To be brief, here is my path: 1 month - 20 lvl JavaRush 2 month - 30 lvl JavaRush 3 month - completing a test assignment for the JavaRush internship 4 - 6.5 month - completing an internship at T-Systems, learning the Enterprise stack 7 month - 10th month back to work - the probationary period has passed, the flight is normal Wow, how smooth everything looks on paper! But behind these dry facts there are so many emotions, doubts, ups and downs that it is difficult to fit them all into one article on the forum. But I'll try! To begin with, hello, my name is Vyacheslav, I’m 27 years old. I don’t often look back, but since I’ve gotten around to this article, I suggest imagining that such a thing as a “pensieve” exists. Give me your hand, let's go, let's dive in there and see how it all happened) December 2, 2016. Look, here I am. I just recently defended my PhD thesis at the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering. But something is bothering me. Let's listen to my thoughts at that time:
“The institute is falling apart before our eyes, and few people really care about the hydraulic engineering industry. Almost the entire department in which I worked scattered to see who could find a job. Of course, well done that I didn’t stay, and also went to work as an analyst at a startup, but a month later it collapsed due to lack of money. And here I am without a job, with a very narrow specialization, with almost no chance of finding another job in my specialty so that it suits me. Should I go back to the institute and work there until my death? A dubious prospect. In general, I am interested in programming. I even write simple programs in Python from time to time. But damn, my knowledge is clearly not enough to become a proger! And in general, is this really possible without having a specialized education? But I’m already 26...”
At that time, I sometimes thought about programming, but on the forums I often came across advice from gurus, like “it’s almost impossible”, “with age it becomes more and more difficult to learn to think like a programmer”, “you should have studied earlier” and so on. But just in case, I wrote to my programmer friend asking what language he would advise me to write in if I suddenly decide to start studying seriously. His answer was: JAVA . Hmm, at that time I knew about Java only the inscription “Powered by Java” on the screensavers in games on the phone. What kind of language is this for playing games on a mobile phone? Well, if they advise, then ok, you can try it. I started googling and came across JavaRush success stories. And I'm stuck. My world has turned upside down. This was what I needed to believe in myself. Here they are, real examples of real people who achieved their goal! Looking ahead, I will say that for the next 3 months I read and re-read success stories almost every day, as soon as I woke up in the morning. I believed that I could do it too. In a couple of days I’m already learning Java Rush) I still have no idea how long it will take to study. I still have a stash from my previous job, and my parents help, so I can devote my time to studying! So December 2nd became the starting point - I definitely decided that I would become a programmer! ...Come on, get your head out of the water, otherwise you can’t breathe anymore)) Before the next dive into the pool of memory, I want to say thank you to JavaRush! Despite the machinations of the validator and the sometimes toy nature of the tasks, I believe that this resource played a decisive role for me. That is why I consider it my duty to write this story - maybe it will encourage those who doubt to stop doubting. Well, shall we dive again? Let's take a look at my rough daily routine during the first 2 months of learning Java! *Gurg* So I set the alarm for 8. And so on every day. I get up, make myself a large mug of aromatic tea and sit down at JavaRush. And I study until late. Money reserves are disappearing before our eyes. You need to learn Java as quickly as possible! Here are my main friends during that harsh period of daily self-study: Oh, this captain Bobrov, with all his appearance he trolls you, and sometimes he gives you great problems. Nevertheless, I diligently solved the problems and tried not to miss them. There were ups, when at level 20 it seemed that I was ready to go to work as a minimum middle, and downs. I remember very well how I couldn’t complete the bonus tasks at some of the levels. He fought for two days, was irritable, could not think about anything else. But in the end I solved them! Time flew by quickly, and here they are, the fruits of my labors - lvl 30 taken exactly two months from the start of training! I heard about the JavaRush internship and decided to see what it was all about. To do this, it was necessary to solve the introductory task. Look, do you see how my eyes widen? I saw this test task)) After level 30, I thought that I knew everything there was to know about Java! And all these databases, the web, some html and so on - this is probably done by specially trained people. And then I realized how wrong I was) Let’s listen to my thoughts at that time:
What? Which maven, which tomcat? What is this??? What do all these words mean? I thought that I was just a stone's throw away from becoming a proger, but there is still so much to learn!
Yes, it was a harsh reality. Then I realized that the past Java Rush problems were just flowers. After all, there everything was chewed and put into the mouth, and here I was faced with a huge ocean of enterprise technologies, I was taken 100 meters from the shore on a boat and thrown into the water. And I began to flounder. I remember the monster that resulted from the test task. I croaked over him for 3 weeks. How surprised would I be if someone told me that in a couple of months I could do this task in 1 evening and 10 times better? As a keepsake, I saved a screenshot of the UI of my first web application: Mmmmm, soft! At the same time, I studied SQL, algorithms and data structures, because these were mandatory requirements in all vacancies. Well, the success was obvious, and I decided to write a resume. And lo and behold, a couple of days later I was called for my first IT interview! In general, it passed the norm, but I was confused by the ancient technology stack of the company, and the team consisted not of young people, but of people 40+. I imagined my new job differently. In parallel with this interview, I applied for an internship at T-Systems and solved test problems. And lo and behold, I was called for an in-person test and interview! For those interested, here I wrote an article about this interview - http://info.javarush.ru/GuitarFactor/2017/03/13/%D0%98%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80% D0%B8%D1%8F-%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE-%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%B5% D1%81%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F-%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%82%D0 %B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B5-%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D1% 81%D1%8B.html Soon I received an answer that I was being hired for an internship at T-Systems! My cash reserves at that time had almost dried up, and I had a choice - to break into the first company with an ancient stack, but start working now, or go to study for 2.5 months at T-Systems and have better prospects. It was a very difficult choice! But I chose the second one. Let's dive back out of the pool of memory and breathe! By the time we stopped at, I had been enthusiastically studying Java for 3 months. Was there anything I regret? Perhaps yes. If you are in a similar situation, don’t repeat my mistakes!: 1. Don’t study all day long. Several times I risked burning out mentally and physically 2. If possible, do not quit your job to study - I am still dealing with the financial consequences of a long period of parasitism 3. Exercise yourself physically! I sat at the computer all day and gained weight, and my back began to hurt. Although I used to play sports. Try to maintain balance! Well, we are already at the finish line of the story, let's dive into the pool one last time and find out how it all ended in the end! Training has begun. Tons of new information, I sit on the project all day long! In my group there are very strong guys with an IT background who have been studying Java for several years. I'm trying my best to keep up with them. There’s another guy with JavaRush in my group, we’re trying to help each other with the project. And the project is nothing less than a multi-user web application + another smaller one, which receive messages from each other via JMS, pull data via REST and all that. Honestly, it was an apotheosis) Everything that happened before seemed like flowers to me. By the final defense of the project, I was in a zombie state and prayed only that I would just start working like ordinary people, and not sit 12 hours a day, studying everything I could. Apparently, my prayers were answered) The show went very calmly, but fate had another difficult choice in store for me. After the show, I almost immediately received an offer to join a very specific project, immediately in the middle, with a salary that significantly exceeded my expectations. But the project was very specific - it was necessary to stir up footcloths from xml, convert them using xslt transformations, and so on. This pleasure is very dubious, I understood that this was complete hell and did not know what to do. Doom yourself to everyday pain and gain knowledge that no one needs, or refuse and risk not receiving any more offers at all. But I took a risk and refused (the curator assured that there would be more offers). That’s what happened, and I ended up in the position of Junior Developer, with a lower salary, but in a human project, with spring and heber. Of course, skills in these technologies are much more in demand than xslt) That's it, happy ending, let's come back to the surface! The difficulties did not end there; during the probationary period, I continued my studies, began reading professional literature, and writing my own blog on design patterns to help my colleagues. Now I'm worried about completely different questions. I don't know if I really want to do enterprise. It’s not always fun and joyful, especially if God forbid you’re dealing with a 10-year-old legacy. I also understand that I have many gaps in understanding quite fundamental things due to the lack of an IT background. In general, there are a lot of problems, but I don’t regret what I did. And if it weren’t for the success stories here at JavaRush, all these events would never have happened in my life. So thank you, JR! A special message for those who stand at a crossroads and doubt, like I did at one time: just start practicing! Programming 95% of the time is not rocket science, and I am convinced that anyone can get a job as a developer! In 3 months, six months, a year, two... Another question is that not everyone can become a really good developer, but that’s a completely different story...) Thank you for reading this rather spontaneous story, I wish you all good luck, believe in yourself! Do I really want to do enterprise? It’s not always fun and joyful, especially if God forbid you’re dealing with a 10-year-old legacy. I also understand that I have many gaps in understanding quite fundamental things due to the lack of an IT background. In general, there are a lot of problems, but I don’t regret what I did. And if it weren’t for the success stories here at JavaRush, all these events would never have happened in my life. So thank you, JR! A special message for those who stand at a crossroads and doubt, like I did at one time: just start practicing! Programming 95% of the time is not rocket science, and I am convinced that anyone can get a job as a developer! In 3 months, six months, a year, two... Another question is that not everyone can become a really good developer, but that’s a completely different story...) Thank you for reading this rather spontaneous story, I wish you all good luck, believe in yourself! Do I really want to do enterprise? It’s not always fun and joyful, especially if God forbid you’re dealing with a 10-year-old legacy. I also understand that I have many gaps in understanding quite fundamental things due to the lack of an IT background. In general, there are a lot of problems, but I don’t regret what I did. And if it weren’t for the success stories here at JavaRush, all these events would never have happened in my life. So thank you, JR! A special message for those who stand at a crossroads and doubt, like I did at one time: just start practicing! Programming 95% of the time is not rocket science, and I am convinced that anyone can get a job as a developer! In 3 months, six months, a year, two... Another question is that not everyone can become a really good developer, but that’s a completely different story...) Thank you for reading this rather spontaneous story, I wish you all good luck, believe in yourself!
Oh, this captain Bobrov, with all his appearance he trolls you, and sometimes he gives you great problems. Nevertheless, I diligently solved the problems and tried not to miss them. There were ups, when at level 20 it seemed that I was ready to go to work as a minimum middle, and downs. I remember very well how I couldn’t complete the bonus tasks at some of the levels. He fought for two days, was irritable, could not think about anything else. But in the end I solved them! Time flew by quickly, and here they are, the fruits of my labors - lvl 30 taken exactly two months from the start of training! I heard about the JavaRush internship and decided to see what it was all about. To do this, it was necessary to solve the introductory task. Look, do you see how my eyes widen? I saw this test task)) After level 30, I thought that I knew everything there was to know about Java! And all these databases, the web, some html and so on - this is probably done by specially trained people. And then I realized how wrong I was) Let’s listen to my thoughts at that time:
Yes, it was a harsh reality. Then I realized that the past Java Rush problems were just flowers. After all, there everything was chewed and put into the mouth, and here I was faced with a huge ocean of enterprise technologies, I was taken 100 meters from the shore on a boat and thrown into the water. And I began to flounder. I remember the monster that resulted from the test task. I croaked over him for 3 weeks. How surprised would I be if someone told me that in a couple of months I could do this task in 1 evening and 10 times better? As a keepsake, I saved a screenshot of the UI of my first web application: 
Mmmmm, soft! At the same time, I studied SQL, algorithms and data structures, because these were mandatory requirements in all vacancies. Well, the success was obvious, and I decided to write a resume. And lo and behold, a couple of days later I was called for my first IT interview! In general, it passed the norm, but I was confused by the ancient technology stack of the company, and the team consisted not of young people, but of people 40+. I imagined my new job differently. In parallel with this interview, I applied for an internship at T-Systems and solved test problems. And lo and behold, I was called for an in-person test and interview! For those interested, here I wrote an article about this interview - http://info.javarush.ru/GuitarFactor/2017/03/13/%D0%98%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80% D0%B8%D1%8F-%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B3%D0%BE-%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%B5% D1%81%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%8F-%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%82%D0 %B5%D1%80%D0%B5%D1%81%D0%BD%D1%8B%D0%B5-%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%BF%D1%80%D0%BE%D1% 81%D1%8B.html Soon I received an answer that I was being hired for an internship at T-Systems! My cash reserves at that time had almost dried up, and I had a choice - to break into the first company with an ancient stack, but start working now, or go to study for 2.5 months at T-Systems and have better prospects. It was a very difficult choice! But I chose the second one. Let's dive back out of the pool of memory and breathe! By the time we stopped at, I had been enthusiastically studying Java for 3 months. Was there anything I regret? Perhaps yes. If you are in a similar situation, don’t repeat my mistakes!: 1. Don’t study all day long. Several times I risked burning out mentally and physically 2. If possible, do not quit your job to study - I am still dealing with the financial consequences of a long period of parasitism 3. Exercise yourself physically! I sat at the computer all day and gained weight, and my back began to hurt. Although I used to play sports. Try to maintain balance! Well, we are already at the finish line of the story, let's dive into the pool one last time and find out how it all ended in the end! Training has begun. Tons of new information, I sit on the project all day long! In my group there are very strong guys with an IT background who have been studying Java for several years. I'm trying my best to keep up with them. There’s another guy with JavaRush in my group, we’re trying to help each other with the project. And the project is nothing less than a multi-user web application + another smaller one, which receive messages from each other via JMS, pull data via REST and all that. Honestly, it was an apotheosis) Everything that happened before seemed like flowers to me. By the final defense of the project, I was in a zombie state and prayed only that I would just start working like ordinary people, and not sit 12 hours a day, studying everything I could. Apparently, my prayers were answered) The show went very calmly, but fate had another difficult choice in store for me. After the show, I almost immediately received an offer to join a very specific project, immediately in the middle, with a salary that significantly exceeded my expectations. But the project was very specific - it was necessary to stir up footcloths from xml, convert them using xslt transformations, and so on. This pleasure is very dubious, I understood that this was complete hell and did not know what to do. Doom yourself to everyday pain and gain knowledge that no one needs, or refuse and risk not receiving any more offers at all. But I took a risk and refused (the curator assured that there would be more offers). That’s what happened, and I ended up in the position of Junior Developer, with a lower salary, but in a human project, with spring and heber. Of course, skills in these technologies are much more in demand than xslt) That's it, happy ending, let's come back to the surface! The difficulties did not end there; during the probationary period, I continued my studies, began reading professional literature, and writing my own blog on design patterns to help my colleagues. Now I'm worried about completely different questions. I don't know if I really want to do enterprise. It’s not always fun and joyful, especially if God forbid you’re dealing with a 10-year-old legacy. I also understand that I have many gaps in understanding quite fundamental things due to the lack of an IT background. In general, there are a lot of problems, but I don’t regret what I did. And if it weren’t for the success stories here at JavaRush, all these events would never have happened in my life. So thank you, JR! A special message for those who stand at a crossroads and doubt, like I did at one time: just start practicing! Programming 95% of the time is not rocket science, and I am convinced that anyone can get a job as a developer! In 3 months, six months, a year, two... Another question is that not everyone can become a really good developer, but that’s a completely different story...) Thank you for reading this rather spontaneous story, I wish you all good luck, believe in yourself! Do I really want to do enterprise? It’s not always fun and joyful, especially if God forbid you’re dealing with a 10-year-old legacy. I also understand that I have many gaps in understanding quite fundamental things due to the lack of an IT background. In general, there are a lot of problems, but I don’t regret what I did. And if it weren’t for the success stories here at JavaRush, all these events would never have happened in my life. So thank you, JR! A special message for those who stand at a crossroads and doubt, like I did at one time: just start practicing! Programming 95% of the time is not rocket science, and I am convinced that anyone can get a job as a developer! In 3 months, six months, a year, two... Another question is that not everyone can become a really good developer, but that’s a completely different story...) Thank you for reading this rather spontaneous story, I wish you all good luck, believe in yourself! Do I really want to do enterprise? It’s not always fun and joyful, especially if God forbid you’re dealing with a 10-year-old legacy. I also understand that I have many gaps in understanding quite fundamental things due to the lack of an IT background. In general, there are a lot of problems, but I don’t regret what I did. And if it weren’t for the success stories here at JavaRush, all these events would never have happened in my life. So thank you, JR! A special message for those who stand at a crossroads and doubt, like I did at one time: just start practicing! Programming 95% of the time is not rocket science, and I am convinced that anyone can get a job as a developer! In 3 months, six months, a year, two... Another question is that not everyone can become a really good developer, but that’s a completely different story...) Thank you for reading this rather spontaneous story, I wish you all good luck, believe in yourself!
GO TO FULL VERSION