How I became a programmer at 17

Where it all started

I realized that I wanted to become a programmer in 8th grade. Back then I was just an ordinary teenager, playing online games and hanging out with friends. One day, my computer science teacher forced me to participate in a programming competition because there were no other candidates. In a week, from scratch, they shoved the entire Pascal syntax into me and gave me several tasks to solve. At first I didn’t like it at all, but when I decided to delve deeper into this topic myself, I realized that with the help of this you can create the most incredible things! After my first conscious “Hello World,” I was no longer an ordinary teenager.

JavaRush

In the middle of 9th grade, I came across JavaRush, completed the first 10 levels and persuaded my parents to buy an annual subscription with an internship. Little did I know then that this decision would become a turning point in my life. I won’t lie: after level 10, each next level was very difficult. I slammed my hands on the table, swore, and once even abandoned the course for several weeks. But time after time I returned because I was drawn to it, I sincerely liked it - each time to solve a new problem: I didn’t give up! I took the course for quite a long time - until the 10th grade. Next, I wrote a test assignment for an internship (I took it from the Internet). It seemed terribly difficult to me, and I didn’t pass it the first time. I decided to repeat the entire JR course at an accelerated pace and registered for the internship for the second time. Things got better from that point on, but it was still very difficult for me. I even began to think that this was not mine. If it weren't for my girlfriend's support, I would never have completed this internship!

Job

And now the internship is over, the final project is written. I decided to post my resume on hh with 4-5 months of work experience in an internship and graduate project. And it worked! But my mistake was that I did not immediately indicate my age on my resume. After this, the calls became a little less, but I was still invited to interviews. I successfully completed my first and only interview. The company develops payment systems, which many of you probably use often. There are already many articles about what questions are asked during interviews, but I won’t write about it. Let me just say that I was very worried. Then they sent me a test task, it was quite simple. And finally I received an offer! My salary was not very high: due to my age, I had shorter working hours, and the probationary period also affected, but believe me, this was enough for me :) The first few days at work I thought that I would soon be fired, because It was incredibly difficult for me. I only spent the first 2 days understanding Linux commands, and now they give you something else to fix on unfamiliar technologies. But then everything began to work out little by little, and during my entire short period of work (over the summer) I successfully completed several relatively large projects - integrated a new tax service, wrote my own large REST service for integrators and slightly transformed the site, implementing protection of details from theft bots.

Android

I worked the entire summer after 10th grade and had to leave because of my 11th grade studies. Now I decided to retrain as an Android developer. It was not difficult, and I had already successfully completed the test task for this position in the same company that I worked in the summer. I hope that this summer I will receive the coveted position.

Total

Always remember the cherished truth: programmers are not born.