Over 8 years, thousands of graduates have taken the CodeGym course. Today, the project website has more than 1.5 million registered users from 106 countries. Not all graduates had time to talk about their successes: about how they studied, passed interviews and started working as developers. But current students are interested in learning the stories of those who already work in IT. We took matters into our own hands and launched a new special series about developers from different countries and companies who have been trained on CodeGym. This story is about Sasha Kopaygorodsky ( Alexander), a former blogger, editor and musician. A few years ago, Sasha moved to Poland and decided to retrain as a developer. Over time, everything worked out, and thanks to his knowledge, he was able to automate processes in the company where he worked, and from the position of an editor to switch to a programmer.
“It seemed that programming was not for me”
Now I live in Krakow and do programming. But it was not so at once. I am from the Ukrainian city of Nikolaev. For a long time I edited videos, mainly for Russian bloggers. He also ran his own entertainment music channel on Youtube. He also studied music, was the soloist of a group in Kyiv. My whole life was connected with creativity, so it seemed that programming was not for me. In 2015, I went to Moscow to shoot and edit a project related to the automotive theme. The project did not take place. We filmed, but there was not enough budget to finish it. I am back. Just at that time my friend returned from Poland, who had lived there for a year and a half. He was doing pretty well. My girlfriend has been selling Polish shoes in Ukraine since 2013 and therefore offered to go to Poland: they say, it will be convenient for her to work directly with suppliers. I remember I said that I hate the Polish language, that I don’t know what I should do there, because I am a blogger and I need to go to Moscow. The girl was able to convince me. Literally three weeks before our departure, she found an ad in which they were looking for a person who could speak English to edit a video. I approached the vacancy, threw off my portfolio. They answered me: "Come and we'll talk." On the third day after my arrival in Krakow, I went for an interview, they took me, but it turned out that there were no computers for work and I had to wait a few weeks. While waiting, I even managed to work as a guide: I arrived in Krakow a week ago and already told something to tourists. I needed money, because we ended up where we were not expected. Two weeks later, I still went to work as an editor. that I hate the Polish language, that I don’t know what I should do there, because I’m a blogger and I need to go to Moscow. The girl was able to convince me. Literally three weeks before our departure, she found an ad in which they were looking for a person who could speak English to edit a video. I approached the vacancy, threw off my portfolio. They answered me: "Come and we'll talk." On the third day after my arrival in Krakow, I went for an interview, they took me, but it turned out that there were no computers for work and I had to wait a few weeks. While waiting, I even managed to work as a guide: I arrived in Krakow a week ago and already told something to tourists. I needed money, because we ended up where we were not expected. Two weeks later, I still went to work as an editor. that I hate the Polish language, that I don’t know what I should do there, because I’m a blogger and I need to go to Moscow. The girl was able to convince me. Literally three weeks before our departure, she found an ad in which they were looking for a person who could speak English to edit a video. I approached the vacancy, threw off my portfolio. They answered me: "Come and we'll talk." On the third day after my arrival in Krakow, I went for an interview, they took me, but it turned out that there were no computers for work and I had to wait a few weeks. While waiting, I even managed to work as a guide: I arrived in Krakow a week ago and already told something to tourists. I needed money, because we ended up where we were not expected. Two weeks later, I still went to work as an editor. The girl was able to convince me. Literally three weeks before our departure, she found an ad in which they were looking for a person who could speak English to edit a video. I approached the vacancy, threw off my portfolio. They answered me: "Come and we'll talk." On the third day after my arrival in Krakow, I went for an interview, they took me, but it turned out that there were no computers for work and I had to wait a few weeks. While waiting, I even managed to work as a guide: I arrived in Krakow a week ago and already told something to tourists. I needed money, because we ended up where we were not expected. Two weeks later, I still went to work as an editor. The girl was able to convince me. Literally three weeks before our departure, she found an ad in which they were looking for a person who could speak English to edit a video. I approached the vacancy, threw off my portfolio. They answered me: "Come and we'll talk." On the third day after my arrival in Krakow, I went for an interview, they took me, but it turned out that there were no computers for work and I had to wait a few weeks. While waiting, I even managed to work as a guide: I arrived in Krakow a week ago and already told something to tourists. I needed money, because we ended up where we were not expected. Two weeks later, I still went to work as an editor. "Come and let's talk." On the third day after my arrival in Krakow, I went for an interview, they took me, but it turned out that there were no computers for work and I had to wait a few weeks. While waiting, I even managed to work as a guide: I arrived in Krakow a week ago and already told something to tourists. I needed money, because we ended up where we were not expected. Two weeks later, I still went to work as an editor. "Come and let's talk." On the third day after my arrival in Krakow, I went for an interview, they took me, but it turned out that there were no computers for work and I had to wait a few weeks. While waiting, I even managed to work as a guide: I arrived in Krakow a week ago and already told something to tourists. I needed money, because we ended up where we were not expected. Two weeks later, I still went to work as an editor.
“I thought, why am I worse? I can too"
For myself, I decided that I needed to catch on in this place, to show myself. I worked 200-300 hours a month, on weekends. At that time, I had a lot of manual work, for example, renaming 30,000 files, moving them from one folder to another, sorting, filtering, organizing delivery to the client. Before me, 10 people did this, but I was able to automate the process and managed it myself. At some point, I realized that: there are a lot of IT companies in Poland, people get good money, and in my work there are a lot of manual operations that can be simplified. I've let go of my gripes about not being good at programming. Social proof also contributed to this: I lived not far from the offices of such large companies as Nokia and Motorola, I saw that many Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians work there. I thought, why am I worse? I can too. My choice fell on programming, because apart from some of my preferences and skills, this is what I can do once, and it will work until the next update. In addition, the written program can be useful to a large number of people - there are no restrictions. As an editor, I will spend a lot of time editing one video. If tomorrow 10,000 installation clients come to me, then I will do all this for 5 years. If I want 10 thousand users to use my application, then this will not add work to me - I will still write one program. As an editor, I will spend a lot of time editing one video. If tomorrow 10,000 installation clients come to me, then I will do all this for 5 years. If I want 10 thousand users to use my application, then this will not add work to me - I will still write one program. As an editor, I will spend a lot of time editing one video. If tomorrow 10,000 installation clients come to me, then I will do all this for 5 years. If I want 10 thousand users to use my application, then this will not add work to me - I will still write one program.
“A child was born, and I realized that I need to earn more”
I started looking for where to learn programming and came across CodeGym. I first bought myself a monthly subscription and realized that it was interesting to me, I was very hooked. My wife got pregnant, I had to raise money for housing, so in my free time I worked again, mounted everything. Despite this, I found 3-4 hours on weekends and half an hour on weekdays to study. Got a monthly subscription. I started studying in August 2018 and paid every month until the end of the year, and then I bought myself an annual subscription. I studied for a little less than a year and a half, reached level 35 and did two internships. Of course, when a child was born, it was difficult to study and do an internship: I did not pass it 100%, but took part of the knowledge, and put the rest aside for later. I found myself a mentor at CodeGym. Once I read a success story where the guy told how he studied, that he got a job at EPAM, and left his contact details. I wrote to him on Skype, we got on the phone, and I asked him to be my mentor: so that I sometimes write to him on some questions that I can’t find answers to. I also asked him to help me come up with a trial project, because at that time I only knew Java Core, and I didn’t own frameworks at all. He offered me to make a project on student registration with a database. The mentor gave tasks, I wrote the code, he did the code review. Even now, I sometimes ask me to do a code review of projects from work, since there is no one at work for me to check. A child was born, it was necessary to earn more and do something with this life. At the beginning of 2019, I came to the authorities and said that I was learning programming and set them a condition: either you create an IT department in our company, in which I'm moving, or I'll look for another job. It was kind of a semi-bluff on my part, because I don't know how to learn ahead, and I do it only when there is a problem that I need to solve. On the other hand, the creation of such a department was also justified for the company, since they are engaged in the production of a large number of files and metadata. Just at that time, a client came to our company who needed to translate XL files into XML in a specific format. This had to be done automatically - there were a lot of files and conditions. My bosses did not understand, they gave the task to the person who could not cope with it. I offered to deal with this problem myself. For a week I consulted with the company Dalet Plus, which deals with the structuring of meta-data in video files. They sent documentation, I figured it out I made a program that automatically converted files. Later there was another client for whom I made a project. Thus, in our company, I took on some of the technical work. After these projects, I came to the authorities and asked to double my salary. At that time, I spent about 1.5 thousand dollars on various training. I considered that the skill set that I have and my ability to quickly deal with almost any project is quite a valuable thing. The authorities thought for a week and agreed to a salary increase. It's very cool if there is a person to whom you can turn once a week, it helps a lot. This stimulates learning, as there are obligations not only to oneself, but also to another person. I was also spurred on by the fact that I was reaching for the level of a more experienced specialist. As they say: "Do you want to be slim,
“Now they call me and invite me for interviews”
So far, I don't feel like I'm good at programming. Probably for the reason that I work alone in the IT department, I do not have a code review. That is why I am thinking about going to work in some IT corporation. I feel like this will be the next step for me. Large corporations in Poland are Motorola, ABB, Saber, Nokia, Epam, BBH. Salaries depend on the form of employment. On average, a jun can count on 900-1300 dollars, a middle - 1300-3000 dollars, a senior - 3000-10000 dollars. The biggest salary I heard about in Krakow is $10,000. This is the ceiling. For about a year I went to various job fairs such as Jobicon, Absolvent talents, attended meetups, was at an open day at Motorola, sent about 300 resumes. Resume edited dozens of times. But the problem was that no one wants to hire Ukrainian juniors, because they need to make documents for them. I received test tasks, solved them. But they didn't call for an interview. For many companies, making documents is a serious barrier. But as soon as the developer has a year and a half of commercial experience, everyone becomes sharply spit on the fact that docks are needed. Now they call me and invite me for interviews. For example, they called me the other day for an interview at EPAM. Higher education in programming is necessary in some companies, but technical education is needed, not necessarily computer science. I don't know of any other differences from Ukraine. But as soon as the developer has a year and a half of commercial experience, everyone becomes sharply spit on the fact that docks are needed. Now they call me and invite me for interviews. For example, they called me the other day for an interview at EPAM. Higher education in programming is necessary in some companies, but technical education is needed, not necessarily computer science. I don't know of any other differences from Ukraine. But as soon as the developer has a year and a half of commercial experience, everyone becomes sharply spit on the fact that docks are needed. Now they call me and invite me for interviews. For example, they called me the other day for an interview at EPAM. Higher education in programming is necessary in some companies, but technical education is needed, not necessarily computer science. I don't know of any other differences from Ukraine.
Tips for a novice developer:
Look at programming not as a way to make more money , but as something that will help develop your creative skills. I understand that most people go into programming for money, but there will be so many problems in learning that those who go purely for money will merge anyway. These people will simply spend money on training or time, so you need to determine your own motivation.
Find a good school. CodeGym hooked me with the approach to learning, the quest hooked me with an interesting story. I think CodeGym is the best school for Java Core.
Pay close attention to learning. I said to myself: “OK, now I am having fun watching some videos, interviews with programmers, some articles on this subject, reading success stories.” I cut off other entertainment content from myself. Thus, from simple topics I began to move on to more complex ones. I went to bed at night and thought: “How can I filter requests in this REST API?”.
Look for contacts among programmers. It is necessary to grab onto any person who is connected with IT.
Make a test project. Preferably one that will be used. And such that it is interesting and scary. When I started doing the first project for my company, I was very scared, but everything worked out. This is very advanced in programming. My first project could be compared to a six-month training, maybe even more. When there is a base, you need to jump into such things: there is already something to start from, but a person stops studying everything in a row, and learns certain, necessary things for work. After such a project, you can think about what to do next: do your business, prepare for an interview, or develop in your company.
GO TO FULL VERSION