From the automotive industry to programmers

For a long time I wanted to write a success story, but I waited until the probationary period ended :) I’ll start from the very beginning, school - I didn’t like studying at school very much, maybe it was the difficult 90s, maybe the breakup of the family, which at one time told me that childhood is over. Maybe not the best team, lack of understanding and disrespect in it, maybe lack of understanding of what I want, what I am striving for. After 9th grade, I was looking for where to go further to study. As I remember now: the wind in my head, complete indifference to the future, but what interested me then were computers, which were not yet in every family, or so I thought then :) I took the entrance exams for a major, something related to COMPUTER. Now I don’t remember the exact name, but that’s not the point: I didn’t have enough points in the end, and I entered metalworking . He graduated with an education as a turner, milling machine operator and mechanical engineering technologist, graduated quite well, communicated with computers on a first-name basis, but as a user. In the programming direction, I had the basic concepts of Pascal in school. What do we have next? Then I could have gone to college to study robotics right away in the 2nd year, but there was no money. I don’t remember the exact amount required, but in the end I enrolled in a correspondence course to become a customs officer with the cost of training several times lower than for robotics. Yes, then this was the main factor in choosing the profession for which I entered to study. What about work? I went to the labor exchange and saw the first ad that came across - a sales consultant in the automobile spare parts department. I came there and asked a couple of questions, like where this gasket is installed. I had no idea: I look at it, I see metal rings around some holes, I say, probably where there are high temperatures, since there is a metal edging. Yes, they answer me: this is the cylinder head gasket - we’ll take it. This is how my career began, but, alas, not in the area that was generally interesting to me. So I worked in this field from 2005 to 2020, thinking that since I did not study for the profession I wanted - in the IT field - then, alas, the path there was closed to me. To get there, you need to study at the institute for many years, I thought then, until my son was born in 2019 and six months later my friends came to visit my wife (we’ll return to this moment soon). In 2019, I was 32 years old, at work I was a specialist: I trained staff, advised people, and spoke on “our radio.” It seems that this is happiness, maybe someone will think. But this was not it: I went with the flow from that decision when I gave up, not going where I wanted. Then everything continued and I thought: “no matter what is done, everything is for the better.”. But these were justifications to myself: I only found reasons, or rather, excuses, why I didn’t do anything on the way to what I really want. Going with the flow is probably not the worst option. But after a while I can say that he is one of the worst, at least that’s what I think now, having analyzed my life step by step, every decision made and not made. So, then I began to wonder why I have been doing this for many years, do I even need it? Who will I be in 10 years? And I didn’t have answers to these questions that would convince me that yes, this is mine, I always want to do this, every start of the working day is happiness - and the like. Maybe this is the beginning of a midlife crisis?)) This is also possible. But let's return to the situation that I mentioned earlier. By that time, I had never done programming or taught it - a few classes at school don’t count :) My wife’s friends came, and in the process of communication, one of them began to complain how bad everything was: she couldn’t find a job that she liked , no one gives her a high position right away, she has changed about 10 jobs over the past couple of months. I tell her: work for at least six months, show yourself, there will be career growth, I’ve been doing something that’s not what I would like for more than 10 years. And at that moment it clicked in my head: as if I had not understood anything in my life before. And then I said these things out loud and realized: wait, why have I been constantly setting barriers for myself since I was young? First the points, then the tuition fees, and so on all the time. These obstacles are only in my head: why can’t I do what I want? Why do I have to graduate from college with a specialized education in order to work? After all, I once told myself all this. At that moment, I simply realized, and I realized sharply, clearly, without thinking or any other analysis: I must go towards my goal, I want to work in this field . It was mid-November 2019. The very next day I started Googling what I should start studying. I don’t remember my request, but the first link was about Java. No, it was not JavaRush)) It was a description of the language, its advantages, its scope. I remember being so inspired then, reading that article and deciding: yes, I will learn Java . Later, after Googling about Java, I came across this resource. I liked the introductory lectures that I attended, and then it coincided that the action had just begun. Then I made a decision - I will study. And on November 23, 2019, having purchased an annual subscription, about 6000 rubles, I began the journey towards my goal, dream, what I am ready to do, what interests me, and every day at work is just happiness, and not like before - “well, here you go.” "It's Monday again." But more on that later. StudiesIt wasn’t easy for me, I won’t lie. Looking ahead, I will say frankly, throw tomatoes)) I wanted to quit everything about 5 times. I’ll tell you what I remember especially, I don’t remember what level, Person person = new Person(). What kind of design is this, what does it even mean, what is going on here? At that time I couldn’t understand, I missed the lectures they give here, and I really didn’t know how to Google. I didn't understand what to look for, I was just stumped. It turned out that among all my friends on VK and the friends of my friends, there were no programmers I knew. None at all, does this happen at all?))) Then was the first time, the first time when I thought that maybe this is not for me, maybe I don’t have enough brains , maybe this isn’t given to everyone after all? Why did I suddenly decide that I could even become a programmer? Yes, I want, but wanting and being able are two different words... Even now, having gone through this, I’m glad that I didn’t give up, that I remained true to my goal, that my thoughts didn’t drag me to the “dark side.” But then there was an understanding that I was alone with my problem, and there was no one to help me. Don’t laugh, but then I didn’t even know about the help section: I found out about it a little later)) Oooh, what a difficult moment it was, but I’m even glad that it happened. For the first time then I was “in the shoes of a programmer”. It turns out that then I experienced that feeling that will often come - misunderstanding, ignorance, it’s just that now it’s already the norm, how to brush your teeth in the morning, and you no longer look at it as something out of the ordinary)) Then I was stuck on this question for a week, probably. A video on YouTube helped me, I don’t even remember which one. But I understood exactly that explanation, and my puzzle finally came together, as if some bunch of different parts on the floor suddenly formed into a certain structure, which immediately became clear and understandable how pleasant it is to wrestle with a question and then solve it. For me, this is comparable to driving hundreds or thousands of kilometers in order to see just one sunset, looking at it for 30 minutes and driving back. Someone will say: “Yes, this is madness, nonsense!” Well, personally, such moments give me the understanding that I am alive, they really bring me such pleasant feelings . That was the first time I encountered difficulties, although I had no illusions. I assumed that I would have to face them, but as it turned out, I was not quite prepared psychologically. I studied further, discovered the “Success Stories” section, and after reading some of them I realized that I was not the only one facing difficulties. At that moment, these articles helped me, I believed in myself. But after that time there was some kind of self-doubt, they helped to cope with it, especially the article written by Danil. During the learning process, the theory obtained on this resource was sorely lacking. Then, after each topic, I read Shield on the same topic, Googled various articles on the Internet, my understanding of the topic was already broader. But of course the problems here are a bomb: there were problems that I sat on for more than one day, falling asleep with thoughts of how to solve it. A couple of times I even dreamed about the solution, no joke, at the first levels I spied the solutions of others, but quickly realized that I didn’t gain knowledge that way. As other people wrote, the brain must start thinking differently, it must come on its own, and by spying on it, the solution will never come. Then I never looked at the solution anywhere, although this may have ultimately increased the length of the training. But over time, various algorithms for solving the problem and their implementation already appeared in my head. If I couldn’t solve a problem for a very long time, I skipped it; if I still couldn’t solve it, I wrote to the help section, where more experienced colleagues pointed me in the right direction, but didn’t give me a solution, which is very good. It happened that I sat down to work on a problem, looked up, and several hours had already passed, and I was so drawn into the solution :) The problems helped me to “get my bearings” on each topic, to understand how to write code, to approximate the practical use of the topic that I am going through - without them this it would be like “Read 10 books about how to ride a bicycle, be a doctor of science in this, but get behind the wheel for the first time and fall”theory without practice is not effective, and vice versa - it should always be in pairs. At the beginning of March 2020, I was about lvl 15, I don’t remember exactly. I saw an advertisement on hh.ru from performancelab about an internship, responded, and they sent me a test one. Damn, these problems made my brain move)) Enter the four coordinates of the quadrilateral and the fifth coordinate, find out whether the fifth coordinate lies inside/outside/on the side/on the corner of this figure? Then I studied the geometry textbook for a long time :) See solutions? For me this was unacceptable: I wanted to do it myself, even with the help of a textbook, but to find a solution myself, this was important to me. There was also a problem with cash registers and the queue for them, the bank. I received the problems on Friday afternoon, started solving them after work in the evening, and completed everything on the weekend. It was not easy, there was no feedback, although I asked and reminded. The same goes for invitations to internships. By the end of March, the well-known pandemic happened, I was about lvl 20 + -, and I was transferred to remote work. Oooh, how glad I was :) then I decided to learn SQL, devoting 10-20% of my time to Java, and downloaded a 50-hour course. After finishing it, I consolidated it with practice in sql-ex. It was already May, by that time I was lvl 24. By the way, I decided that I should go through such basic things as equals and hashCode, this is the basis, the base. Then I decided to start learning git, maven, jdbc, and try spring. I posted my resume back in April, periodically updating it, but there were no responses. I considered watching videos on YouTube and copying some programs to be a pointless task. I still think the same: it won’t bring knowledge or understanding; if you change the requirements a little, you won’t be able to write a similar problem, and it’s unlikely that you’ll even be able to repeat it. Let’s be honest: all people are different, everyone has different approaches, so I’ll say right away that this is purely my personal opinion. It may differ from your opinion. Always try different approaches: I’m only talking about myself and only about my perception. Time passed, and I began to realize that I was marking time. I am studying something, but the knowledge that I receive is very subjective, and the understanding of what else needs to be studied is very vague. I added to my resume that I was ready for an internship, ready in the evenings, just take me: I wanted to get a job, I didn’t want to give up, give up and go with the flow again. In August 2020, I see an advertisement for an internship. I am informed that before the internship I need to take courses: for the courses, I note again, just to get into the courses, you need to do a test task and pass technical security, and only then they will decide who to invite to the courses, not to work :) I understand , this is a chance: you should never miss any chance. I have already firmly decided this for myself. I say that of course I agree. I do a test, send it, after a while they assign social security, questions about the hashmap, and everything connected with it, some basic questions about the core, and then they ask me, what topic do you want to receive more questions on? I think to myself: I know such and such things well, but I know multithreading worse, so I say so directly, that I know worse about multi-threading, let’s ask questions about it. Why did I say that? Well, does at least one normal person suggest a topic that can easily fail him? Moreover, I realized this, I don’t know why I said that, I just spoke as I think, I did not answer all the questions correctly, they said they would give an answer later. The waiting, the ignorance, the hopes and dreams built up in the head only make the waiting more difficult. As a result, feedback - I was selected for the courses. There were about 50 applicants, 10 people were selected. Oh, happiness knew no bounds - this was a big and important step for me, I was so happy as if I had received an offer :) Each time I only received confirmation of my belief: everything depends only on ourselves, not on anyone else. Only we build our own destiny, and if you want something, really want it, strongly, and understand that no one will ever force you to change your mind, then you will always reach your goal. So. Immediately after that I came down with a “corona”. In my 30-odd years, I have never been so seriously ill, I don’t want to focus on this, but before the course I recovered, all I could think about was this. The courses started in September. I remember in the first lesson the teacher said: “Not all of you will graduate from these courses.” I asked him: why? He replied that he did not know, but these courses were not the first, and not everyone completed them. Someone decides that they don’t want to, they can’t, and there are other reasons. This was strange for me, I answered: “Well, since we are all already sitting in this room, it means that we all have an understanding of what we want and will move towards this goal.” “Oh, if everyone thought like you,” he answered me then. What were the courses like? Classes twice a week, each lesson gives a new topic, introductory immersion. In fact, it turned out that this is a hadron collider, electrons are running in it at such and such a speed, and here something like this happens... You hear everything like this, but the puzzle does not fit. This is the first time you hear most of the words and a brief description of it, and they tell you to make a project with such and such functionality and so that this technology is attached to it and functions completely in this way. Do the next lesson... and now you have 2-4 days after your main work. At first I understood the “issued” technology, what it was for, and roughly how it worked. Then he added it to the project, understood how it worked, tested it, googled it, studied it. And so on for two months. In fact, I acquired all the knowledge on my own, I began to understand the deadlines, it was very difficult, but I was interested, I liked it. Throughout the project, I always assumed that a lot of people would use it. I always tried to do it the right way, and not the wrong way, but it works as asked with these conditions, but with others it doesn’t work anymore... Before handing in the final work on Sunday, I started doing it on Saturday, but the table auditing only worked if spring.jpa.hibernate.ddl-auto=create, spring.jpa.hibernate. ddl-auto=none or validate no longer worked. But the option with create is a bad practice, that’s what the articles on Google wrote, but I’m doing it the right way, and not doing it the wrong way just for the sake of credit. Without any sleep, I finally found the problem on Sunday morning, oh, these constraints :) I did it, passed it, and went to bed. Then wait for feedback... And here is the answer: you need to go through social security with the project director. I have never had such an interview before... As I was later told, it was a stress interview. Waiting again, and now after about a weekThey send me an offer . What happiness it was: happiness that you can achieve anything if you want, arrange your life the way you want, do what you love. And it’s real, it’s real to change everything, even if you’re not 20 years old, you have a small child and you don’t have time. So everyone says: I have a child and don’t have time...)) And I always answer them, whoever doesn’t want to is looking for excuses, whoever wants to is looking for opportunities. When I was a JR student, I would come after work and spend time with my family, my little son. When he and his wife fell asleep, at 21-22 o'clock, I started studying, studied until 1-2 o'clock in the morning, and not immediately, while falling asleep in my head I continued to solve problems. As they say, “I plunged in headlong,” and in the morning at 7 I woke up for work. And so every day without breaks. I didn’t get enough sleep, it was hard for me, but in order to get something, you need to sacrifice something. I sacrificed my personal time. Even when we went on a visit somewhere, I read books at least 3 hours a day. In total, I trained for about 1000-1200 hours, and I achieved the goal that I set for myself back then. Now I have new goals, and I will go towards them no matter what. I have never been an excellent student or even a drummer, I do not have a diploma with honors, I only have aspiration. In those courses, I learned a volume of information that, it seems to me, is much greater than during the entire period of study before them. The first 3 months were a paid internship, a regular 40-hour week, on a real project with real tasks. Then a 3 month probationary period. Now six months have passed since I work in this organization, I like everything, it’s just a fairy tale, every day at work is a joy :) As one person said - “I could do it and you can too, if you want!”©