From pilots to testers: how a former military man built an alternate airfield in IT

My name is Sergey, I am a specialist in the SearchInform testing department. Prior to SearchInform, he worked as a system administrator, and even earlier, he was a military pilot. Actually, I want to tell the story of the transition from profession to profession, which many friends consider to be radical. Immediately make a reservation, this career turn seems radical only from the outside. For me, the story is quite natural. But I'll start again.



I am the son of a military pilot and in a helicopter, as they say, from the cradle. Therefore, when it was necessary to make a decision about what kind of education to receive, there was no thought. As a result, in 2001 he graduated from the Syzran Military Aviation Institute as a pilot engineer. After graduation, he chose a place of service in the North Caucasus. At first he flew to Krasnodar, and in 2008 received a promotion and flew to Rostov-on-Don.

The usual routine in the service is the performance of tasks of both civilian and military purposes. In a peaceful direction, I transported goods and passengers. Military work includes counter-terrorism missions in Chechnya (during the second campaign) and peacekeeping missions in Abkhazia.

They ask why they wanted military tasks. The answer is prosaic. Years of study and graduation fell on the period of the late 90s. In the army then everything was deplorable, they flew little and only out of necessity. But this need - business trips to the zones of military and peacekeeping operations - at that time to Chechnya and Abkhazia. Those who wanted flights, rather than paper work and stay warm, chose the service in the south of Russia.

I remember very warmly at that time, although the service was difficult. We got up at 4 a.m. and flew until 11 p.m. with short breaks, which might not have happened. Seven years in Krasnodar and then four more in Rostov went on permanent business trips. I practically didn’t sit at the base, but I did my flight work, which any pilot dreams of.



For me, IT has literally become a “backup airfield”. I thought everything in advance, because even as a cadet I understood that someday I would have to go from military to civilian.

The military is far from always so meticulously considering this moment. As a result, there is a great chance to remain unprepared for civil life, not to know where to apply ourselves. I didn’t feel like it. I didn’t consider the continuation of my military career - it’s impossible to fly all my life, and staff work is a longing.

Another option is to go into civil aviation. This is a realistic plan, many do it, but I would be bored: it took off and you fly in a straight line, like a tram. No romance and creativity. In military operations, there was more than enough creativity. You decide which route to fly depending on the weather, situation, landscape, how the sun shines, etc.



In general, I laid the foundation of a new profession in 2002, as soon as I graduated from a military institute and moved to serve from Syzran to Krasnodar. He entered the correspondence department at the Kuban Polytechnic University (now it is the Kuban State Technological University) with a degree in software engineering. The diploma lay "in stock" for more than 4 years. I was 32 years old when I realized that it was time to dust off him. And, by the way, for me, a diploma is not just a crust (although a crust on a second higher education adds confidence). Knowledge of databases, network technologies really came in handy.

“A little over 30” is the right age to start a new career. I graduated from the military with a first-class pilot in the rank of major and in the position of deputy squadron commander with the state award “Order of Courage”. With all this baggage, I left to look for work in IT.

The craving for this area has been since childhood, and I used every opportunity to work with computers, including in the army. Everything that could be automated with the help of technology and programs, I did myself. For example, “planned” (flight tables) were custom made by hand. I organized computer processing so that it was possible to form them on a computer and print them on a color printer. Planned - a document that describes: the procedure for performing flights, types of tasks for crews, priority. First you need to compile it, then draw it for the crew, personnel servicing flights. The slightest change in the document - process it in a new way. So automation saved us many hours between flights.


This is what the “planned” one looks like, source

It turned out to be easy to look for work in a new field - education, applied experience and general erudition were enough to immediately get a system administrator. Salaries and tasks in the first place were not great, but there I gained the first civic experience and went further only in growth. Now, besides the current place of work, there are four IT positions behind him, including at Rostov Rostvertol, where he managed to work on tasks closest to engineering and software education. I had to deal with automation scripts on Powershell, optimize reports in 1C, participated in the development of software for processing and maintaining applications in Java.



In June 2017, I moved to the SearchInform testing department. After working as a “system administrator on outsourcing”, where they could pull at midnight on an urgent matter that took up the rest of the night, I wanted to work in a company with a stable schedule. Therefore, I carefully selected a new place of work, looked at information, publications in the media, and reviews.

Passed an entrance interview and was invited to an internship. The company decided that at the stage of the probationary period a beginner participates in all projects, then receives specialization. At the first stage, I liked that the team had clear processes, but there was no bureaucracy and, if necessary, you can directly contact any employee with questions and suggestions.

After the test, I worked a bit with SIEM and DataCenter, and then moved on to my ongoing project - NetworkController (network traffic analyzer in KIB). Here you have to constantly learn something new, in DLP such specifics that the product integrates with many third-party services, you need to deal with them, learn new technologies.
Another interesting task for me, as a tester, is the testing automation process. When I joined the company, each tester used his own developments only in his project. Now we are bringing together and projecting the positive experience of each employee into a single system. We write scripts to automate testing in Python.

People often ask if it was easy to adapt. Since I had been planning a transition to a new profession for a long time and always had warm feelings for her, adaptation did not take much time. I had no isolation from technology in the service. And also the ability to quickly “navigate the terrain” helped.

Another thing is adaptation to lifestyle changes. In aviation, unlike other parts of the army, there is almost no “stroyization" and everything is simpler. But still, “he was a military man, he became a civilian” - this is a difficult transition. If you didn’t find a job to your liking, it will be boring, because civil life is much more measured. The fact that you are not pulled out in the middle of the night on a business trip, but are allowed to work according to the established schedule, is an amazing discovery. But I was looking for this in my new career, adrenaline was enough for me in the service.

For those who want to make the same turn in their careers, I would not give universal advice. But what helped me was:

• Planning. I am glad that I realized what my career “horizons” are for a pilot, not at 45, but at 20. There was a lot of time left to get an education, and also to acquire the necessary skills so that the diploma was not just a “crust”.
• Do not expect much at the start. I had to start all over again - with a small position and low salary. But this is precisely what became the entrance to the new profession. If you are ready to learn, development is fast. My salary at the start was 30 percent lower than in the army. But the family was sympathetic, and within a year I was able to close the gap.
• Be open and curious. It helped me in the army, and it helped in IT - the sphere did not seem either closed or snobbish, I easily found a common language with people in the "citizen".
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