We are opening a special series in the “Success Stories” section — we will talk about developers who studied on CodeGym and now work in our company, developing the product. Our first hero is Vasily, who taught programming at school, got an education in electrical engineering and worked in the field of ecology. In 2015, he decided to completely change his career and started learning Java. Now Vasya is a team leader of the development team who write tasks for CodeGym and improve the course as a whole.
"Footcloths of the text and brain-crushing tasks"
I studied at one of the best lyceums in Ukraine in the class of information technology. Back then, programming seemed rather boring to me, because we studied Pascal and Olympiad programming. The peculiarity of Pascal is that it does not contain the principles of object-oriented programming, but there are footcloths of text and brain-crushing tasks. Therefore, after the lyceum, I doubted whether I should go into programming. To enter the programmer, it was necessary to pass three exams: the Ukrainian language, mathematics and physics. Before the exam, I filled out a questionnaire in which I had to indicate 5 faculties where I wanted to go. The first priority for me was the faculty where programming was taught, the second was the one where electromechanics was taught. Since I did not pass the first one by points, I went to the second one. In the sixth year, he left the hospital for a part-time job, because it started working. I was engaged in engineering ecology, issued permits for emissions to enterprises, and compiled technical justifications. It was my first more or less serious work. I worked in ecology for 4.5 years. When the dollar began to rise in 2013, at some point, taking into account the exchange rate, my sister, who works as a tester, earned more than me. I thought I was making good money. For example, the average salary then was 4-7 thousand hryvnias, and I received several times more. At that time I already had a family, a small child, I came to the director and said that, they say, I want to link my salary to the dollar. We did not agree, and I decided to quit. I worked in ecology for 4.5 years. When the dollar began to rise in 2013, at some point, taking into account the exchange rate, my sister, who works as a tester, earned more than me. I thought I was making good money. For example, the average salary then was 4-7 thousand hryvnias, and I received several times more. At that time I already had a family, a small child, I came to the director and said that, they say, I want to link my salary to the dollar. We did not agree, and I decided to quit. I worked in ecology for 4.5 years. When the dollar began to rise in 2013, at some point, taking into account the exchange rate, my sister, who works as a tester, earned more than me. I thought I was making good money. For example, the average salary then was 4-7 thousand hryvnias, and I received several times more. At that time I already had a family, a small child, I came to the director and said that, they say, I want to link my salary to the dollar. We did not agree, and I decided to quit. I want to link my salary to the dollar. We did not agree, and I decided to quit. I want to link my salary to the dollar. We did not agree, and I decided to quit.
“At first I studied at night”
While still working in ecology, I tried to learn C++, C#, but it didn't work for me. Later I started watching different videos about Java. Including - video programmer Sergei Nemchinsky. He was often asked the question: "What do you think about CodeGym?" He somehow answered in a hater way that I became interested. Usually, if a competitor is worthy, that's the only way they treat him. So I signed up for CodeGym, went through levels 3-4, realized that I was doing great and bought a subscription. In December 2015, I said at my last job that I was leaving, somewhere before March I was still finishing projects and periodically went to work. I also took offline Java courses. Thanks to CodeGym, I had a lot of practice. If you compare me with other guys on the courses, then I was the first or second in terms of academic performance. At first I studied at night, because the child was very small: somewhere from midnight to 3-4 o'clock in the morning. I remember well the moment when the statistics update on the site began at three in the morning and the server was very stupid. Then, when I already came to CodeGym, I found out why this was happening and fixed the problem. It turns out that I learned CodeGym from two sides: both from the user side and as a developer. After my dismissal in March, I spent most of my time at home and studying. I spent about 8 months on training. I could sit on tasks for 16 hours a day. Firstly, it worked for me, and secondly, everything is fine with my motivation. I remember the quest section from level 16 to 19 - this is the initial multithreading. It was hard for me: I even gave up for two weeks, and then nevertheless pulled myself together and returned. It was the hardest part of the training. when at three in the morning the update of statistics on the site began and the server was very stupid. Then, when I already came to CodeGym, I found out why this was happening and fixed the problem. It turns out that I learned CodeGym from two sides: both from the user side and as a developer. After my dismissal in March, I spent most of my time at home and studying. I spent about 8 months on training. I could sit on tasks for 16 hours a day. Firstly, it worked for me, and secondly, everything is fine with my motivation. I remember the quest section from level 16 to 19 - this is the initial multithreading. It was hard for me: I even gave up for two weeks, and then nevertheless pulled myself together and returned. It was the hardest part of the training. when at three in the morning the update of statistics on the site began and the server was very stupid. Then, when I already came to CodeGym, I found out why this was happening and fixed the problem. It turns out that I learned CodeGym from two sides: both from the user side and as a developer. After my dismissal in March, I spent most of my time at home and studying. I spent about 8 months on training. I could sit on tasks for 16 hours a day. Firstly, it worked for me, and secondly, everything is fine with my motivation. I remember the quest section from level 16 to 19 - this is the initial multithreading. It was hard for me: I even gave up for two weeks, and then nevertheless pulled myself together and returned. It was the hardest part of the training. both as a user and as a developer. After my dismissal in March, I spent most of my time at home and studying. I spent about 8 months on training. I could sit on tasks for 16 hours a day. Firstly, it worked for me, and secondly, everything is fine with my motivation. I remember the quest section from level 16 to 19 - this is the initial multithreading. It was hard for me: I even gave up for two weeks, and then nevertheless pulled myself together and returned. It was the hardest part of the training. both as a user and as a developer. After my dismissal in March, I spent most of my time at home and studying. I spent about 8 months on training. I could sit on tasks for 16 hours a day. Firstly, it worked for me, and secondly, everything is fine with my motivation. I remember the quest section from level 16 to 19 - this is the initial multithreading. It was hard for me: I even gave up for two weeks, and then nevertheless pulled myself together and returned. It was the hardest part of the training. I even quit for two weeks, and then I pulled myself together and returned. It was the hardest part of the training. I even quit for two weeks, and then I pulled myself together and returned. It was the hardest part of the training.
"Why not send a resume?"
At the end of my studies, I got a job at a startup and started doing an online internship at CodeGym. It was in the internship chat that I saw a vacancy for a junior in CodeGym. I thought: “Why not send a resume?”. At the same time, I was finally offered to work in a startup not “thank you”. I went to an interview at CodeGym: the technical part lasted 2.5 hours. I immediately knew that I had passed, because in fact I answered all the questions correctly, except for the database questions. As a result, now in our company I am engaged in databases. This is how I develop: what is not mine becomes mine over time. In fact, there have been two interviews in my entire life: the first is in a startup, the second is in CodeGym. I threw in my resume, was invited for an interview, immediately passed. In this regard, I did not have a chance to run around, receive refusals and ignore after interviews. When I first got a job, CodeGym was just getting ready to move to CodeGym 2.0. CodeGym 1.0 had tasks and testing tasks with yes or no answers. The idea behind CodeGym 2.0 was to show the user exactly what the error was. Just when I arrived, the development team was rewriting and adding tests so that it was clear what the error was. At first, I was engaged in writing tasks, then I took over the optimization of the speed of completing tasks. Later, I started developing as a back-end developer. We rewrote the admin panel, because the interns originally wrote it. I actively immersed myself in the concept of REST: interactions over API, architecture. I have also been developing plugins for a long time. Now one of my colleagues is doing it. In May 2018, my second son was born. When I got back from vacation I was offered to become a team leader who is engaged in improving and writing new tasks and partly in back-end development. Now, as a team leader, I can do anything that my guys can do. Not everything that I can do, my guys can do. CodeGym 3.0 will be launching soon, so rallies have taken up more time. Usually, if the task I gave to someone on the team is difficult, I do a code review. Together we look at the code written by the developer. When I sit and explain like this, the developer sees that you can’t write perfect code right away. When I first started leading the team, I understood that it was easier for me to do all the tasks myself than to control everyone. Now it's gone - all the guys are growing. Now, as a team leader, I can do anything that my guys can do. Not everything that I can do, my guys can do. CodeGym 3.0 will be launching soon, so rallies have taken up more time. Usually, if the task I gave to someone on the team is difficult, I do a code review. Together we look at the code written by the developer. When I sit and explain like this, the developer sees that you can’t write perfect code right away. When I first started leading the team, I understood that it was easier for me to do all the tasks myself than to control everyone. Now it's gone - all the guys are growing. Now, as a team leader, I can do anything that my guys can do. Not everything that I can do, my guys can do. CodeGym 3.0 will be launching soon, so rallies have taken up more time. Usually, if the task I gave to someone on the team is difficult, I do a code review. Together we look at the code written by the developer. When I sit and explain like this, the developer sees that you can’t write perfect code right away. When I first started leading the team, I understood that it was easier for me to do all the tasks myself than to control everyone. Now it's gone - all the guys are growing. which I gave to someone from the team, complex, I'm doing a code review. Together we look at the code written by the developer. When I sit and explain like this, the developer sees that you can’t write perfect code right away. When I first started leading the team, I understood that it was easier for me to do all the tasks myself than to control everyone. Now it's gone - all the guys are growing. which I gave to someone from the team, complex, I'm doing a code review. Together we look at the code written by the developer. When I sit and explain like this, the developer sees that you can’t write perfect code right away. When I first started leading the team, I understood that it was easier for me to do all the tasks myself than to control everyone. Now it's gone - all the guys are growing.
Adviсe:
Not only read books, but also write code. I tried to read books, in particular on learning C#, and to program a little something. Now I can give advice that if you want to learn how to program, you need to write something. Books, courses - it's all secondary. If you want to learn, you need to code.
Find a mentor. About 3 months before I joined CodeGym, my mother-in-law went camping with a developer who had over ten years of programming experience. He helped me too. He gave me a test interview and after 10 minutes said: “That's it, you flunked this interview.” Then, however, he corrected himself and added that he was interviewing people of the senior + level.
Do a lot. When I continued to work, I studied at night, and when I left work, I worked all day: from 11:00 to the evening, and from 23:00 to 02:00. It was more than a day's work. I have little faith in the fact that you can spend 15 minutes a day and learn how to program.
Write a program. When you reach level 35 on CodeGym, you can download the internship assignment. It is not necessary to pass it, but you can at least write a test task. When you write something, there is something to talk about. I was also helped by a project that I was involved in at a startup. I knew what to talk about in the interview without revealing the nuances of the strategy.
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