Clever Geek Handbook

How developers live in Ulianovsk and what apart from work





Earlier, our employees have already acted at events in Krasnodar and Samara, and I talked about IT-life in these cities. This time, our team flies to Ulyanovsk in order to hold a PHP mitap on October 19 together with Panda Meetup. But before setting off, I decided to find out how the IT community of this city works and at the same time tell you. Armed with Google, I got down to business and pretty soon came to the erroneous conclusion that there is simply no IT community in Ulyanovsk!



With this in mind, I went to our senior Backend developer Maxim Shamaev and his countrymen - all in unison claimed that there are a lot of IT people in the city and that they actively communicate both online and offline. Then there was a group of local IT people on Facebook, and the picture began to clear up. It turned out that the community really is, only it is not organized at all in the way we are used to.



Where they teach "IT specialist"



In Ulyanovsk there are two main “nests” for training future programmers: Ulyanovsk State University, which was previously a branch of Moscow State University. Lomonosov, and the Ulyanovsk State Technical University, he is also with the local Polytech.



The first educational institution has a faculty of “Mathematics, Information and Aviation Technologies” with such specialties as “Applied Informatics”, “Infocommunication Technologies and Communication Systems” and “Computer Security”.



In the second university, two faculties are suitable for the future IT specialist at once: radio engineering and "Information systems and technologies." Future developers can get specialties “Computer science and computer engineering” and “Information systems and technologies”, or “Radio engineering” and “Design and technology of electronic tools” on them. UlSTU also has a master's program, in which you can continue education in the profiles of “Methods and devices for processing signals and images” and “Networks, communication centers and distribution of information”.





Polytech: main building and "Plate" - the center of science, technology and culture



UlSTU is considered more technical - which, however, is logical, and follows directly from the name. I also had the opportunity to hear that they seem to teach better in it, I really don’t know how true it is. If you know, share in the comments?



Both universities teach, albeit not bad, but rather theories. The practice and subtleties of the subject area have to be picked up already "on the ground." Such a “place” can be courses of IT companies and internship programs in them. There is an Open Education Center at the Faculty of Information Systems and Technologies of UlSTU and, judging by the site, the Microsoft IT Academy. True, her page doesn’t work. On the basis of the Polytechnic, an international company of Ulyanovsk origin X-cart conducts its own courses.



The software development company SimbirSoft organizes its own courses , but not regularly, but rather episodically - now they are gathering people who want to learn how to QA-engineer. A major outsourcing developer MediaSoft has a development academy , training is free, learn PHP, Angular and Javascript. The plans are to launch development courses for iOS, React JS and Java. Other companies have similar initiatives.







There is also a Future Lab hackspace in the city, which promises to conduct courses and master classes. Unfortunately, now the space is on vacation.



You can study not in courses, but immediately in combat conditions. Internships for young IT professionals with the possibility of subsequent employment are carried out by several companies at once. For example, "Simtek" offers to take a free training course at the company’s school, but not for a beginner to get there: you need basic knowledge of PHP, MySQL, HTML. Mad Brains has an internship program, but they need to write an e-mail to find out about current sets, and Cart-Power for backend and frontend directions.



Where to work



The fact that the Ulyanovsk community is not very noticeable online surprised me also because a number of large companies and well-known developers came out of here. For example, it was in Ulyanovsk that Dmitry Kryukov was born - the author of a search engine and one of the founders of Rambler.



In general, all the main categories of IT companies are represented on the local market.





Ulyanovsk has historically developed a large cluster of e-commerce companies. It was here that X-Cart was created - one of the first out-of-the-box stores in the world. Project co-founder Ruslan Fazlyev launched the Ecwid project, a designer of online stores for small businesses, several years later. Now these are international companies with huge states. Other organizations followed in their footsteps, for example, Simtek, AdvantShop and Cart-Power. Conventionally, Litebox can also be attributed to the category of e-commerce companies, but they do not work with online stores, but with retail.





The roof of one of the two Ulyanovsk offices of Ecwid, a photo from the company's blog. Here you can work and have a party





You can’t list everyone here: there are a lot of web studios. Perhaps you should name SimbirSoft, MediaSoft, Zebrains and Dualboot. There is also a specialized company FunBox, which develops software and client services for mobile operators.





The most notable Digital agencies in Ulyanovsk are ITECH.group and MST. It should be noted that in addition to performance marketing, web analytics and project support, ITECH.group is also involved in web development.





Ulyanovsk is actively developing mobile games for Android and iOS. The two main studios of the city are Mobirate and ZiMAD.





Ulyanovsk has an Alfa Bank development office, IBS, PROF-IT GROUP, Rostelecom IT offices.





ZiMAD office. They say greens soothe. Photo from an article on vc.ru





In addition to the above-mentioned e-commerce companies, the most famous local natives are “Lifehacker” , “Buy a loaf!” , The online programming school Hexlet .





Many Ulyanovsk IT employees work remotely for large Russian and international companies. Among the remoters of the city and Maxim Shamaev, whom I mentioned at the beginning of the article - formerly CTO X-Cart, and now the senior backend developer in Skyeng. Many, having gained experience in Russian companies, get settled in European and American offices. But, as in Samara , freelance is less common here than remote full time.



By the way, it is important to mention that all the companies listed above are at least federal, and most at the international level.



Staff hunger



Who works in all these companies and studios, you ask? Great question! According to Max Shamayev, the local market needs at least 200 developers a year. At the same time, the cumulative graduation of UlSU and Polytechnic University is approximately 120 people a year, of which at least 20 will immediately leave the city, and some more will move to another place of residence over the next five years. The result is a real battle for IT specialists, which all our interlocutors mentioned. Salaries in the city for a number of positions are almost Moscow: a novice PHP developer can receive in the region of 60-80 thousand rubles a month. A higher level specialist, Max says, can earn 120-150 thousand. At the same time, the social packages are excellent, the tasks are interesting, the offices (if we are not talking about the remote) are pleasant, in a word, they are waiting with open arms.









Our survey in the it_ulsk group caused a rather emotional reaction. If you are from Ulyanovsk, tell us, is there such a wonderful ecology in the city?



The shortage of workers leads to the fact that Ulyanovsk companies open offices in the nearest and not so cities. For example, Zebrains opened an office in Krasnodar; we have already written about his community.



More and more IT specialists move to Ulyanovsk themselves. For example, our own developer Alexey Babkin moved here from St. Petersburg. They are moving to Ulyanovsk from all over the country: from Saratov, Saransk, Samara and other cities.



Online community



The main local online community is, of course, the it_ulsk Facebook group . Announcements of events and various other announcements are published here, but, as it seemed to me, its main task is in informal communication. The group has almost three thousand members; by local standards, this is quite a lot. Nikolai Kolesnik from Ecwid says that there was an attempt to make a similar community on VKontakte, but it did not take root there. And this is interesting: in the communities that we met before, Facebook / VKontakte had a more supportive function, and the main life was in full swing in Telegram chats.





It_ulsk Facebook Group



But the latter could not have done without the latter. Large regular conferences have their Telegram chats, but they come to life closer to the event and hold on for some time after it, and then subside for almost a year ( ULCAMP , "Strike" ). Several smaller communities settled in Telegram, for example, the IT Way project chat. They also told me about private chat for IT company executives; there are probably different others. At the FrontHub conference, the community generally formed in Slack .



Community offline



Ulyanovsk is the venue for two fairly large annual conferences: ULCAMP and Stachka.



ULCAMP is a hybrid of a conference and a summer camp on the banks of the Volga, which combines reports and discussions with life in tents and guitar songs. The event has been held since 2011. Eight years ago, 90 people gathered here, and the next year - already 200. Then the event was noticed in the regional government. Now every July 3-3.5 thousand people come here in order to simultaneously have fun and usefully.





How was ULCAMP-2018



Just a year later, in April 2012, in the Ulyanovsk region they began to conduct a “Strike", which immediately became one of the largest IT conferences in the country. This year even the second “Strike" is being prepared - in October in Innopolis (Tatarstan). According to the organizers, in the spring of this year, the event was attended by more than 5 thousand people!





And she passed in the famous Lenin Memorial. Entourage appropriate



Among the slightly smaller, but also regular conferences, it is worth noting FrontHub, which this year will be held for the third time. Of the mitaps, CocoaHeads Ulsk can be mentioned under the patronage of Mad Brains, which eventually grew into a conference on the development, design and marketing of mobile applications MAD Conf . By the way, it will pass very soon - in early November. Noteworthy is the adjoining IT conference # designer .



The remaining events are usually either one-off or corporate. Soon Panda Meetup will take place in the city - the event will gather backend developers from local companies Zebrains, X-Cart and ITECH; they will be joined by the already mentioned Maxim Shamaev. They also told me about the Hardathon hardware gadgets , however, the last event, according to the site, took place a year and a half ago. For schoolchildren and students, the IT Way forum is being held - the closest will be held at the end of October.



Dualboot, X-Cart, SimbirSoft and other companies arrange their closed internal meetings for employees. You can follow all public events on the website of the Fund for the Development of Information Technologies of the Ulyanovsk Region.



But let's say that the annual conferences are far away, but I want to talk with colleagues right now. What to do? It turns out you have to go to the bar. The main places my interlocutors from Ulyanovsk named the gastropub “Chef” and the bars “KraftPit”, “Nutr”, “Top Hop” and “House of Culture”. Almost everyone has their own Telegram chats, in which entertainment events are announced.



It seems that here it is, the reason why it seemed to me that the community in the city is not very active: frequent events and heated discussions in public are replaced here with a regular glass of beer in the evening and parties. The need for a relatively formalized exchange of experience is completely covered by public conferences and internal mitaps and hackathons. The general group of the city’s IT community on Facebook is enough for everyone to be more or less up to date.



For the rest, there is personal communication - to drop into a bar where acquaintances gather, or just meet someone, in Ulyanovsk it is not a separate event, as in larger cities, it is a completely everyday affair. It seems to be very cool; I, as a resident of Moscow, slightly envy.



Where to live, work, relax



Of the other bonuses of a small town - housing prices. The rental price starts from 8 thousand rubles: it will be odnushka somewhere further away from the center and not in the best condition. For 15-18 thousand the apartment will be already with decent repair and furniture. Two-room apartment is more likely already 20 thousand, and for 40-45 you will surrender magnificent mansions in the very center of Ulyanovsk. Locals advise you to look for suitable options on Avito, and settle in the center or in the north of the city.







The Internet in rented housing is usually available, in apartments more modest - in the form of an access point wound up in the premises, in better apartments - already with a router. Sometimes the cost of internet can be included in the rent. If not, depending on the tariff and the operator, the price per month will be approximately 350 to 600 rubles. The quality of communication, judging by the reviews, is approximately the same for all providers.





Rating of Ulyanovsk providers according to 101internet.ru



There are a lot of remote workers in Ulyanovsk, but they seem to sit mostly at home. Places where only a developer who has arrived in the city can sit with a laptop, not at every step in the city. From coworking there is a “Boiling Point”; two more spaces of the same network will be created on the basis of the leading universities of the city. There are several time cafes in the city. One of the most interesting, in my opinion, is “Warm Cat”. It is at the same time a time cafe, art space and the place of life of cats. Here you can work with a cat on your lap, and if you like it, then take a new friend home - they are all waiting for the owners.





One of the guests of the "Warm Cat" in anticipation of his man. Photos from the cafe account on VK



However, in ordinary cafes you can sit down to work on a laptop.



Public transport, according to local, is not very developed. In particular, there may be problems with leaving the Volga in the evening. The main way of moving around Ulyanovsk is by minibuses and a tram. Every year, more and more residents of the city choose a taxi to move, especially since it costs a lot - a trip through the center will cost 100 rubles, if not less.



In his free time, natural beauties are at your service: the Volga, the Simbirka River and the Marishka spring; Paltsinsky island, which was formed on the site of the flooded village of Bolshoy Paltsino; Black Lake and Vinnovsky Grove; arboretum; many small parks and squares. It is worth getting to the paleontological reserve and at the same time the resort - the village of Undory. In the summer, locals advised to pay attention to the Sengiley mountains.





View of Paltsinsky Island and the Presidential Bridge from the observation deck on the right bank of the Volga, from Wikipedia



Ulyanovsk has many buildings and structures of cultural and historical value. Among them is the Lenin Memorial Museum; Karamzin's house - at the same time the oldest building in the city; memorial arbor and the house of Goncharov; Museum of Art Nouveau Architecture; the house of the merchant Sergei Bokounin, who is called "Teremok". By the way, the architectural influence of Lenin is not limited to the museum alone. Along the street named after the leader of the world proletariat, several old buildings with museums inside, which together form the architectural and cultural reserve "Lenin's Homeland", have been preserved. Thanks to him, the whole section of the oldest street of the city has retained its historical appearance.





"Teremok" - the house of a very unusual local merchant Sergei Bokounin. Built at the beginning of the XX century as part of a manor complex. Seized by the Soviet government in the 1930s, after which it was abandoned and began to collapse. Renovated in 2004, now part of the building is occupied by the eponymous restaurant.



Technology enthusiasts will be delighted with the country's largest civil aviation history museum, which houses unique exhibits. Once a year, the Aviastar-SP aircraft building plant opens its doors to visitors, and this is a great chance to see Ruslan and other famous aircraft. There is also a long list of sculptures and monuments, where among the busts of Lenin and war memorials you can find the "Tree of lovers", "Apple Tree-Tree of Life", "Flour of creativity" and "Everything is possible", as well as the monument "Freebie".



There is also where to eat and drink in the city. In search of delicious food, they advise walking along the streets of Goncharov and the Federation or contacting the Kabaki Ulyanovsk Facebook community. Well, the bars have already been said enough :). For shopping and entertainment there is, for example, Aquamall.



In short, judging by the stories, Ulyanovsk is a pleasant city. Would we go there to live a month or two?





Many thanks for the help with the preparation of the article to Maxim Shamaev, Daria Koshkina, Nikolai Klaus Kolesnik, Katerina Romanenko and the it_ulsk Facebook group.



UPD. In the original version of the text, we indicated the salary of the middle at the level of 60-80k. Of course, this is not so. Corrected - thanks to commentators


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