Through the years to your goal!

Hi all. Before that, I wrote a small review about Gregory’s internship, but that was before long-term commercial experience; now I’ve been working for the second year. I want to write my success story: I know from experience that it is very stimulating when you are at the beginning of your journey. About me: motivated to study new technologies, stress-resistant, sociable, have an analytical mind, leadership qualities, and at the same time efficient. I work well in a team, I have startup experience. Focused on healthy lifestyle and family values. Interests: mountain tourism, history, playing musical instruments, sports, etc. He was an individual entrepreneur for more than 10 years. I have experience using e-commerce platforms Tranzaq and Quik. The topic of the thesis at the academy: “Strategy for managing an organization’s securities portfolio.” In general, I think everything is clear. Friends joked that I apparently threatened someone or bribed someone so that they would give me a job as a developer))) The motives for which I began to study programming were generally the same as those of many - equally financial incentive (stable and decent income) and the desire to somehow realize oneself after 30 years. In general, programming was a challenge for me)) Until I was 32 years old (a good intellectual number)) I only had experience writing school programs using the turtle logo))) I started my first job at the age of 34! My education is not specialized - a couple of technical university courses to become an automotive engineer , then an academic leave, then I completed my studies as an economist on a correspondence basis. In 2015/16 I studied 1C, Python : I passed the exam for the Professional certificate in platform 8.3. I consulted with an older friend who had been working with 1C for a long time (hello Roman)), and decided to take a risk with Java - I could always return to 1C . I started studying JavaRush in my free time). After six months of studying on JavaRush there was no particular success:classes were irregular, and I realized that I needed to speed up: firstly, the subscription would end soon, and secondly, so that this would not develop into a long project. The subscription ended in the spring of 2017. I started, like many people are preparing for an internship, but there were problems with the launch of web projects: it was my version of IDEA that was buggy with Tomcat ((Thanks to the guys who helped figure it out, but this problem was solved closer to the summer. Then I demolished Windows, installed Linux, new problems began - on the old laptop, something was constantly flying according to the schedule, the laptop simply stuck and stopped working, it was possible to solve it only by switching to another distribution. I got better at installing Linux and setting up the working environment)) In general, neither for the spring nor for the summer internship I didn’t have time to prepare: I had to earn money somehow, since I work for four people (my wife doesn’t work and we have two children). Regarding the money side of the issue, as in that joke - financial status - you can drink coffee at home))). For several years now, my business had not brought in much, and in order to have my head free for studying, I worked part-time for my father on a flower farm in the summer. I literally worked for several seasons in a row, and in order to have enough money until the next season, I thoroughly tightened the strap)). In order to better understand the material , I constantly discussed everything I read with my father, trying to explain on my fingers how I understand it and why it is needed, for which I am very grateful to him! I, like many programmers, have certain difficulties in correctly conveying to others everything that I know))). In principle, it was the hard work in the summer of 2015 that stimulated me to start thinking about changing my specialty from an entrepreneur to something more stable and dust-free)), because even when things were generally going well, there was still constant tension - to put together rent, taxes, pay for goods, etc. (the main business was related to the wholesale and retail sale of building materials). From time to time I tried to retrain for something more interesting, from intermediary activities in the oil products market and the sale of land in pre-Olympic Sochi to breeding purebred dogs) I also tried to work as an instructor in an extreme mountain park, rappelled down a wall 86 meters high to insure clients later, I pulled it out with my hands from the trolley if someone slowed down in the middle of the distance and built fences on the edge of the cliff - they drilled holes in the harness, drilled holes with a hammer drill, then installed racks for the fences, pulled the cables, in general it was fun)) In general, all my previous experience had nothing to do with JavaEE . In the summer of 2017, I started doing test tasks for Magnit, etc. but at that moment in time I was looking for a job in the south, and there it was very difficult for the juniors: the assignments in general were crud projects. Autumn came and I entered the topjava internship.At first it was relatively easy, the guys in slack helped, and the technologies were already a little familiar, but then I had more work to do on completing and renovating the house, and during my internship I started talking about topics related to the front (js, etc.), and I no longer had time to do it digest everything. Then the holidays, the end of the internship, the deployment of the project to Heroku. It was just a student's day)). I came to a certain point, there was a project, some experience in the main stack, and I started looking for work again in the south, but they either offered very little money or did not offer it at all))). Within a couple of weeks, I realized that there was nothing to catch and decided to go back to Moscow (I myself am from Moscow, my wife is from the Krasnodar Territory). To begin with, of course, I went alone and stayed with my parents. I started going to interviews)) After the holidays, of course, it was something with something - as they say about a dog, he understands everything but cannot say)))) Looking ahead, at the first interview in the company where I now work , I I couldn’t even write a singleton – thanks to IDEA and the stormy holidays)) But I didn’t lose heart. In general, if you want to go somewhere as a junior, a positive attitude is one of the main components. As I heard, for one junior position there are approximately 50 candidates, after a year there is already one middle dev for 10 vacancies, and after 3-5 years there is already one Signior Tomato for 50 vacancies) so far, according to my observations, the trend is the same)) In general, So a month has passed, the guys and girls from the internship have already found their first jobs for an average of +- 50 thousand, and no one has made an offer to me yet. I continued to cram and deal with questions that I could not answer. In order not to waste time, I applied for a free repeat of the topjava spring internship and then found a vacancy for an intern, but with a meager salary. I went to those social services. In the evening they called me back and made an offer: it was the first offer for a java developer in my life! I was incredibly happy and proud . Probably even more than when, at the age of 20, I registered as an individual entrepreneur and organized my own business with a partner selling building materials. It didn’t matter to me that the salary was in the region of the minimum wage and Spring was on xml. In any case, this was my first victory, with my brains and hard work I was able to get a java dev job in a few years from a completely different life. I agreed to go to work in a week, drove south to see my family and, full of strength, went out to conquer the enterprise)). The company was small, developing custom software, the team was very positive, the boss liked to talk and explain. I think in another country he would be a very highly paid teacher at an IT academy. The first week I studied and started doing small tasks. They gave me technical documentation on the framework in English and said: master it)) Basically, the work was feasible, since the main framework was Spring, and I had already mastered it for about a year). The work was going on, the May holidays flew by, after the vacation the enthusiasm with such financial motivation somehow began to subside, in addition I went to the dacha to get some air and there, while pushing out the stuck Sable in the fields with my father, I sprained my arms and shoulders and, as a result, began to sleep poorly, Concentration was lost, and a new task came up at work, a very confusing one. In general, since the main workforce there were students, there were, of course, omissions in terms of code cleanliness. Well, like many people: when I didn’t like something at my current job, I applied to hh )) and then I saw a vacancy for a junior in a company where I tried to apply in the winter, but didn’t get the job as a middle worker right away. I arranged an interview, made a positive impression, the head of the department noted that I had improved well and promised to make an offer. I had to wait and go through another interview with the head of the department, and they sent me a salary offer that far exceeded my expectations. I was in seventh heaven. The parents were also pleasantly surprised and pleased with their son’s achievements - it’s one thing to work for the minimum wage as an intern (one “well-wisher” even joked: like, for such a salary you probably wipe the dust off the computers, and I once noticed that even the office cleaners who come in are over 15 they paid more in minutes than we paid in a day)) It’s another thing to work for decent money! In the new place everything was different, a big company - great opportunities!)) Spacious office, a pair of high-quality monitors, a powerful computer, a large friendly team and interesting work. In general, I was very happy and worried about not being kicked out after the trial period. The relationship in the team was generally great - we went out to pubs together, had fun corporate events and went to the gym and swimming pool. The work was going on, the stack was more or less familiar. I began to read even more professional literature on weekends and evenings, my comrades began to joke that I was a bibliophile))) In addition to Java, I began to be interested in databases at a deeper level (courses at work), I also managed to enroll in a Scala course at Tinkoff, many thanks to Oleg ( teacher) for being able to show how beautiful the functional style is: it directly motivates people to study Scala)). Unfortunately, due to circumstances, I had to interrupt my studies. Winter is over, spring has come and somehow the drive of last year’s trash talk about finding a job is no longer enough. No sooner said than done. I started going on interviews to understand my current professional level. I realized that I needed to improve my technology, what were the requirements for a middle worker, and began to receive offers for a salary that exceeded the salary in my current position, even which was promised after the promotion. I got thoughtful... I started looking for even more advantages at my current job. At first it worked, but the extreme factor that knocked me out of the current rut was getting to know Big Data and receiving an offer on this stack (Hadoop ecosystem). At the moment, I’m like a knight at a crossroads - on the one hand, we have very good relationships in the team, an interesting project (bookmaker site), comfortable working conditions, and on the other hand, development in a promising and new technology for me. We need to decide before the end of the week)). Thank you to everyone who read to the end, this note was written just for you, since I don’t have a stressed-out emergency situation and just a lot of things to do, but I wanted to be useful for people who, like me, are someday thinking of starting their journey to become a Java developer or Already in the process of looking for my first job. If you have any questions, write, I will try to answer in my free time. Many thanks to all the people who helped me along this journey! PS the narration may be a little inconsistent and with grammatical errors, but I think it doesn’t matter.