The story of Leyla Mirzoyeva

“In a Job Search, It’s Important Not to Panic, but to See the Task Clearly”: The Story of Leyla Mirzoyeva

Leyla Mirzoyeva was born in Ganja, but she built her truly adult professional life in Baku. There are no dramatic twists in her biography for the sake of a beautiful story: university, her first job at an advertising studio, texts for brochures and websites, a move into marketing, brand communications, an international company, local campaigns, contractors, presentations, budgets, approvals, and deadlines.

At first glance, that kind of experience should have made her job search simple. Leyla had a strong CV, a clear professional profile, experience in communications and marketing, and the ability to work with different teams. But reality turned out to be more complicated.

After leaving the international company, she faced something many professionals are dealing with today: there are many vacancies, but few clear offers. Employers write in vague phrases, expectations are blurred, applications disappear into silence, and searching for a job online gradually turns into a separate job of its own — only without a salary, a schedule, or a guaranteed result.

In the end, Leyla found a new position through LinkWork and joined ROAS Studio, a performance agency that works with digital marketing, analytics, paid traffic, and real business metrics for clients.

We spoke with Leyla about which parts of the job search were the most frustrating, why experience does not always help you find the right role quickly, how to stay calm after rejections, and why LinkWork helped her see not just a vacancy, but the right working environment.

“I thought that with my experience, the search would be shorter”

Leyla, you worked in marketing and brand communications for a long time. How did your job search begin?

I left the company without feeling like it was a disaster. It was a calm decision, although certainly not an easy one. For several years, I had worked on local campaigns, adapted international ideas to our market, worked with contractors, and made sure presentations did not exist separately from the people they were created for.

At some point, it became clear that I wanted a different format. More specificity, fewer long approval chains, and a stronger connection between a decision and its result. I was not looking for a “dream job,” honestly. That phrase sounds nice, but it gets in the way of thinking a little. I was looking for a place with a clear task, a normal team, and respect for agreements.

At first, I thought the search would take a month or a month and a half. I had experience, a portfolio of projects, and good recommendations. I thought: I’ll update my CV, apply carefully to suitable vacancies, speak with a few companies, and choose.

Reality said, “Leyla, let’s separate emotions from the task.” And the task turned out to be much bigger.

“There are many vacancies, but it’s hard to understand what’s really behind them”

What job-search difficulties did you notice first?

The first thing was the noise. When you start looking for a job online, it feels like there are many opportunities. You open websites and see dozens of vacancies: marketer, brand manager, project manager, digital specialist, communications lead. The titles are different, but the descriptions look similar.

Then you start reading carefully and realize that very often, there is nothing visible behind the polished wording. “Strategy development,” “communications management,” “teamwork,” “performance analysis.” Fine, but what product? What market? What channels? What area of responsibility? Is there a team, or will one person be expected to cover all of marketing, content, contractors, analytics, and a little bit of sales as well?

I caught myself thinking several times: this needs to be clear, not pretty. A vacancy should help a person make a decision, not create fog.

Another difficulty was the mismatch between the job title and the real expectations. The description might mention brand communications, and then during the interview it turns out they need a performance marketer with deep knowledge of ad accounts. Or the opposite: they say they are looking for someone with an analytical approach, but in reality they want that person to write Instagram texts and organize photo shoots.

I am not against varied tasks. In marketing, responsibilities are rarely perfectly sterile. But it is important to call things by their names honestly. Are we arguing about taste or about results? That was the internal question I had after almost every second interview.

“Applications disappeared into silence, and that is unpleasant even for an experienced professional”

How did you deal with the lack of responses from employers?

More calmly than I would have ten years ago, but it was still unpleasant. Age and experience do not make a person made of iron. When you send a CV, adapt your cover letter, choose projects that are relevant to the vacancy, and receive nothing in return, a strange feeling of emptiness appears.

You do not understand what exactly did not fit. Experience? Salary expectations? Age? CV format? Or maybe the vacancy has already been closed but is still hanging on the website?

Silence is one of the most exhausting parts of the search. A rejection can be accepted calmly, especially if it is honest. For example: “We need someone with stronger performance experience,” or “We chose a candidate from a different niche.” That is normal. Then you understand what happened.

But when an application simply disappears, you start making assumptions. And making assumptions is a bad assistant. It takes energy that would be better spent on the next precise step.

At some point, I even made a spreadsheet. Not very romantic, but useful. Vacancy, application date, requirements, key tasks, whether there was a response, and the outcome. It helped me see that the problem was not always me. Sometimes the market really is chaotic.

“After several interviews, I realized I was not looking for a job title, but for a working logic”

Were there interviews after which you understood that the role was not for you?

Yes, and quite quickly. I remember one interview especially well. The company was looking for a marketing manager, and the description looked decent: strategy, communications, working with contractors, brand development. During the meeting, it turned out they had neither clear goals, nor data, nor an understanding of who their customer was.

I asked a simple question: “How do you currently evaluate marketing effectiveness?” In response, I heard something like, “Well, so that it looks beautiful, active, and noticeable.” I have nothing against beauty. But if we are talking about business, beauty has to do something. Bring in leads, increase awareness, support sales, retain customers, explain the product.

Then there was another conversation where I was asked, “just in case,” to be ready to manage social media, write copy, launch ads, prepare reports, find bloggers, supervise designers, and occasionally help the sales department. I clarified, “Is this one position or a description of a small department?” I think the joke sounded gentle, but the pause was long.

After meetings like that, I realized I was not simply looking for a position. I needed a working logic. Clear goals, normal communication, respect for time, and a focus on results. At my age, you no longer want to enter chaos and heroically decorate it.

“Searching for a job online requires discipline; otherwise, it starts managing you”

How did you organize the search process itself?

Badly at first. I would open vacancies in the morning, then check replies during the day, and in the evening I would look at new postings again. It created the feeling that I was constantly busy searching, but the result was weak.

Then I introduced a routine. In the morning, I reviewed new vacancies and sent applications. During the day, I worked on my CV, prepared for interviews, and researched companies. In the evening, I no longer touched job sites, otherwise my head would keep living inside vacancies until late at night.

Searching for a job online is dangerous because it has no natural end to the workday. You can endlessly refresh pages, compare offers, read descriptions, doubt yourself, and rewrite your CV. At some point, it stops being a strategy and becomes an anxious ritual.

I told myself: Leyla, the task is not to apply everywhere. The task is to find the right place. Those are different things.

I reduced the number of applications, but prepared them more carefully. If a vacancy was vague, I did not spend much time on it. If I saw specificity, I studied the company, looked at how they talked about work, what projects they had, and what mattered in the team.

That is exactly how I later approached the ROAS Studio vacancy on LinkWork.

“LinkWork helped me avoid drowning in random offers”

How did you start using LinkWork?

An HR acquaintance recommended it to me. She said, “Take a look at LinkWork. It’s easier to filter offers there, and the descriptions are often more concrete.” At first, I reacted calmly. By that point in the search, I was already tired of different platforms.

But LinkWork turned out to be convenient in exactly the way I needed. It was not just a list of vacancies, but a way to understand more quickly whether an offer suited me. For online job searching, that is very important. The less time you spend decoding vague descriptions, the more energy you have left for proper applications and preparation.

I set up filters and looked at roles in marketing, digital, project management, and brand communications. At some point, I saw the ROAS Studio vacancy.

What caught my attention was not a loud title, but the wording. There were no promises like “a dynamic dream team, incredible growth, and a unique atmosphere.” It was clearer: performance marketing, real projects, paid traffic, analytics, creatives, metrics, leads, sales, customer acquisition cost, and return on ad spend.

I thought: finally, people are talking not only about the process, but also about the result.

“ROAS Studio looked like a company where marketing was not detached from numbers”

What exactly made the ROAS Studio vacancy feel suitable to you?

I liked that the description focused on business tasks. My whole career has been at the intersection of meaning, communication, and reality. I have always been irritated by campaigns where everything looks beautiful in a presentation, but it is unclear what the client or audience is supposed to do with it.

ROAS Studio had a different direction: digital marketing, analytics, paid traffic, hypothesis testing, creatives, and scaling solutions. It was not exactly the same format I had worked in before, but it was interesting to me.

I am not a performance specialist in the narrow sense. I am not the person who says, “Give me an ad account and I’ll set everything up in fifteen minutes.” But I understand communication, clients, the market, the meaning of an offer, and working with contractors and teams. I also know how to ask questions before everyone runs off to make beautiful banners.

It seemed to me that my experience could be useful at ROAS Studio precisely as a systematic perspective. In performance marketing, it is easy to go only into the numbers, but behind the numbers there are still people: the client, the buyer, the team, the project manager. Good results appear where numbers and meaning do not conflict.

“I did not try to seem younger than the market or louder than other candidates”

How did you prepare your application?

I decided not to send a universal letter. That is an easy mistake to make when you are tired. You want to send one good cover letter to everyone and hope for the best. But a strong application should be connected to the vacancy.

I opened the ROAS Studio description and wrote down the key things: performance, analytics, creatives, metrics, client projects, a systematic approach, and attention to detail. Then I looked at my experience and honestly separated what matched from what should not be forced.

In my application, I did not write that I was “a perfect fit.” I generally do not like that phrase. No one is a perfect fit until they have started working. I wrote that I had strong experience in marketing communications, local campaigns, working with contractors, and adapting ideas to the market. Separately, I mentioned that I wanted to develop closer to a performance-oriented approach, where decisions are tested not only by taste, but also by metrics.

I also added that I related to the focus on clear results: leads, sales, customer acquisition cost, and return on ad spend. That was not decoration. It is truly important to me to understand why we are doing something.

I did not try to seem younger than the market, louder than other candidates, or “very flexible for absolutely everything.” At 41, you want to speak honestly. There is experience, there are strengths, and there are areas for growth. Let’s see whether the task matches.

“The first interview felt like a normal conversation, not a survival test”

How did your first conversation with ROAS Studio go?

Calmly. And that was already a good sign. They did not try to throw me off with strange questions, did not ask me to urgently invent a year-long strategy in ten minutes, and did not pretend that a stress interview is a sign of professionalism.

First, we discussed my experience: the advertising studio, copywriting, brand communications, the international company, and local campaigns. Then we moved on to how I make decisions, how I work with contractors, and what I do when an idea is beautiful but does not work for the audience.

I said, “Here, it needs to be clear, not beautiful. And only then can we make it beautiful.” I think that matched the tone of the conversation.

They explained in detail how work at ROAS Studio is organized: traffic specialists, analytics, creatives, content, and project management. They explained that the agency looks at marketing through numbers and the client’s business goals, not through formal reports for the sake of reports.

I asked my own questions: how tasks are set, how project success is evaluated, how the team responds to hypotheses that do not work, and what happens if a client wants one thing while the data shows something else.

I liked that the answers came without unnecessary pathos. Not “everything is perfect here,” but “things vary, but we try to keep the process clear.” To me, that sounds more reliable.

“I assessed the test task not only as a candidate, but also as a specialist”

Was there a test task?

Yes, there was. And I am fine with that if the test task is reasonable. In job searching, you often encounter another extreme: a candidate is given a large task that looks like free consulting, and it is called “a test of thinking.” I do not like that kind of thing.

At ROAS Studio, the task was reasonable. I had to look at the project inputs, assess the communication part, suggest several hypotheses for creatives, and indicate which metrics would help understand what was working. In other words, it was not just “come up with something beautiful,” but connect the idea with the result.

I approached it calmly. First, I separated the information: what we know, what we do not know, where there are assumptions, and where there are facts. Then I suggested several messaging options for different audience segments. Separately, I wrote which questions I would ask the client before launch.

Because without questions, marketing often turns into fortune-telling with a presentation.

I remember writing in the comments to the task: “At this stage, it is important to understand whether we are arguing about taste or about results. If it is about results, we need to agree on metrics in advance.” That is my usual logic.

“Previous rejections taught me not to take every pause personally”

Were you anxious while waiting for the response?

Of course. I am a calm person, but not a wooden cabinet. After a test task, there is always a waiting period. You have invested time, shown your approach, and then comes a pause.

But by that point, the earlier difficulties of the job search had already taught me not to take every pause personally. Before, I might have thought: maybe something is wrong. Later, I understood: sometimes the company’s internal process is slow, sometimes they are comparing candidates, sometimes the task changes, and sometimes the manager simply does not have time.

I did not refresh my email every fifteen minutes. That is a small victory of an adult person over anxiety.

When they wrote to me that they wanted to continue the conversation, I felt not euphoria, but careful relief. There was a feeling of: good, the dialogue continues, which means we understood each other.

“The final interview showed that the values matched not just in words”

What happened at the final stage?

At the final interview, we spoke in more detail: about the role, expectations, clients, the team, and processes. I clarified many details. Who sets the tasks? What does a typical week look like? How is responsibility divided between strategy, creative, traffic, and analytics? What is considered good work after one month, after three months, after six months?

It was important to me not simply to receive an offer. I wanted to understand whether I could work in that system without constant internal resistance.

I asked about overtime. Not because I am unwilling to work intensively. In marketing, there are periods of high workload, and that is normal. But I do not like the culture of “everything is on fire because no one planned.” Work that was needed “yesterday” rarely makes the result better.

They answered quite honestly: urgent tasks do happen, but in general, the team tries to keep processes clear, fix priorities, and avoid creating chaos where it can be avoided.

I also liked that ROAS Studio did not try to sell the company as a perfect place. They talked about tasks, clients, difficulties, and expectations. That inspires more trust than beautiful slogans.

“When the offer came, I looked at more than just the salary”

How did you decide to accept?

I looked at several things. Salary matters, of course. It would be strange to pretend otherwise. But I was not only looking at the money.

It was important to me that the role was not blurred into infinity. I wanted to understand where my responsibility lay, who I would work with, and how the result would be evaluated. It was important that the team spoke in the language of tasks, not only emotions.

ROAS Studio matched what I was looking for after my previous experience. There is a connection between marketing and numbers, between creative work and business results. There is a sense that the work exists not to fill in a report, but to help the project grow.

I reread the vacancy on LinkWork, my notes after the interviews, the conditions, and the tasks. Then I told myself: emotions separately, the task separately. The task looks suitable.

And I accepted the offer.

“The first month was not easy, but it was clear”

How did your onboarding at ROAS Studio go?

The first month was not a walk in the park. I came from an environment where a lot of attention was paid to brand, communication, approvals, and local adaptation. At ROAS Studio, the rhythm of performance marketing is felt more strongly: hypotheses, tests, metrics, cost per lead, return on investment, and scaling.

I had to get used more quickly to the fact that an idea can be good in terms of meaning, but weak in the numbers. And vice versa: a simple creative without much “beauty” can deliver results because it hits the audience’s need.

That grounds you in a useful way. Marketing sometimes loves complicated words. Performance reminds you: fine, but what changed?

The team helped because the processes were clear. I was not sitting there feeling that I had to guess who was responsible for what. They explained the projects to me, showed me the reporting approach, told me how hypotheses are discussed, where to look at the data, and whom to go to with questions.

I value that kind of working culture. There is no need to keep a person in the fog and then be surprised when they go in the wrong direction.

“My experience turned out to be useful where the client, the team, and the meaning need to be connected”

Where did your previous experience help the most?

In communication. That sounds simple, but in reality there are many nuances.

A client may say, “We need a more modern creative.” The team may hear, “We need to change the visuals.” An analyst may see that the problem is not in the visuals at all, but in the offer or the audience. And this is where it is important not to turn everything into an argument about taste.

I often bring the conversation back to the question: what task are we solving? If a creative does not work, we need to understand why. Is it the wrong segment? A weak message? An unclear benefit? High acquisition cost? An incorrect expectation from the client?

My experience in brand communications helps me see where the message falls apart. My experience working with contractors helps me keep deadlines and quality from slipping. My experience in an international company helps me respond calmly to different points of view.

At ROAS Studio, I like that people can speak concretely. Not “I think this is beautiful” or “I don’t like this color,” but “what hypothesis are we testing, what metric are we looking at, and what do we do next?”

“The job search became a test of professional honesty for me”

Looking back, what was the hardest part of the search?

Not the rejections. Rejections are unpleasant, but understandable. The hardest part was not losing clarity.

When the search drags on, a person starts adapting to the market too much. First, you adjust your CV to the vacancy, and that is normal. Then you start removing important things from yourself in order to be liked. That is already dangerous.

You can write that you are ready for any pace, any tasks, any format, any overtime. You can say that everything is interesting to you. But then you will have to live with that.

I stopped myself several times. Leyla, let’s separate emotions from the task. You are not simply looking for an offer. You are looking for work where you can be useful and not destroy yourself every day.

The difficulties of a job search are often not only in the market, but also in the fact that a person gets tired of holding on to their criteria. It starts to seem like: I’ll just agree to something, then I’ll figure it out. Sometimes that can work. But if you have the opportunity to choose more carefully, it is better to choose more carefully.

“LinkWork worked as a filter, not just as a job board”

What role did LinkWork ultimately play?

For me, LinkWork became a tool that helped reduce the chaos. I do not want to exaggerate: a website will not find a job for a person by itself. You still need to think, read, apply, prepare, and go through interviews.

But a good online job-search service should do one important thing: help you distinguish suitable offers from random ones more quickly. In my case, LinkWork did that.

I found a vacancy where the description was specific enough for me to make a decision to apply. I was able to study the requirements calmly, compare them with my experience, and prepare a proper letter. After that, the dialogue with the company began.

I think this is very important in the modern job search. People get tired not only of rejections, but also of poor information. When a vacancy is written in such a way that nothing is clear, the candidate wastes energy. When a platform helps you see the essence, the search becomes less stressful.

“I did not become a different person; I simply found an environment where my approach was needed”

What changed after you joined ROAS Studio?

I did not become a different person. I still ask clarifying questions, dislike chaos, and believe that beautiful ideas have to survive contact with reality.

What changed is that this approach turned out to be in the right place. At ROAS Studio, attention to detail, consistency, and the ability to look at marketing through business tasks are valued. Here, you do not need to pretend to be delighted by every idea. You can calmly say, “Let’s look at the data,” or “This message looks beautiful, but it does not explain the value.”

This atmosphere suits me. It is practical, without unnecessary bureaucracy, without constant noise. There are tasks, clients, a team, and metrics. Of course, not every day is perfect. In digital marketing, the road is rarely perfectly smooth. But when the process is clear, even difficult days do not look like a catastrophe.

“To people looking for work now, I would advise not confusing activity with progress”

What would you advise people who are currently going through an online job search?

Do not confuse activity with progress. You can send fifty applications and not move anywhere. Or you can send five precise ones and get two normal conversations.

Read vacancies carefully. Not only the title and salary. Look at how the company describes the tasks. Is there specificity? Is it clear what they want from you? Does the job title match the responsibilities? If there is already chaos in the description, it is worth thinking about what things will be like inside.

Do not be afraid to ask questions during interviews. An interview is not an exam where the candidate is only supposed to answer. You are also choosing. Ask about processes, expectations, success criteria, the team, workload, and why the vacancy is open.

Keep your criteria in writing. In your head, they quickly become blurred, especially after rejections. Write down what matters to you: work format, tasks, salary, team, development, and management style. Then compare offers not only through emotions.

Do not take employer silence as an assessment of your value. Sometimes it is simply a poorly organized process. Unpleasant, yes. But you do not need to give it more power than it deserves.

“I found work when I stopped rushing to please everyone”

Can we say this story ended well?

Yes, but I would not call it a miracle. Rather, it was the normal result of an attentive search.

I found ROAS Studio through LinkWork, went through several stages, received an offer, and joined a team where my experience turned out to be useful. But before that, there were rejections, silence, strange interviews, doubts, fatigue, CV revisions, and conversations with myself.

Perhaps the main thing is that I stopped rushing to please everyone. That is very freeing. You start speaking more honestly, choosing more precisely, and feeling less broken by every mismatch.

A job search is not only about the market. It is also about the ability not to lose yourself in the process. Especially when you are already an experienced professional, with your own background, habits, professional principles, and understanding of how you want to work.

I am glad I found a place where communication, analytics, and common sense can be connected. For me, that is a good working combination.

And to put it briefly: not every vacancy is worth your application, not every rejection says something about you, and not every beautiful text about a company means normal work. Here, it needs to be clear, not beautiful. Ideally, it should be clear before the first interview.