Moving freely to success

Viktoria Nikolova was just out of school in 1989, but she didn’t leave the country until the year 2000. She first completed her studies in economics and started working with an international trade company. She then worked at the French Institute, where she learned about an opportunity for a PhD in enterprise management in Paris. So she moved there, and eventually got a job with a trade company doing business with Eastern European countries.

“The decision to move wasn’t so difficult,” says Viktoria, “I had been used of traveling in and out of Bulgaria ever since I was a kid”. In fact, she spent most of her childhood in Algeria and Morocco. “My parents were among the few privileged who could travel under communism, so I never felt there was a rift between East and West. My French was fluent, and language never was a problem either.

It was more like: where do I have the best career opportunities? Which is also why I came back to Bulgaria.” This was in 2005. “At that time,” she says, “I realised I had no possibility of promotion in the same company in France, and Bulgaria’s economic prospects were getting better. European Union adhesion was all but certain, and I got a good job at BNP-Paribas in Sofia”.

Viktoria’s daughters go to the French lycee in Sofia, and she has in-laws in France. “I might stay in Bulgaria, I might go back to France (she smiles) – it doesn’t make that much difference.”

In Spain when the times were good

Nikolai Ilchev left Bulgaria in 1991, in search for a better life. One of his friends had settled down in Madrid, so this is where he went.

“At that time,” he says, “the Bulgarian embassy had only about 30 Bulgarians recorded in Spain”. But very soon many of his countrymen emigrated there. Nikolai was legal after only four months in the country. Spaniards were very friendly at that time, but their attitude to foreigners evolved over the years. “Now it’s much more difficult for newcomers.”

Nikolai stayed in Spain eight years, working in restaurants, and enjoyed his time there. If it had not been for family reasons, he would have stayed. However, he had to come back in 1999, and started a business selling autoparts in Sofia. He later found a job in a construction firm. He won’t go back to Spain now. “I am 50,” he says. “I can’t start a new life again.”

Open to trying new places

Marta had just started university in Sofia when she had the opportunity to go to England as an au pair in 1991. “I wanted to try something different,” she says. She stayed on, studying various courses while doing different jobs. “But the cost of living was too high, and I wanted to complete my education.”

So she came back to Bulgaria in 1994 and studied at the newly opened European business school in Sofia. After two years, she went to the University of Westminster and graduated with a degree in business administration. All this time, she had a part-time job as a cafe manager. She was then recruited by Yellow Pages and worked in marketing at the new media department. This is where she met her (British) husband.

In 2006, one of her colleagues was appointed as a CEO for Golden Pages, with the responsibility for setting up and developing the business in Bulgaria. Marta jumped on the opportunity and applied for a job. “I had always missed Bulgaria, and my husband was open to the idea of living there. We had often been there on vacation, so he more or less knew what to expect.” And he also got a job at Golden Pages.

Their daughters, being very young, have had no trouble adapting, and they go to a Bulgarian private school, which offers good education. “The French school might be another option; I want them to learn different languages anyhow,” Marta says. For how long are they planning to stay in Bulgaria? “I really don’t know. We have a commitment for four to five years. Afterwards we’ll see.”

Pining to live abroad still, again

Boris Angelov had started to work as an architect in communist Bulgaria, but his dream had always been to work in commerce. So after the fall of the regime, he studied at the newly opened French Institute for Management in Sofia, and eventually got a scholarship for a similar school in Nancy. He then stayed on, and almost naturally, started a trade business between Bulgaria and France. He and his partners first imported clothing from Bulgaria, but with hyperinflation developing there, they switched to exporting second-hand tires. “It worked well in spite of the economic crisis.”

Boris then met his Bulgarian wife-to-be and came back to Bulgaria in 1999. “The worst was over; there was a widespread feeling that things were really starting.”

Still, Boris was missing France. He made a short-lived attempt to reside in Brussels one year, as a trade attache to the Bulgarian embassy there, but his wife did not bear the stress of expatriation. So the family was back to Bulgaria again. “It was not my choice,” he says. “Ever since I was a kid, I have been speaking French (with his parents working in Tunisia) and I missed it.”

For the time being, business is good in Bulgaria, where Boris and his partners go on importing tires and also have invested in restaurants (Karadjata, Classic). But he is not optimistic about the future of the country and wants to go back to France, once his three children have grown enough to leave some free space for their mother. In the meantime, they go to the French school in Sofia.