Elka Popova

Analyst • Zumbaista • Party Girl • Neighbour

Motto: “Work Hard, Party Hard”.

I know you work with Frost and Sullivan. What is the thing you like most about your job?

As a telecom industry analyst, I get to leverage some of my strongest skills including writing, speaking and analysis. As a young person, I loved languages and math equally, and also loved debating and analyzing (texts, people, behaviors, events, you name it). I couldn’t’ decide what career path would accommodate all of these skills, interests and passions. For years, I was committed to becoming a language university professor in Bulgaria. I majored in English philology and taught English for a few years. However, a variety of factors, including my natural restlessness and the changing social order back home in the early 90s, compelled me to pursue a new career path. I finished business school in the US with only a vague idea of what I wanted to do with my new degree. I ended up in telecom by chance, not by choice, but have loved it for the past 20 years. In my personal life I am a late and reluctant technology adopter and that is why I am grateful to my job for challenging me to learn about new technologies all the time. I also greatly enjoy debating with my amazing colleagues, talking with many smart people in my industry, traveling to different places and attending exciting industry events. My job can be very stressful, but never boring. I think I got everything I ever wanted from a career point of view, even though I could not have possibly envisioned exactly how things would turn out so many years ago.

We live in a special neighbourhood. What drew you to this neighbourhood?

Very much like my career, my choice of a neighborhood was more by chance than by a carefully laid-out plan. After months of searching for a home near the subway lines (primarily because I don’t drive) – with a 3-year-old kid and me in the third trimester of my second pregnancy – we “settled” for a home that was close enough to major mass transit arteries, but MUCH newer, larger and cheaper than anything in the proximity of the subway. I have thanked my luck over and over again throughout the years we’ve spent in this neighborhood. We love the location, diversity, spirit and great opportunities we’ve had to make new friends and feel part of a community. From parents socializing at our beloved playground, to group dog walks, neighborhood potluck picnics and private gatherings, English Lane feels like a true home and a family, not just a bunch of houses and strangers living their own separate lives. My only unfulfilled dream – to have a party room somewhere on common ground where we can gather and socialize in larger numbers than our houses can accommodate and even during inclement weather.

What else should we know about you? Do you have hobbies, passions, talents?

I love parties and dancing. My zumba classes are more than just a way to exercise. They give me an opportunity to party without the need to cook and clean  I love performing arts, cooking and reading books. I am interested in comparative mythologies and religions. Yet, for me, nothing beats a good conversation with like-minded people!