Hiring practices · Hiring principles · October 2026
Hiring principles: Lev Biriukov
How Eksmo's Head of Analytics selects analysts for his team
"Hiring principles" is a series in which hiring managers talk about how they select people for their teams. The hero of this issue is Lev Biriukov, Head of Analytics at Eksmo.
Lev doesn't test SQL and Python too deeply, since AI is increasingly taking over that part of an analyst's work. Instead, he looks at the applicant's line of reasoning and the ability to explain complex things simply.
The main thing he looks for in a candidate is curiosity. Technical skills, in his words, can be built up, but the desire to dig into data can't.
More about Lev
Fifteen years ago Lev moved into analytics from finance and has worked at Eksmo ever since. He has a particular interest in AI in analytics: how to use LLMs to make working with data faster and more effective.
"I like Eksmo as a company: I respect what it does, and my opportunities for growth and for influencing the business here are very high.
Besides, there's a lot of freedom at Eksmo: as an analyst I choose which areas to go into — you can do ML, you can do something else. If you're interested in the work for its own sake, you can choose any area that interests you. Within reason, of course, but quite broadly."
Lev Biriukov, Head of Analytics at Eksmo
The main risks in hiring analysts, according to Lev Biriukov
Weak engagement
The most important personal quality for Lev is how curious a candidate is. With AI you can explore data much more deeply than before, but only if the person wants to.
"Analytics is about interest: what can you see here, and what about here? Active, passionate people, even with less experience, often turn out to be more effective than those who know SQL window functions inside out."
It's hard to "test" a candidate's curiosity during selection, but Lev looks at indirect signs. For example, at the interview he asks about the applicant's interests and finds out whether they use AI agents.
"If in 2026 an analyst hasn't looked into how to use agents, that already raises a question about their curiosity."
Inability to influence the business
Lev calls this the eternal problem of the profession: many analysts don't want to influence business decisions. And he needs people who are ready to defend their point of view in front of management.
"A rare analyst is ready to go to the bosses and say: 'Guys, you're losing sales, here's why, don't do it this way.' More often it's: 'Here's a report for you, figure it out yourself.'"
For example, Lev noted the story of a candidate, a former lawyer: at the interview she told how she studied a 250-page contract with a supplier, saw that all the liability fell on her company, and made sure the contract wasn't signed in that form. For Lev this is a sign of a person who is truly ready to influence the company.
"This, by the way, is often a strength of career switchers. People from other specialties often see these interconnections in data and, most importantly, are ready to explain them."
Weak soft skills
For Lev, even very strong hard skills won't make up for a candidate's lack of soft skills. This is especially important in small companies.
"In a huge corporation you can lock a person without communication skills in a room so they don't talk to anyone and solve hardcore tasks. But in a small team that's impossible — you won't be able to work together, even if he writes phenomenal SQL."
Lack of mathematical thinking
Lev clarifies that he's ready to "forgive" a candidate a relatively weak grasp of SQL and Python, but won't hire a person without mathematical thinking. An analyst must understand how numbers relate to each other, notice errors in calculations and be guided by common sense.
Lev himself came to analytics from another field and has a good attitude toward career switchers. But he had the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics at Moscow State University behind him — a foundation that helped him get up to speed quickly. For those without such a foundation, each grade in analytics will get harder and harder.
Stages of selection for Lev's team
- 1Screening with a recruiter
- 2Interview with Lev
- 3Values interview with another member of the analytics team
- 4Offer
What guides Lev in hiring
Lev is fine with candidates writing to him directly on LinkedIn, but honestly warns: if he isn't looking for anyone right now, he'll most likely forget about the message by the time he starts searching.
Cover letters
Lev reads cover letters, but can't recall a single case when a cover letter actually affected the outcome of the selection.
The main red flag in a CV
Implausible numbers
If some number in a CV looks, in Lev's opinion, "pulled out of thin air," he may invite the candidate to an interview, but will definitely ask how it was calculated. And if he sees a result accurate to a tenth of a percent in an item where almost certainly no one measured it, he immediately gives a huge minus.
"The trend of writing results in a CV is the right one, but sometimes it reaches the point of absurdity. Analysts constantly write 'sped up report creation by 24%.' In reality, practically nobody tracks how much time goes into reports — it's immediately clear that it's nonsense."
CV: what else Lev pays attention to
The candidate's university
Just two years ago Lev hardly paid attention to candidates' education, but now he always looks at it. The reason is the flow of applicants. When hundreds of CVs come in for any position, you have to switch on some filters. And a strong university shows that the person has at least a good foundation.
Pet projects
Like hobbies, pet projects in a CV are a plus in Lev's opinion. He will definitely talk about them at the interview. The exception is work fully generated by AI with no thought-through meaning. He himself is "all for" using artificial intelligence, but the human idea in the project must be visible.
Tenure at previous companies
If Lev sees a tendency toward job-hopping, the first thing he'll ask at the interview is why the person changed jobs so often. If the candidate backs the moves with a nice and obviously made-up reason, that's a reason to be wary.
"The most striking example is a candidate who said he simply solved all the problems at work within a year and got bored. That's more of a curiosity, of course. More often applicants answer that they change companies to grow faster. But that doesn't fit with the fact that after, say, six different jobs they are still applying for a Middle Analyst position…"
Too long a tenure at one company is also a possible minus. It risks a lack of market perspective and adaptability, especially if the corporate culture is very different. This risk can be offset by activity outside the company, for example, speaking at conferences. At the interview Lev will ask such a candidate about processes in more detail.
"Actually, neither one is a reason to set a CV aside. But it's a reason to ask additional questions at the interview."
The interview
The interview with Lev lasts about an hour and consists of five rough stages: the candidate's story about their experience, technical questions and tasks, a case, general questions and questions from the candidate. The second meeting, with a team member, is primarily a check for culture fit and values.
Evaluation criteria at the interview
- Readiness to dig deep
- Do they go deep into the task on their own? Do they ask clarifying questions, build hypotheses? Or do they stop at a superficial answer?
- Command of AI tools
- Do they have concrete experience, concrete cases with LLM agents (Cursor / Claude Code / Codex)?
- Sound numbers and the ability to defend them
- When they name metrics and results, can they explain how they calculated them?
- Structured communication
- Is it clear what they're talking about? Is there logic? Can they explain technical things in simple language?
- Framing the task and independent thinking
- Do they formulate the task themselves before solving it? Do they propose hypotheses?
- Authenticity of experience and pet projects
- Can you feel authorship? Or is it a retelling of someone else's or generated work?
- Curiosity and breadth of interests
- Do they have interests beyond their specialization? Hobbies, courses, books, ideas?
Red flags at the interview
No experience with AI agents
Without this, Lev is no longer ready to hire. Just six months to a year ago it was enough for him that a candidate confidently used an AI chat. Now a middle who doesn't use agents at work gets a big minus, and a senior's chances are zero. If the candidate's company doesn't use agents at work yet, Lev will ask them about pet projects.
"Working with agents is already a hard skill. A lot of people drop out for me at this stage: candidates write very good CVs with AI, but for some reason they often don't know how to work with it."
Executing instead of being proactive
Lev expects candidates not only to be able to complete a task, but also to understand why it's being done. In his team analysts form and test hypotheses themselves — so if an applicant talks exclusively about executing experience, they won't be a fit.
Cases and tasks at the interview
When discussing cases, Lev looks at how quickly the candidate arrives at good metrics, how many they find and whether they can explain why they matter.
"A good metric should push toward useful business decisions. Hence a lot of details: the balance between sensitivity to signal and robustness to noise, timeliness, resistance to gaming and so on.
At the interview I try to give a case from an area any person understands, but one the candidate hasn't measured at work. Rarely does anyone manage to arrive at the ideal metric in 10 minutes, but even from the reasoning a lot becomes clear."
Lev Biriukov, Head of Analytics at Eksmo
An example case from Lev Biriukov
Case
Imagine you're an analyst at a company that makes ice cream. The company has three divisions: production, warehouse and sales. You're asked to assess how well the warehouse works. What metrics will you use?
How Lev evaluates the answer
Lev will expect a structured answer: for example, order picking speed, the share of spoiled goods. But the value of goods turnover won't do: if there's a jewelry warehouse next door, that doesn't mean it works better than the ice cream warehouse.
It's valuable if the person can immediately find the catches and weak spots. For example, if you evaluate the warehouse only by shipping speed, employees will start shipping goods faster, but with errors.
The offer
Negotiating a higher amount at the offer stage is perfectly normal in Lev's opinion: a person who bargains for their money doesn't put him off. The candidates' most compelling argument is an offer from another company.
This is a piece from the "Hiring principles" series, in which hiring managers talk about how they select people for their teams. Read other pieces in the series
