This story is commonplace and has been repeated many times in this industry.
So, I graduated from the lyceum with a major in physics and mathematics and scored 81% of all possible points at the CT (analogous to the Unified State Exam in Belarus), which gave me the opportunity to enroll in almost any technical specialty at domestic universities. Initially, I planned to go into the energy sector, but those who worked in this field dissuaded me. Therefore, when I had to choose where to go after CT, I was confused and made a serious mistake in my calculations: seeing that all the smartest among us were enrolling in IT majors, I decided that in the future it would be difficult to compete with the strongest, and the market would be oversaturated with programmers. .. Eh, Bilbo, I have never been so mistaken, because we work not on the domestic market, but on the international one, and a couple of hundred extra people will not saturate the market. Having chosen, as it seemed then, a good and lucrative profession at that time, I didn’t know one thing: after graduation, I must get a certification, and for this, I must first obtain 2 years of work experience in repair shops, which I am not particularly keen on. So I decided to change my profession. The choice was already obvious, because even in my first year I realized that, in comparison with the majority, I was good at coding, and I could enter the specialty through self-education, and they didn’t really require a course. I started asking my friends in IT where to start, what language, etc. The first language I was advised to choose was something with OOP, i.e. or Java or C++, because These are the ones that contain the most training materials. And at this time I came across JavaRush) After completing the first 10 levels in the evenings in 3 weeks, I realized that this was what I needed and paid for an annual subscription. The tasks were given, I won’t say that they were easy, I did a lot of things that seemed to be correct, but the compiler did not accept them. And I was already in the 4th year, in a year I need to find a job as a programmer, so I decided that if the compiler complains when it seems like the right decision, not to bother and look for answers in the help, which saved me a lot of time in the long run and I was able to invest. In October 2016, I was already about lvl 25-27 and was thinking about getting a winter internship, but I didn’t make it in time for winter. By January, I took the level 30 required at that time + a couple more and signed up for a test assignment for the internship. And here my eyes popped out of my head - we weren’t even taught this, it’s just a different level... For a week I didn’t even know what to do, I set up an ultimate idea and Maven, made some kind of hello world in Maven and nothing else for me What was not enough, fortunately there was someone to ask for help. True, they didn’t really help me, although they were able to explain the essence of maven and spring framework (although they actually repeated what is everywhere). As a result, I simply found a ready-made solution on Github and spent 2 weeks just studying it and changing it a little so that it would not be noticeable that it was stolen). But I got an internship. And it was great, Gregory (the one who conducts the internship itself) made the course so that those who have never heard of spring, maven, git, data base, orm, etc. They could do their homework using his lessons and links. But I couldn’t complete the internship completely - the session came and the internship had to be postponed for a month. And now it’s summer 2017, there are a little more than 3 months before placement and time is running out, but I completed the internship according to my lessons, and realized that I could try to go for interviews (because I can’t wait any longer anyway). Before this, by the way, I had already been to 1 interview, passed it successfully (there were 3 tests and the threshold score for each, in English and logic I almost didn’t make it, but on the other hand, I passed the language test (in my case, obviously, Java) with a significant overkill, so they said they would turn a blind eye to small shortfalls. But at the moment they simply didn’t need java developers, so they told me that they remembered me and if a vacancy appeared they would offer me (yes, I understood everything, I was culturally kicked out won). The next stage was EPAM Systems. The company is large, ready to hire juniors, but... it was hellishly difficult for me to get through to HR. They simply didn’t answer me until I called back on every question. But the test task was all for me - they did. In 2 weeks 24x7 I made it and handed it over to the curator. Another week of silence and only after 2 calls from me I was scheduled for an interview, at which I was failed not in the development itself, but in testing. In fact, the questions were only about testing, which in the test project I did out of the blue to be honest. As a result, I was offered to work for free for at least several months and maybe they would hire me, but it’s already the end of August, and there are 1.5 months before the distribution, which means this is not an option for me. True, I agreed, but still no one contacted me after. Well, to hell with them. Without much hope, I sent my resume to one more office.... And then everything started happening, they responded to my resume immediately and an interview was scheduled for the next day. At it, however, I was asked only about general questions: where, how did I know about them, what level of knowledge do I have, do I have experience, etc. We agreed that after completing their test task, a technical interview would be held. The technical specifications were sent to me the next day and within 8 or 9 days I had it completed and sent. The day after submitting the assignment, I was scheduled for a second interview, but it also included only general questions, but as a result, I got an internship. It was immediately agreed that in October I should already know from them whether they were ready to take me or not (since at the same time they were waiting for me in another place, this was my plan if it didn’t work out right away). And so, having completed an internal test task on the project (I practically didn’t touch the project itself, I just got acquainted with it and the technology stack on it - for example, with jsf, which had not previously been touched by jboss and made a simple CRUD on it based on their templates in a similar way , which was already on the project). And in the end they agreed to take me. From November under a rental agreement, and from February - under a distribution contract. As a result: 1.5 years without free time in limbo, when you don’t know whether the work will pay off, turned out to be well spent and I will rightfully celebrate the next 256th day of the year along with the rest. PS believe in yourself and make an accurate plan, and success awaits you. PPS dancing with a tambourine before sending it to the validator sometimes helps.
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