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. Our third story is about android developer Dmitry Mersiyanov who left the hospitality industry to pursue a career in programming. He mastered Java and Android in a year and a half and got a job as a developer.
“I got up every day at 5-6 in the morning and worked out before work”
I have a higher humanitarian education in the specialty "Management in the field of restaurant and hotel business." So after graduating from university, I worked with clients in a hospitality-related company. It was then that I realized that I was not interested in this for several reasons: working with people is not as easy and pleasant as it seemed, the level of salaries is also not very high. Over time, I had the opportunity to move to the product department (the company has an application and a website through which hotel rooms were sold), as a vacancy opened up in the quality department for testing mobile applications. I was able to get there, although I did not have the necessary experience. In the process of work, I came to writing autotests, started programming. It was then that I realized that writing code is much more interesting than testing it. The question was before me: where to go to study? At that time, I already knew about CodeGym, so I started playing 10 free levels(Several years ago, the conditions of study on the course were like this - ed.). I realized that it suits me, bought a subscription and continued to study. Passed 20 levels and began to think where to move on. I decided that a good option would be to go into mobile application development. I can't say that the knowledge gained from 20 levels was enough to become a junior. I learned syntax and Java Core, it was just knowledge without practical work. Rather, it was a base to try to write code. In addition, I read two more theory books. With this baggage, I went into Android development. I had a training plan: I got up every day at 5-6 in the morning and practiced for 2 hours before work. If there was free time there (for example, while the developer was making new features, and we, the testers, were waiting), I also did it: I solved problems during the day. I completed 20 levels in 1-2 months. According to my schedule, I spent from 1 to 4 days on 1 level. Since CodeGym, I've completed several Android development courses elsewhere. I first went to a basic Android course, understood what was happening, and further deepened my knowledge. The Android world has its own zoo of different libraries that are considered industry standards. There are 5-6 main libraries, and without studying them, there is no point in going to interviews. The whole study took about 1.5 years in the presence of a full-time main job. If you study for 8 hours a day, you can manage in six months. There are 5-6 main libraries, and without studying them, there is no point in going to interviews. The whole study took about 1.5 years in the presence of a full-time main job. If you study for 8 hours a day, you can manage in six months. There are 5-6 main libraries, and without studying them, there is no point in going to interviews. The whole study took about 1.5 years in the presence of a full-time main job. If you study for 8 hours a day, you can manage in six months.
“Thanks to unsuccessful interviews, I tightened my base”
I had an agreement with the management: I will study and they will hire me in the same company as a developer. But this plan didn't work. The senior developer quit, they couldn’t find a new one for a long time, I realized that there was no point in waiting and I already started looking for other vacancies and going to interviews. Somewhere I didn’t like the company, somewhere I didn’t fit and they didn’t call me back. If I did not answer some question in an interview, then I would go home and study this topic in order to answer it next time. Thanks to unsuccessful interviews, I pulled up my base. As a result, I managed to pass an interview in a company where I worked for two years. At that time, I already knew all my weaknesses and was as ready as possible for difficult questions. I got a job in a web development studio that works for outsourcing: they fulfill orders for different companies. Among the clients are Gazprom-Media, TNT channel. I was involved in the Stoloto state lottery project. Our company took this project from other developers. He was in a bad condition: the code was written according to the old standards, at that time he was already about 5 years old. Me and another jun were put on this project. We were lucky: we slowly understood the code, helped each other. For 2 years we brought him into a divine form. Due to the fact that the project was initially badly written, I was able to understand Android and enter this area. At this job, I arranged to work abroad remotely for about 3 months. As a result, he left for Bali and worked from there. It was not difficult for me: it all depends on internal self-discipline and self-organization. I liked getting up early: I started working at 4-5 am Moscow time, no one writes in chats at this time, so I managed to do a lot of things. By lunchtime in Moscow, my working day was already over.
“Anyone from any field can learn programming”
After I returned to Russia, I worked for this company for some time. In May 2020, I went for a promotion to DPD, a grocery company. We develop and maintain courier applications: separate applications for couriers, and separate applications for customers. I am working on two applications at once. Recently brought to release the first version of the application for clients. When I arrived, it was only partially ready, I had to finish it and put it on Google Play. The second application for couriers is an old application that had a lot of legacy code. Since there was a lot of such obsolete code in the Stoloto application, which I worked on before, this experience helped me a lot in my current job. Just a month ago, I passed my probationary period. Programming requires problem solving skills. This skill can be acquired in a variety of ways. If we are talking about a technical background and all sorts of mathematicians and physicists, they have this skill well developed by default. We can say that in programming it will be a little easier for them. In general, I believe that anyone from any field, with the desire and interest, can learn programming and become a developer.
Tips for a novice developer:
Read Java Programming for Kids, Parents and Grandparents by Yakov Fine. At one time, this helped me a lot, since I am not from the IT field and I had to learn many concepts from scratch. This book explains the basics of programming in a very simple format. Reading it before starting your studies greatly simplifies the process.
Create a clear training schedule. If a person tries to study several hours a week without a schedule, then it will not work well. Thus, he manages to forget what he has learned before and does not receive any progress. Here is the right approach: to study a little, but every day. Then there will be progress.
Android Tip: You need to have an understanding of the core libraries. Find some tutorials on these libraries and try to write code to understand what tasks it solves.
You can prepare for interview questions , there are a lot of them on the net. There are employers who like to ask something with a trick to check the general erudition of the applicant. You also need to be able to answer such questions and be prepared.
Show your interest and desire to learn at the interview. A person may initially not know something, but during work he can quickly get acquainted with new information and quickly solve the problem. This is always appreciated.
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