How the green junior got into IT

Why is this article at all, for whom and what gives the reader

For those who do not want to read a lot,





After writing articles about the bike ( one , two ) I was asked a lot about how I got into IT.

I myself was very interested in such articles when I was studying. I well remember how they gave me motivation to move on.



It was these reasons that prompted me to write this article.



Just a year ago, I worked in a completely different field, in no way connected with IT, and only dreamed of working as a programmer.



And now I’m almost middle in the Skolkovo resident company.



It all started a little earlier, around February 2018 ... Even, perhaps, even earlier, in the summer of 2017.

about the author

But before continuing, I want to briefly talk about myself.

I am 32 years old, there are two small (2 and 4 years old) and my wife on maternity leave!

In a past life, I worked in sales for 8 years, my work was never connected with a computer (except for basic things like excel and outlook).

A year ago, I still ran and even ran a marathon 2 times.

He worked at regular work, not good and not bad.

And in December 2018, I finally decided to change the profession to the one I like - the profession of a programmer.

Why programming?

The question then arises - how exactly did I find out that I like programming if I have never done this before?



I myself have no answer, it’s more a chain of accidents than some “I liked the computer from school and poking around in it” and all that.



In fact, I was never drawn “inside the computer”; in it, I liked only playing games. Settlers2, Starcraft, Diablo2, Heroes3 ... mmm ... And I constantly noticed an irresistible craving for excel, ordering and math.

Autumn. Coach

So, in the summer of 2017, I am a salesman, I hang out on the trilife forum (tried to triathlon), where I find a guy, a beginner coach, who is ready to hold a coach session for experience and feedback. Why not? And here we are at the coach session find out the answer to my question. To one question. Who I want to be? This is a very important question and the lucky one who found the answer to it.



As a result, with the help of the right questions I come to the conclusion - a programmer.



And ... I successfully score on this for almost a whole year.



An accident? The grain is sown.

Winter. Mentor

In February 2018, I accidentally meet Sasha, my mentor, remember all my hidden professional desires and go to study. I analyze where to go and decide: for the front-end (and what is the front-end?). Why? Yes, I don’t know myself, it seemed to me interesting here (it turned out to be true)!



As a result, on his advice, I begin to study js on all the well-known Russian-language site - learn.javascript.



A lot of material there, but the material is dry. At recursion, my fervor finally fades and classes are abandoned. Someone will be able to study here, but I am only now getting here again for a wider and in some places deeper reach.



An accident? The earth is watered.

About friendship

Here it is necessary to make a small digression.



I have a friend - Vanya. We met in an amateur hockey team organized by me with another friend. Then they somehow got closer on - probably - similar views on some aspects of life and on a joint constant road to work.



Then I left hockey and started running, and he all laughed at me. Over how I bought a heart rate monitor and measured my heart rate all the time. But in the end, he - looking at me - came running (and even bought a heart rate monitor). Then we ran a half marathon together, then a marathon.



During preparation for these races, the rhythm of life and the general position in life naturally change. If you smoked - quit. If you drank, too. If you eat rubbish - you throw too. Plus, constant training and a goal - they teach you not only to think, theorize and plan plans, but to go to them and achieve them, including overcoming obstacles.



In general, he and I went through this whole cycle of rebirth of the body and spirit, moreover, he went even further than me.



An accident? The land is fertilized.

Spring.Courses!

And here comes the end of autumn 2018.



Around November-December, Vanya told me about the courses. Not even courses, but Courses - Hexlet! He himself ripened before the change of profession from economic to IT and began to engage. Liked, shared with me. Courses played a crucial role in my formation as an engineer, not an enikeyschik. Therefore, having written about them here on Habré, I want to pay tribute to them - and specifically to Cyril - and to thank them.



So, December, I will start my training in the courses.



I love it, the material is affordable, but at the same time complicated.



I have to think a lot myself and look for a solution to the problems myself, which, looking ahead, I will say, I was very useful already at work.



An accident? First sprouts.

It was hard

Learning not to back down from difficulties. There is already some experience in preparing for the marathon, which helps.



I learn to continue even in difficult moments.



And they did. 2 points were critical. The first one on project 3, when I completely rewrote the project 2 times from scratch. He erased everything and started again. Hands fell very low, but the strength to continue was found (thank you, run!). It’s about 37 km to catch a wall, but don’t go a step. I then hated Cyril. But then let go.



And the second moment, in order to move on, I had to go back 2 courses, repeat these 2 courses and repeat another older one. This operation took me 2 weeks. And all in order to solve one problem that he could not solve in any way.



February 2019. I, as a salesman, try to hack the system and jump into programmers on developed software and not very hard skills so far. It does not work, but I get the first experience of interviews.



I continue to gnaw hard at the granite of science. Strenuously, this is 2-3 hours every working day and more on exhalation. This is in addition to the main work and family and fatherly responsibilities.



For each project (lasts a week) I spend 40 hours or more this week.



April is coming. Courses in js passed, ahead of react and the last project.



Again, a wave of interviews, refusals again, but at least I understand what they say to me and can answer.



I’m not discouraged, especially since my friend - a hockey player - a marathon runner gets a job in excellent company in April! At that time I was madly happy for him and it strongly motivated me to continue, although I won’t say that I was somehow demotivated. I clearly liked what I was doing and I wanted to learn everything on the topic, what my hands reach out to (now this burning sensation has only intensified!)



May. I go through the last courses and unexpectedly quickly and easily write the last project, the courses are over. I more or less secreted in js react (actually a good foundation and a good shy).

Summer! Interviews.

Activating in terms of interviews.



Here it is worth making another lyrical digression.



I am a salesperson with great experience, I have experience communicating with people, I'm not afraid to call a stranger and find out something from him. I'm afraid to speak to people, but at the same time I like it.



An accident? The bed is weeded.

About the approach

My experience is that everyone likes an individual approach.



Therefore, I take the search for the company into my own hands.



I make a selection of companies that I like. I'm afraid, but I also include here those companies to which - judging by the requirements - I do not go through.



I write in each cover letter where I paint - judging by the requirements -

How can I be useful to them, and what I don’t know yet, but I will learn and learn.



In the end, they give me a couple of test items and a couple of invitations for interviews.



Interviews in general are very positive, these are already technical interviews. We talk on equal terms with the technical specialists of the companies (not in terms of knowledge, but in terms of human relations). They give me feedback, recommend pulling something up.

Remark for the future joons

I know how interesting it is to read the future junior about the composition of the interview, but there is nothing special to say. People mostly look at overall adequacy + somehow try to assess the potential. At least adequate people. For those who are trying somehow differently - and work is not worth going. That’s how I decided and “programmed” myself in advance that I was worthy of a good place. And if so, then there is no reason to go wherever, if only they would take it.



This helped me to conduct dialogue with the employer on an equal footing, thereby making it clear that how they choose me, so I choose them. It is important to remove unnecessary barriers in the head. As for technical issues, learn basic things (recursion, closures, lexical environment, and so on), language and google about interviews. Responsibly approach this.



Interviewing is the same skill and you can practice it! I also want to note that to program yourself in the head as a king without any real reason is a futile and dangerous undertaking.

Test tasks

From the interesting part - at VTB they gave me a test task. It is necessary to draw 100 markers in random places on the map. Well, if you interact with the server and excellent if on land.



I liked the task, in the end I made 2 repositories on the git. In the first, I simply requested the necessary data from the third-party api, and in the second I screwed my server and a simple “caching” of the results.



I asked myself: how to determine the land, what is its characteristic? The fact that, for example, all cities are on land! So I need to put markers on random cities. Another friend threw the thought that all the land was above zero, but it seemed to me more difficult to implement.



As a result, I had a map with Google, I requested cities on VKontakte (for this I had to first ask for countries), then the cities went for geocoding to Yandex, from where the coordinates returned.



The coordinates were stacked in an array on the server. When a new user came to my application (deployed to Heroka, it can start for 30 seconds due to the features of this free hosting), new coordinates were added (VK-VK-Yandex-my Google map).



When the number of coordinates reaches a certain amount, when each new user enters, only 1 request leaves, which adds only one more packet of coordinates. True, the database is not here and when the Heroku server falls asleep (half an hour without visits), and then wakes up, then all over again. Then he screwed on the Yandex card and made a simple switch in corporate colors.



Faced a cors problem, solved it through a service that allows you to bypass this, but greatly limits the number of requests.



In general, I liked it.



True, to the shame of this VTB employee, it is worth noting that he merged somewhere and did not give me feedback.



Here is the first option - without a server.

But the second option is with the server.

After a long period of inactivity, 30 s will start.

Work!

So, the end of May. Company from Skolkovo. Their requirements are clearly above my competencies. I'm afraid, but I’m throwing a resume, I really wanted to get here.



They answer, give a simple test: make a simple page with pagination, a filter and a simple server. There is a small amount of data, it is necessary to implement the work of the page, interaction with the server according to REST standards and all that.



Layout is not particularly required, rather understanding REST, what json is, client-server interaction and logic on js.



In general, I do , I send. They like, they call on sobs.



I come and talk with Katya from HR, my future team leader Sasha and senior colleague Sergey. Basically, it’s not technical issues anymore, it’s more about the adequacy of my ambitions. They look if I am the person who decided their test.



Leaving them in a depressing mood. I clearly liked it, but I’m not quite up to the requirements.



I come home, go to the store and there I get a call with an offer! From them, from those where I so wanted to get! They agreed on my conditions!



Feelings - beyond words!

At work

It is worth noting that taking me - green June - the company, of course, took the risk.



But in the end, in 3 months of the trial period, I managed to prove myself, show initiative and become independent workers.





On time or faster, I performed current tasks, and I did everything else (except the card) in my free time, because I just LIKE it! I want to make our project more convenient and better!



And I'm just blasting it! He also learned to prioritize current tasks.



As a result, 3.5 months pass, I again take the initiative and get a promotion!



Do not know if I junior yet? Probably not anymore.



The tree is growing!

Conclusion

So, this is a chain of randomness.



I have been working in sales for many years, where I am learning not to be afraid to interact with other people and take the initiative.



I am creating a hockey team where I meet a friend who then carries out a decisive impulse towards my study of programming (magic pendell).



I start running to lose weight, and in the end I am learning to draw up and execute a plan, to perceive difficulties as part of the plan and overcome them, I am learning to “turn” into action.

I meet coach, with whom I come to the conclusion about working as a programmer - the first impulse.

I met a mentor who had a second impulse.

(A chronologically magical pendell at this place).



In conclusion, I want to say that I really like the work, I like the feel of the “team game”, I like the team (we have really great guys and team lead). Immediately after applying for a job, I made up a plan for self-development, broke it up by months. Constantly self-learning and self-improvement. I have quite a few knowledge gaps, but I calculate and eliminate them! The more I eliminate, the more new ones appear.



I also want to note that even on the most boring legacy on angularjs (although it’s written with high quality), you can find very interesting tasks and constantly develop.



The thing is how to look!

Acknowledgments

I believe that there are not many thanks and in general it is necessary to express them to loved ones more often!

I want to thank 3 people, without whom there would not be my victory.



My wife, Galya. I know how hard it has been for you lately, I feel your support. Without you, none of this would have happened. All this for you!



My friend, Vanya. How wonderful it is when in adulthood you gain what you absolutely do not expect and do not particularly believe that you can find! And you find it not selfish, but even to some extent altruistic! I am sure that you and I are capable of very much!



My mentor, Sasha. Although we have never seen each other and you have too sharp views, but you are a strong personality and had a very big influence on me as a programmer, for which I am immensely grateful to you. I could not have achieved what I had achieved if it were not for our conversations and your mentoring.

Afterword

An inquisitive reader may notice what the hell with the seasons in the story? Author, where are you looking?



To enhance the effect of the article, I wanted to go through a cycle of seasons, as a metaphor for the emergence of a new life.



This is another story.