My Point B today is not one specific position, but a combination of professional practice and research. I work at OeAD, in ENIC NARIC Austria, as an International Qualifications & Recognition Analyst. I assess and document foreign higher-education qualifications under Austrian and European recognition frameworks, analyse information from multiple sources, manage individual cases, and coordinate necessary clarifications with applicants, higher-education institutions and other institutions. In parallel, I continue my academic research, focusing on the impact of forced migration on social mobility, human capital and professional trajectories, with particular attention to women’s experiences.

For Alina, one of the most important outcomes is the continuity between what she had built professionally in Ukraine and what she is doing today in Austria.

I consider my biggest achievement to be that I have been able to maintain professional continuity rather than having to start completely from scratch. I was able to transfer different elements of my previous experience into a new professional environment, continue my professional path in Austria, and develop my research at the same time. HUB played an important role in this process because it gave me my first direct experience working in an Austrian institutional environment, access to a professional network, and an opportunity to demonstrate my competencies in practice. HUB was not the beginning of my professional experience, but it became an important point of entry into the Austrian institutional environment and gave me the opportunity to apply the education, skills and knowledge I already had.

The clearest connection between her HUB experience and her Point B came when she returned to OeAD, this time as an employee.

For me, that moment was returning to OeAD as an employee – specifically to the area I had first encountered during my HUB internship. What had been part of my first experience in the Austrian institutional environment became my next professional position. That was probably the moment when I thought: yes, I have managed to begin a new stage of my professional path here.

Why programs like HUB matter

I consider programs like HUB extremely important not simply because they support displaced professionals, but because they open access to professional environments that can be difficult to enter without local experience or a network of contacts. Many displaced professionals do not lack qualifications or experience – what they often lack is a mechanism for entering the local professional environment. Programs like this help bridge that gap, reduce the risk of human-capital loss, and create conditions in which qualified professionals can fully apply their knowledge and experience.

This is one of the stories behind Professional Integration HUB. Discover all From Point A to Point B stories.