Good day to everyone, colleagues! Now it's my turn to share my story. As is usually the case, during my studies I imagined many times what exactly I would write, but at the right moment all the words disappeared somewhere. I hope it doesn't turn out too sad :) Like many JR users, I always read “Success Stories” with interest. They motivate well, and you can learn something for yourself from the story itself, plus you can ask the author questions in the comments. And in the comments, a whole scattering of excuses from community members very often appeared on the topic “Why did %username% succeed, but I can’t.” The most common: - “I’m a humanist” (“It’s easy for the author, he graduated from physics and technology, and I’m a philology major”) - “There’s no time” (“It’s easy for the author, he’s a student, and I’m at my main job for 8 hours a day”) - “I too old” (“It’s easy for the author, he’s 23, and I’m already over 30.”) In this regard, my story will probably be very revealing. Briefly about myself. Age: 25 years old at the start of training. Education is historical. At school I hated mathematics and computer science (although I was an Olympiad student until the 7th grade - then I had no luck with the teacher), so all the hours of these subjects were spent playing Counter-Strike in the nearest computer club. As a result, I safely escaped from these subjects to the history department, fortunately I have loved history since my school years. After graduating from university, I had a choice: go to work in my specialty (insert any joke about teachers’ salaries here), go to graduate school, or do something else. The option to go to school disappeared immediately; graduate school meant another 3 years of study and unclear prospects. As a result of my job search, I found myself in the position of a call center operator in one of the large commercial banks. Not God knows what, but they paid quite well there (certainly more than teachers and graduate students), and in the first few months I got the hang of selling credit cards and insurance to clients, due to which I received a good bonus. But the work was really hard. Not a mine, of course, but taking 200 calls every day, believe me, is still a pleasure. However, the company had good career opportunities, and within 2 years I rose to become a team leader. The salary level has increased, the level of hatred towards work has also increased. Moreover, the second has grown significantly more. Now I had to work the night shift, be responsible for a dozen and a half people and listen to daily life lessons from my superiors - “effective managers” made in USSR. The crisis and the rise in exchange rates after well-known events hit the banking industry in Russia hard, as a result of which at the end of 2015 I, among many, remained unemployed. It was then that I first came across JavaRush, or more precisely, their VKontakte group. “It’s impossible to go through all the levels and not become a programmer” sounded ambitious. Programming was not my dream, but why not learn a new profession? What if I like it, and what do I have to lose? In the end, a “programmer” is certainly no worse than a “sales manager” :) I just decided to try it out of the blue, Moreover, I always liked self-learning online; before that, I improved my English quite well on LinguaLeo. I completed the first 10 levels relatively quickly. To my surprise, everything worked out for me, so I decided to buy a subscription after all and go to victory. My learning process was not much different from others. I was just as lazy and neglected for 2-3 weeks, like many others, I was just as stupid at multi-threading after level 20, I also gave up on a big task on the 27th)) However, in the end I still managed to force myself to do more -less stable even in conditions of fatigue after work. As a result, over the course of a year, 36 levels were completed in my free time. Considering my skills were already quite high, I decided to take part in an internship (fortunately, the subscription allowed). I downloaded the test task, aaand... At that moment I was as close as possible to giving up on everything and giving up on programming. I didn’t even understand which side to approach it from. Naturally, there is no boom-boom in the listed technologies. Spring, Hibernate, databases, some JSP... Attempts to do things “according to the guides” led to nothing. Google queries “why do we need Spring” yielded some kind of incomprehensible hell and Batyrshinov’s course, consisting of 178 videos. I was seriously upset, because I considered myself ready for real work. As a result, I forgot about programming for a month or a month and a half and did my main job (at that time already in another company). According to the proud Hollywood tradition, every film must have the Moment That Changed Everything. In my case, it was the day when I came across an advertisement for programming courses with the opportunity to move to the city of Innopolis. https://apply.innopolis.ru/stc/ I submitted an application, and after a while the employees actually contacted me, asking when it would be convenient for me to have an interview with the teacher. A week later it was successfully completed. The idea itself seemed very tempting. The city looked cool. Free accommodation for 2 months, training with an experienced teacher is also free. But the main thing is that the organizers took upon themselves the issue of organizing interviews in Innopolis resident companies (and getting to an interview, as you know, is already half the battle). There was only one problem - I had to quit my unloved, but poorly paid job and go to unfamiliar Kazan. Literally “drop everything and leave.” However, after some discussions, my girlfriend and two cats supported me, and the decision was made to try. And really, why did I study for a whole year? Perhaps some of the readers will remember I was also stupid at multi-threading after level 20, and I also gave up on a big task at level 27)) However, in the end I still managed to force myself to study more or less consistently even when I was tired after work. As a result, over the course of a year, 36 levels were completed in my free time. Considering my skills were already quite high, I decided to take part in an internship (fortunately, the subscription allowed). I downloaded the test task, aaand... At that moment I was as close as possible to giving up on everything and giving up on programming. I didn’t even understand which side to approach it from. Naturally, there is no boom-boom in the listed technologies. Spring, Hibernate, databases, some JSP... Attempts to do things “according to the guides” led to nothing. Google queries “why do we need Spring” yielded some kind of incomprehensible hell and Batyrshinov’s course, consisting of 178 videos. I was seriously upset, because I considered myself ready for real work. As a result, I forgot about programming for a month or a month and a half and did my main job (at that time already in another company). According to the proud Hollywood tradition, every film must have the Moment That Changed Everything. In my case, it was the day when I came across an advertisement for programming courses with the opportunity to move to the city of Innopolis. https://apply.innopolis.ru/stc/ I submitted an application, and after a while the employees actually contacted me, asking when it would be convenient for me to have an interview with the teacher. A week later it was successfully completed. The idea itself seemed very tempting. The city looked cool. Free accommodation for 2 months, training with an experienced teacher is also free. But the main thing is that the organizers took upon themselves the issue of organizing interviews in Innopolis resident companies (and getting to an interview, as you know, is already half the battle). There was only one problem - I had to quit my unloved, but poorly paid job and go to unfamiliar Kazan. Literally “drop everything and leave.” However, after some discussions, my girlfriend and two cats supported me, and the decision was made to try. And really, why did I study for a whole year? Perhaps some of the readers will remember I was also stupid at multi-threading after level 20, and I also gave up on a big task at level 27)) However, in the end I still managed to force myself to study more or less consistently even when I was tired after work. As a result, over the course of a year, 36 levels were completed in my free time. Considering my skills were already quite high, I decided to take part in an internship (fortunately, the subscription allowed). I downloaded the test task, aaand... At that moment I was as close as possible to giving up on everything and giving up on programming. I didn’t even understand which side to approach it from. Naturally, there is no boom-boom in the listed technologies. Spring, Hibernate, databases, some JSP... Attempts to do things “according to the guides” led to nothing. Google queries “why do we need Spring” yielded some kind of incomprehensible hell and Batyrshinov’s course, consisting of 178 videos. I was seriously upset, because I considered myself ready for real work. As a result, I forgot about programming for a month or a month and a half and did my main job (at that time already in another company). According to the proud Hollywood tradition, every film must have the Moment That Changed Everything. In my case, it was the day when I came across an advertisement for programming courses with the opportunity to move to the city of Innopolis. https://apply.innopolis.ru/stc/ I submitted an application, and after a while the employees actually contacted me, asking when it would be convenient for me to have an interview with the teacher. A week later it was successfully completed. The idea itself seemed very tempting. The city looked cool. Free accommodation for 2 months, training with an experienced teacher is also free. But the main thing is that the organizers took upon themselves the issue of organizing interviews in Innopolis resident companies (and getting to an interview, as you know, is already half the battle). There was only one problem - I had to quit my unloved, but poorly paid job and go to unfamiliar Kazan. Literally “drop everything and leave.” However, after some discussions, my girlfriend and two cats supported me, and the decision was made to try. And really, why did I study for a whole year? Perhaps some of the readers will remember Google queries “why do we need Spring” yielded some kind of incomprehensible hell and Batyrshinov’s course, consisting of 178 videos. I was seriously upset, because I considered myself ready for real work. As a result, I forgot about programming for a month or a month and a half and did my main job (at that time already in another company). According to the proud Hollywood tradition, every film must have the Moment That Changed Everything. In my case, it was the day when I came across an advertisement for programming courses with the opportunity to move to the city of Innopolis. https://apply.innopolis.ru/stc/ I submitted an application, and after a while the employees actually contacted me, asking when it would be convenient for me to have an interview with the teacher. A week later it was successfully completed. The idea itself seemed very tempting. The city looked cool. Free accommodation for 2 months, training with an experienced teacher is also free. But the main thing is that the organizers took upon themselves the issue of organizing interviews in Innopolis resident companies (and getting to an interview, as you know, is already half the battle). There was only one problem - I had to quit my unloved, but poorly paid job and go to unfamiliar Kazan. Literally “drop everything and leave.” However, after some discussions, my girlfriend and two cats supported me, and the decision was made to try. And really, why did I study for a whole year? Perhaps some of the readers will remember Google queries “why do we need Spring” yielded some kind of incomprehensible hell and Batyrshinov’s course, consisting of 178 videos. I was seriously upset, because I considered myself ready for real work. As a result, I forgot about programming for a month or a month and a half and did my main job (at that time already in another company). According to the proud Hollywood tradition, every film must have the Moment That Changed Everything. In my case, it was the day when I came across an advertisement for programming courses with the opportunity to move to the city of Innopolis. https://apply.innopolis.ru/stc/ I submitted an application, and after a while the employees actually contacted me, asking when it would be convenient for me to have an interview with the teacher. A week later it was successfully completed. The idea itself seemed very tempting. The city looked cool. Free accommodation for 2 months, training with an experienced teacher is also free. But the main thing is that the organizers took upon themselves the issue of organizing interviews in Innopolis resident companies (and getting to an interview, as you know, is already half the battle). There was only one problem - I had to quit my unloved, but poorly paid job and go to unfamiliar Kazan. Literally “drop everything and leave.” However, after some discussions, my girlfriend and two cats supported me, and the decision was made to try. And really, why did I study for a whole year? Perhaps some of the readers will remembermy post from that period, which I left before the trip, in the hope of “reconnoitring the situation.” 2 months in Kazan were one of the best periods of my life. Together with other “students” (aged from 19 to 40 years old) we lived in the Universiade Village (during my student days I was not able to live in a dormitory, so one might say I made up for it). The first half of the day was spent in classes, the second - doing homework. I was able to take the courses in Spring, Hibernate, PostgreSQL and a whole host of other technologies. The JavaRush school was very useful. The training began with JavaCore, which many saw for the first time in their lives, but I already knew quite well. In the process, I also completed the internship assignment without any problems. After training, I was invited for an interview at one of the Innopolis resident companies. First interview, hooray! I did not hesitate and prepared diligently. In the end, I passed it quite well. Of course, like many beginners, out of excitement I messed up a couple of times on elementary questions (such as type casting), but at the same time I answered relatively complex ones without any problems, which greatly amused my interviewer. The interview lasted almost 2 hours, but it was worth it. After all, in the evening I was informed that the company intends to make me an offer. The preliminary offer with all the conditions also arrived in the mail almost immediately. Having made my girlfriend and cats happy over the phone (we are moving soon!) and celebrating the joyful event with my classmates, I got ready to go home. School has come to an end. Joy and pride knew no bounds. Of course, the first interview – and immediate success! If the reader thinks that this is the end of the story, then I can say that the most interesting is yet to come :) And since I began to follow the glorious Hollywood traditions, then in every film there must come a Moment When Everything Gets Bad. It took a couple of weeks to collect things and complete the current chores at home. However, for some reason the company was in no hurry to send me the final offer. It is worth noting that at that time neither my girlfriend nor I were working and were preparing to move. I contacted the HR department, where they checked the information and answered me something like “Oh, we forgot about you.” Thank you, it's a pleasure. Well, at least it was not in vain that he reminded me of himself. However, another two weeks passed, and then two more. However, there was no serious cause for concern: at least they now contacted me regularly. First, they asked me to take an internal test (which I passed successfully), and then to send some documents. But another 2 weeks have passed. In total, the total waiting period was already 2 months, which was somehow completely inadequate. Having emailed HR, I received the following response: “Good afternoon! Information has been received from the HR department that recruitment, unfortunately, has been stopped due to your lack of specialized (IT) education.” With the permission of the readers, I will not quote the text of the letter that I sent in response. But I think it’s easy to imagine my state at that moment. I quit my job, went to study in another city, passed an interview, received a job offer, was happy and made my family happy - and such a sad result. Not to mention the financial situation; I managed to survive these couple of months after studying only thanks to my existing nest egg, which was already coming to an end. And the most offensive thing is that at every stage the company knew what kind of education I had. Even the employee interviewing me noted this (“Oh, a self-taught humanist? Cool”). My education was also indicated on my resume, which did not stop them from calling me for an interview, and me from passing it successfully. But there was nothing to do, I had to look for work. Having responded to a bunch of vacancies in “My Circle”, I received one invitation for an interview with a company from St. Petersburg, but against the backdrop of all the events taking place, the mood was such that I completely failed it. The idea of becoming a programmer, one might say, has come to an end. But in every film there is a Moment When Everything Became Good :) The curator of the university where I studied courses found out about the whole situation. She contacted the Innopolis resource center, and then contacted me, saying that another company in Innopolis was looking for a Java developer, and would like to interview me via Skype in three days. Needless to say, I had more than enough motivation. In the first 2 days I completely read Head First SQL (I fell asleep on database questions at the previous interview), the third day was spent analyzing the remaining topics in which I was swimming. As a result, my third interview in my life turned out to be the most successful. I managed 95 percent of the time, with a little stalling except on questions about transactional issues. Within a day I spoke with the technical director, who spoke in detail about the working conditions. A week later I was registered as a member of the company and started working remotely, and after another two I moved to Innopolis. Truly, every cloud has a silver lining. The new company offered a salary significantly higher than the previous one, and in addition paid for a 2-room apartment in Innopolis. I've been living here for 3 months, my probation period ended a couple of days ago. Great job, wonderful city, friendly team and all the opportunities for professional development. Although, of course, it wasn’t without stress at first, especially when on the very first day I was faced with the task of implementing a module in React+Redux. Needless to say, at that time I knew about JavaScript only from an article on Wikipedia)) Therefore, colleagues, when JavaRush once again comes across a task from the series “we haven’t tried this technology yet” - get used to it. In a real project, a task may well arrive not just in technology, but in a language that you are seeing for the first time :) A few words in conclusion. Many thanks to the JavaRush team for creating the best learning resource on the RuNet. Special thanks for your help with my resume - I still use your templates. Thanks to all the users of the help and info forums who helped with tasks all year. You are best! Friends, even if you are a hopeless humanitarian like me, or you are already over 30, you have a wife and children, like the authorthis story - try it, and you will succeed. As for the latter, I can say for sure, because this person and I, as it happens, now work in the same company and sit at neighboring tables :) I’m not sure about the future of this blog, but I have a few ideas. I would like to write about life in Innopolis through the eyes of a resident (most of the information on the Internet is either advertising or reviews of tourists who came for a couple of days). It would also be nice to create a post to help those who are trying to get an internship (such a post would definitely come in handy at one time). And also to bring together in one place advice for those who will soon go on the warpath
of
finding a job, outlining personal experience. I'm not sure that all this writing will be of interest to anyone; but if you are one of those people, subscribe to the blog, if there is reader interest, it would be a sin to abandon this whole thing :) I will be happy to answer questions in the comments, you can also address there “Author, write separately about...” Good luck to you!
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