Over the past 8 years, thousands of graduates have taken the JavaRush course. Today, more than 1.5 million users from 106 countries are registered on the project website. Not all graduates had time to talk about their successes: how they studied, passed interviews and started working as developers. But today’s 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 were trained in JavaRush. Our fifth story is about load testing engineer Dmitry Sokolov ( Dmitry ). Dmitry was educated as a metallurgical engineer, but realized that his specialty was not very promising. By chance, he came across the JavaRush website on the Internet and remembered that at school he was a little interested in programming.
“My story is not about super success”
Now I am 28 years old, I am a metallurgical engineer by education. At school I was a little interested in programming, at a primitive level - I coded in Pascal and BASIC. I worked at the plant for a little less than six months. Initially, I wanted to get an engineering position in my specialty, but I was offered to work as a toolmaker. When I got to the production line, I found out that many of the guys had a higher technical education, and they were all promised the position of engineer. I realized that most likely nothing would grow together there. Then I looked for other vacancies, found an office job - as an equipment selection engineer in a branch of an Italian manufacturer of construction equipment for transporting dry bulk materials. The work was interesting, the salary was higher than at the factory. Sometimes I had free time at work, and at first I used it for Duolingo, Lingualeo. Then on the Internet I came across a list of resources for learning programming: Codewars, JavaRush, Sololearn. I looked and realized that this is a great way to keep your brain in good shape, plus maintain your knowledge of the English language. My story is not about super success like: “I completed JavaRush in 3 months, now the problem is to choose Microsoft or Google.” I studied JavaRush for about 3 years. Over the first two years, I was promoted several times at work, new responsibilities appeared, the amount of free time decreased, business trips appeared, and, in principle, I treated programming as entertainment instead of computer games. I studied with long breaks, read literature at the same time, and watched lectures on Youtube. At first, I studied very unorganized, but in 2019 I really got a schedule, especially when JavaRush started giving out achievements for solving problems. This motivated me and I set a goal: to solve two simple problems on weekdays and the maximum number of complex problems on weekends.
“I realized that I had wasted my current job and had not completed my training”
Then I decided to look at the prospects for my position on the labor market and was upset. I liked selecting equipment in accordance with the customer’s technical specifications (a non-trivial task, since out of hundreds of possible configurations the customer needed the one hundred and first), communicating with technically competent employees (chief engineers, mechanics at enterprises), but further growth was more with an emphasis on sales — that didn’t interest me. Then I realized that I would either stay in my current position without much prospects, or I would have to go into sales. At that time, I roughly understood the level of salaries and requirements for a Java developer. If we talk about a developer with three years of experience, then the differences with my salary then were almost twofold, and the juniors were paid somewhere a little more, somewhere a little less than me. I looked at the requirements on HeadHunter and began to fix the shortcomings. Employers didn’t invite me to become a Java developer, so I decided to also apply for a tester. This all happened at the end of 2019, I had many vacation days accumulated. I decided to spend them on interviews. I was invited to the position of tester. As a result, I was hired by a company that offered free training in the evenings. I worked during the day and went to school in the evening. While most of the training was completed, my current job was heavily loaded. I started accumulating student debts. I realized that I couldn't cope. At the same time, I wrote a resignation letter at work, because I definitely decided to go into IT. Then I realized that I had wasted my current job and had not completed my training.
“I decided that I would rather become a good tester than a mediocre developer”
But one fine day I received a call from the I-Teco company, a Skolkovo resident, and offered to try out as a load testing engineer. At that time I didn’t even understand what such engineers did. The company provided training on the development environment in which its employees work—Loadrunner. By working in this development environment, you can improve your skills in both Java and web technologies. I was hired, I completed training online, and was helped by a colleague who explained in detail all the details of the work. After the training, I had an interview within the company, and later an interview with the customer, since the company offered outsourced employees. I also presented an educational project. In the first days of work, to put it mildly, I was overwhelmed by the abundance of new information. This can be compared to mathematics: while during training I was told that 2+2=4, then during the project I had to deal with integrals. In the new place, it wasn’t even technical skills that were important, but the ability to communicate with people. There are people who are completely immersed in completing tasks, and I need to find an approach to them, because the completion of my tasks depends on the developers. Since then I have been working on a project that deals with banking software. I need to test response time: the customer has certain requirements regarding it. For example, it is generally accepted that an interface operation should last no longer than 2 seconds, otherwise there is a possibility that the user will refuse the services of this bank. To test the system, you can create virtual users in the development environment: you need to check how long the operation will take if, for example, 100 users perform it simultaneously. I have prospects of becoming a developer, but it depends only on me. I decided to improve my main activity first: I thought that I would rather become a good tester than a mediocre developer. Many people have the misconception that this is some kind of boring work where you need to repeat many actions monotonously. This is not entirely true. There are also administration elements, and code also needs to be written.
Tips for a beginner developer:
Don’t spread yourself too thin and don’t get too hung up on one thing. If something doesn’t work out, then procrastination begins and you end up losing valuable time. If something is unclear, it’s better to Google it - 90% of the information is already on the Internet.
Learn English.
To warm up, solve a few simple problems to get a dose of dopamine from completing them. Later, take on difficult tasks.
Before the interview, study up and down the information on the company you want to work for.
During an interview, you don’t have to fall into a stupor and say: “I don’t know.” Even if you don’t know something, but you start thinking, your ability to think will be assessed at the interview.
In the new place, it wasn’t even technical skills that were important, but the ability to communicate with people. There are people who are completely immersed in completing tasks, and I need to find an approach to them, because the completion of my tasks depends on the developers. Since then I have been working on a project that deals with banking software. I need to test response time: the customer has certain requirements regarding it. For example, it is generally accepted that an interface operation should last no longer than 2 seconds, otherwise there is a possibility that the user will refuse the services of this bank. To test the system, you can create virtual users in the development environment: you need to check how long the operation will take if, for example, 100 users perform it simultaneously. I have prospects of becoming a developer, but it depends only on me. I decided to improve my main activity first: I thought that I would rather become a good tester than a mediocre developer. Many people have the misconception that this is some kind of boring work where you need to repeat many actions monotonously. This is not entirely true. There are also administration elements, and code also needs to be written.
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