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 special series about developers from different countries and companies who have been trained on CodeGym. Our ninth story is about Madina Noren . She worked as an economist for many years, but she wanted to try herself in another profession. At the age of 43, she started learning Java and after a short time got a job as a junior in a Swedish bank. Madina wrote a post about her training on the CodeGym forum, we were interested in her story, so we asked her to tell us more about studying and finding a job.
“It was boring, I wanted something else”
I am from Dagestan, the city of Makhachkala. She moved to Moscow in 2001 and lived there for some time. About 10 years ago I moved to Sweden for family reasons. I have a higher technical education (specialty “Information systems in economics”). My second specialty is a mix of information technology and economics. At the university, we studied programming languages - Fortran, Turbo Pascal. But after training, I didn’t write on them, I don’t even remember what they look like now. At the end of the university, I had to have the skills of an economist and a programmer. As a result, I got a job as an operator in the land committee. This served as an impetus for further development in the economy. I was offered a job in the field of economics, which seemed interesting to me and which I could not refuse out of pure curiosity. I worked in different positions, but it was boring, I wanted something else. When I moved to Stockholm, I was looking for a job for a long time - I sent 20-30 resumes a day to different organizations for two years. Then I was lucky and I got an internship at one of the largest banks in Sweden - it was something new for me, because I had never worked in a bank before. Due to the fact that the bank is large, it is possible to develop in different areas.
“I was immediately drawn into Java”
I met CodeGym when I was 43 years old. I thought that I could try programming, I decided that I would learn Python, as it is lightweight and is used in many areas. I started looking for a site where you can learn, and stumbled upon CodeGym. It became interesting to me, I solved free tasks, and then it dragged on. First I bought a subscription for a month, then for a year. This was in October 2019. I think the CodeGym learning style suited me, which is why I became so interested in Java. I was immediately drawn in not like a child, I didn’t sleep well at first: I studied on the computer and on the phone, rode the bus and gave lectures, sometimes I tried to write programs on the same bus, but it was inconvenient. As a result, I had to take control of my studies, because I have to work during the day and sleep at night. I tried to set myself a limit - do not turn on the computer after 21:00. My classes depended on free time: I went during working hours when I had a free minute, and in the evenings, and on weekends. Literally in 3 months I reached the 13th level. Then they sent me a link to the Stanford Python course. This course lasted 2 months and I decided not to interfere with everything in my head, so I took a break from CodeGym. By the way, after this course, I again realized that Java gives me more pleasure. Since November, unfortunately, I have not studied Java anymore due to lack of time. The new job took a lot of strength and energy. So I returned to learning this language. In November 2020, I reached level 28 on CodeGym. At that time, I was interested in a course on ethical hacking and didn't want to mix it with Java either, so I took a break again. I haven't worked out since November. There was no one to ask about Java, but the comments on the site saved me - someone had already solved this problem before me and knew how to find the right solution.
“I didn’t even dream of getting a job as a programmer”
By the time I got a job as a programmer, I had already worked at the bank for 5 years. One day I mentioned that I was learning Java. They remembered this and called me for an interview. I didn’t even dream of getting a job as a programmer, everything happened spontaneously. For me, it was already a victory that I was just able to pass this interview. It's great that my knowledge was positively evaluated and I got a job as a junior. As a programmer, I will work in a bank on software that began to be implemented in 2013. This is a large platform that combines many tasks. We, the developers, make changes to the software in order to adjust the software to the needs of the bank. The bank has been working on the agile system for several years now (flexible development methodology - ed.), we have several value streams (from English - value stream - ed.). There are about 150 people in my value stream, many developers who work with the program. The program itself is also divided into parts, and each part has its own developers. I got the area of feeding programs for various reports. Other departments of the bank, based on the data they receive from our program, make their own calculations. I had to learn English, because our bank is international and there are a lot of people from the Baltic countries, Great Britain, India in the field of development. We have all documentation in English. We use Swedish less than English. I did not come across ageism in Sweden. Here, on the contrary, it is welcomed that a person has a store of knowledge. It is believed that if a person has worked in different areas, he has a broader vision of work processes. The first striking thing that I noticed is that that the Swedes are much easier on human error. There will be no harsh punishments for mistakes, and they will not condemn either. But, in general, I think that this is not only happening in Sweden. It is unlikely that somewhere now they are severely punished. The Swedes are very friendly and tolerant. They go forward, always cheer and never say that you have a bad language.
Tips for a novice developer:
Everything depends on the interest. I learned Java because I was very interested. I think the style of learning on CodeGym suited me: a lot of practice, less theory. This method works for me.
Read posts on the site, comments. I found many useful links. There I saw a link to a book called “Code: The Secret Language of Computer Science,” which is an immersive book for beginners about how a computer works.
To not give up. In the beginning, every day I thought that I was not smart at all. For example, for a long time I did not understand how cycles work. Understanding came due to the fact that I consistently solved problems on this topic.
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