Hi
Not so long ago, in advertising, I found out about the wonderful school of School 21. The first impression of everything I read was wonderful. Nobody touches you, they give you tasks, you calmly do everything. Here and teamwork, and interesting acquaintances, and 2 practices in the country's largest companies, plus everything is free with accommodation in a hostel (Kazan). All in all, it was my chance! I myself have been developing for quite a long time, working in a small it company, doing both front and back, in other words, I know what a function is. But at this moment, a certain barrier is felt. Sometimes a lot of work appears, sometimes there is so much to study that it’s hard to take on something. And it would be nice to make useful connections. I firmly decided - you need to do.
Passed online testing, invited to a meeting. I’ll tell you everything in order.
For admission, it was necessary to go through several stages:
Stage One: Testing
At first I thought it was the most difficult (except for the pool), because after that there is a video interview (about him later) and the pool. Must pass the best (no).
There are 2 tasks in testing: the first for short-term memory (the cells change color on the screen, you click on them after they go out), the duration is 10 minutes. The second is on logic. No instructions, minimum letters, you think what to do. I figured out in 7-10 minutes. In general, you do not need to have high intelligence to solve it completely, but what comes in handy is the ability to think long over a task and not give up if it does not work out. Duration 2 hours.
I think this: if you can read articles with more than 5k characters (not just run through your eyes, but read carefully), you will pass. If your destiny is to flip through memes with 3-letter signatures, maybe you will have a ride, judging by the team sitting at the meeting and the speaker (more on this later), everyone has a chance.
Second stage: video interview
After all this, approximately in a day you will be sent information about whether you have passed.
I want to step back for a minute. Tell me, are there those who have not passed the first stage? Could you tell me what you did there? How many tasks could you complete? I'm really curious to know.
You will be invited to a video interview. I was hoping they would set aside time for each student and ask really interesting questions about what you know how to, what you want to learn. What is there in practice? But in fact, you should record 6 videos with answers to the most cliched questions that you could think of. You can go both on the PC and on the phone, which is a plus. Of the minuses: you can not rewrite the answer, it takes a limited time to read and ponder the question (20-40 seconds, I don’t remember exactly). Because of what, a situation may arise in which you did not understand the question, could not come up with anything adequate to answer, you were distracted, or your home pterodactyl dropped the iron. Anything, you cannot re-read the question, rewrite the answer, or just pause the interview. But you can see your answers after. So you will be able to laugh neighbors at how terribly you turned out, what nonsense they were carrying and what dumb questions they were, and here they are (I don’t know if they can be poured, but if you don’t want to, do not leave access to them):
Please introduce yourself. How old are you, what and where are you doing now?
What are your plans for 20 ** year?
Why is school 21? What are your expectations from the school?The following question has been changed for universality, but the meaning is conveyed correctly.
Education at school 21 will take place according to your personal schedule, but before you start you will have to go through a 4-week intensive (“pool”) in N city for programming training. It will take place during Z in full-time or X mode. Which pool will you choose and how does this fit with your personal plans?
What do you plan to do after studying at School 21?
How did I find out about School 21?
Draw your own conclusions if this is exactly what they want to know about you.
Questions may vary, the “interview” was held in the fall of 2019.
I don’t understand all these restrictions, but they are, and I think, for a tick, there are. If there is practical meaning in them, explain it.
And again, if someone didn’t go through this, what did you do in the video?
Stage Three: Meeting
There is nothing to be afraid of. You are already out of a billion "chosen ones" who have gone through all these "circles of hell." You will be invited to the city of your choice at the time and date that you set (given from the list), you need to register in 2 weeks, places quickly diverge. If you do not live in the city in which the meeting will take place, no one will pay you the trip, to say nothing of the apartment or hotel. Personally, I spent a lot since I went for 3x9 land, and I had to rent an apartment for a day to live (the hotel will be at the same price, but the apartment is many times better for convenience).
Attention! All that I’ll write next concerns exactly my meeting, at your meeting donuts could be distributed, but they could be rolled on ponies. It was like that for me.
So, you have come, a very arrogant and unpleasant person (I had it like that) who will show you where to go will be waiting for you. Nobody will explain anything to you, think for yourself.
You will be issued 3 documents for signature: 2 copies of the admission agreement, 1 confidentiality agreement (I don’t remember what it’s exactly called, but the essence is clear). The latter surprised me. The agreement contains a clause on the transfer of your personal data (name, phone number, date of birth and some other information) to third parties without your knowledge. And of course they can do it. So it will be interesting to see when they start calling me from banks with offers on loans and stocks. Also, they will have the right to use discretionary recordings from cameras standing in the hall, without prior notice to you. Is all this critical? It depends. Personally, it’s not nice for me.
But with the first contract, everything is completely fun. In addition to commonplace, it seems, you can’t break computers, do not study, do not walk, there is a set of rules, here are those that greatly amused me:
Especially the points at which they can give out your things and food.
There is also a clause: "Everything that is clearly not allowed is prohibited on the territory."
Now about the presentation itself. The presentation consists of: 89% about how cool they are (water), 10% of answers to questions, 1% of what we should expect.
Judging by the channel led by the leader, it would be more pleasant for them to see absolutely zero gentlemen there, his phrase “I am very difficult for self-taught people, they come, thinking that everyone knows and is wasting time in vain. I came here, not knowing anything, and passed. ”The first question I had was: are you not self-taught there?
They are proud of the number of 25% of girls (I don’t know what’s special here).
Now about the training, it takes place entirely in the C language, for me this is not a plus, rather a minus, it would be good if they gave me the opportunity to choose a language for solving problems, but for some reason the students are again limited. They promise to write other projects in other languages, not a word has been said about this in detail. Also, they keep the whole training plan secret (maybe it just isn’t), which is strange. This is all I can tell, as I said, there will be ~ 1% about training.
Indeed, they promise practice, serious companies hung on the screen, such as Yandex and Sberbank, but one speaker confused me: a few guys were put in practice to sorting out papers and not working with code, which prompted me to think that companies weren’t seriously perceive graduates / students of the school, although in the Savings articles they promised a line from employers. And they take them to practice because he asked Gref (IMHO).
Lecture hall. As I understand it on questions, it consists of 90% of those that Hello world didn’t output; the storyteller himself asked the audience questions: What is a terminal? (I have no words). I can’t find the reason why they are gaining absolutely zero, now there are enough guys who can do something, want to study, but do not want to go to university.
Dormitory! This is an important point that those who want to come from other cities / countries should read. The attitude of the dormitory residents is special. You will have to go through all the tests many times faster (this is a prerequisite that was announced), to keep you there for a long time no one has the desire. There will be no dormitory in the pool that I will be going through; at the moment it is being built; there is no possibility to see the dormitory plans; And again, everything is very strange and doubtful.
As you can understand, after all this, my enthusiasm for this institution disappeared. No information about training, increased requirements for visitors, recruitment not based on knowledge, but just like that, it all gives out the desire of some people to earn some money or praise points from the state (I’m not saying anything), they’re not going to teach anyone there, but these courses will exist not for long. Will I go to this pool? I’m going to lose nothing, but if I’m wrong, I’ll gain it. If the post gets positive reviews, I’ll write another article about the pool after visiting.
Do not forget about the questions, I will try to answer everything. Thanks.
And yes, this is my first article :)