The story of my training is almost 99% the same as all the previously described memoirs, I’ll try to keep it short. I studied at the university in a specialty that implies an IT direction, but, alas, as far as programming was concerned, things did not move beyond “Hello World”. Languages changed, teachers changed along with them, but there was little sense.
The first thoughts appeared: “What next?”
It all started as usual: a friend showed me a resource with cool tasks and a system for evaluating these tasks, as you already guessed, it was the same JavaRush! This happened in 2014. 10 levels flew by like a second, money was found, a subscription appeared. The next levels were more difficult, as they touched on areas where my mind had not gone before... Having completed n levels after purchasing a subscription, my confidence skyrocketed and pushed me to create a resume on a well-known job site. Within a week, there was even a vacancy that covered my programmer skills. The first interview went terribly, and this, by the way, is a very important moment at which you should not give up. This interview gave me a boost of motivation and for the next 2 months I studied every day for 6-8 hours. But the fear of failing the next interview lurked within me, and without ever getting to that point, I lost motivation, plus added circumstances that took up all my free time, and the subscription was left collecting dust...
The second attempt began with the same question: “What next?”
Whoever coined the phrase “repetition is the mother of learning” was damn right! The second attempt went many times better than the first; the acquired knowledge was well consolidated and structured in the gray matter. Another 2 or 3 months passed in a tense search for time to solve problems and give lectures, but one very severe circumstance crept up, whose name was Diploma! The second attempt was buried along with the first, without even getting to the coveted interview...
The third attempt began with an alarming question after defending my thesis: “So what now?”
The third attempt required new tactics. Taking a pack of books and video courses, I sat down tightly to study on a daily basis and within a couple of weeks I brought up all the old memories, even reinforcing them with new ones. The third attempt gave me the opportunity to comprehend almost every character, literal and line used in the code. A month after the start of the third attempt, I started looking for interviews, but the recruitment of Juniors was very meager, and the number of applicants for one place sometimes reached 70 people. And finally, in December 2015, after successfully completing the test task and passing the interview, the entry “junior programmer” appeared in the work book. Now my probationary period is ending and the probability of employment on a permanent basis is approaching 100%.
Wishes
Guys, don’t strive for a cosmic number of solved problems. Don't solve problems for the sake of solving problems! Delve into the essence, ask questions, doubt. Look wider. Yes, JAVA is very necessary, but in addition to JAVA you need a lot of knowledge. Read about networks, web technologies, design patterns and much more.
Traditional list of things to know
Basics
You can’t go anywhere without the basics; if you read the HashMap device a couple of times, you’ll most likely never forget it. The basics include String, Collections API, Threads, I/O.Threads, I/O.
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