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Is there life in development after the decree

Usually such posts appear on Habré by March 8, and then disappear until next year. We decided not to wait for 2021 and talk now, is it true that the decree is a place from which they do not return. Tatyana Kondrikova, mathematician and programmer of the geometric core C3D, the wife of the Timlida and the mother of two sons, tells her story.

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My life and work "before the children"


I was born, studied and live in Kolomna, 100 km from Moscow. She graduated from the physics and mathematics department of the Kolomensky Pedagogical Institute, although she knew right away that I did not want to work at school - this bunch of children scared me. The university has chosen based on the fact that it is mandatory to study mathematics and not go far to home.
In the third year I went to C ++ courses at the faculty of additional specializations. Even at school I liked to compose algorithms in computer science lessons, starting from grade 10 we studied Basic, Visual Basic.

The first work after graduating in 2008 was ASCON, an engineering software developer. My classmate, the wife of one of the employees, said that "programmers are needed there, and you studied, the work is good, go." But at first they didn’t take me to the programmers, but they suggested testing. I got into the automated testing department and was engaged in autotests for a year and a half.

The main task was the processing of automated testing: when the verification of a large database of models in KOMPAS-3D is started and the results come, you need to check with your own hands what really breaks and record an error. I wrote scripts using TestComplete. For example, there was a script for simplified 3D assemblies when a new functionality called “simplified assemblies” (a simplified type of opening) appeared. It was necessary to open the assembly in different types, cut and close - and so go through all the assemblies from the folder. There was a good script - there were a lot of crashes.

In 2010, I moved to the mathematics department as a mathematician-programmer. The department developed a geometric core - a software component that is responsible for accurate geometric constructions in CAD. They gave me a revision of the multiline, acceleration of the projection of spiral surfaces (to project a piece and multiply).

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Projection of a kinematic operation with a cylindrical spiral guide

Still engaged in supporting extrusion and rotation operations. The employee who did the new functionality quit, and they gave me the rotation and extrusion of spatial curves and curves on the surface. Previously, the core was only extruding flat contours.

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Surface extrusion

In addition, I got all the error requests by associative types, i.e. projection. Corrected errors in triangulation. I did all these work for COMPASS.

In 2012, the ASCON mathematics department was transformed into C3D Labs, our core became a commercial product, and other customers appeared. I went to St. Petersburg to the developers of the Renga systemRengabim, showed how to work with the kernel.

In April 2014, I went on maternity leave, and in July my eldest son was born.

Between older and younger


When my son was 1.5 years old, I decided to work - from home for two hours a day (in children's sleep) and so on for a year. It was difficult. Firstly, in two hours you only manage to "drive in" and ... that's it. And it didn’t work out anymore - the son demanded attention all the time; Work at home requires discipline, because during these two hours I wanted to drink tea and clean it at home, but no - the schedule, we have to work.

During the second pregnancy, there was already not enough strength to work. In those same two hours of sleep I wanted to relax myself. The younger was born in November 2016. The difference between the sons 2 years 4 months, I spent the whole day between them. Before three years, when the youngest went to the garden, I did not plan to go to work, because there is no one to sit with the children except me, my mother works. And then I'm not one of those who are trying to quickly and quickly do everything. Nervous when you try to catch something that does not fit in real time.

After the decree


I went to work in October 2019, at 6 o’clock a day in the office.

All my past tasks returned to me: extrusion and rotation operations, triangulation, construction of a two-dimensional equidistant. It turned out that I almost remember everything and am well oriented. Some questions from technical support on my topic are being transferred to me.

I also collect math for KOMPAS, upload it to our branch, then run the tests that run in KOMPAS, look for errors and report them. When there are no errors, merge further into the main branch of COMPASS. The procedure is organized so that each discharge is accompanied by the assembly of COMPASS and the launch of tests. If your tests fail, you cannot merge into the main branch.

During my absence, Jira appeared, I barely managed to work with her between decrees. Progress in C ++ did not have time to leave me, because we are forced to support older versions of Visual Studio for customers who use them.

Nikolay Golovanov, development manager at C3D Labs:

It's great that Tanya returned to us, we were waiting for her, counting on her. Although she probably was not easy, because during the time that she was absent, much has changed. She had to learn new things, for example, plums of code in different branches; functionality increased; The flow of requests from users has grown. But Tanya is a fighter, loves her job, managed. I do not make any concessions to her, I try to help. I think that this is a normal situation when colleagues help each other.


How is a regular working day


When the children go to the garden, the alarm clock stands at 6.20. I get up, tidy myself up. Husband is preparing breakfast - he is responsible for the porridge. He has a whole list of cereals, and each one has a recipe written in grams, which should be put where.

My husband Sergey works in ASCON, in the development of KOMPAS-3D. He is team lead interface. Together we take the children to the garden, because the gardens are different. First we disagree - I am in one, he is in another, then we converge. We arrive at work at 8:30. At 10:00 I have a mandatory physical minute on the horizontal bar.

At lunch, we walk with colleagues - a circle in the park. Working day until 15.30. After working in the store and home, bring along bicycles, runbikes and pick up the children. We walk along the road from the kindergarten. The older one has classes - this is what the husband does after work, and I sit with the younger one.

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When children get sick, I take sick leave or try to work from home. What is simpler, such as searching for revisions, can easily be done. Depends, of course, how and how they get sick - in the first days there are no opportunities for work, then it becomes easier.

How is a working day in self-isolation


I switched to remote work before my husband and managed to work out a schedule for myself:
until 8:00 I make breakfast, prepare everything for children on the table, along with a snack for later, have breakfast
8:00 - 10:00 work
10:00 - 12:00 walk to balcony, activities with children, household chores
12:00 - 13:00 lunch
13:00 I put everything to sleep
13:00 - 17:00 work The

elder sleeps little, gets up and goes to collect Lego. Junior can sleep all 4 hours. In the first week, it adapted, the children got used to it, they already give work without screaming.

We have two jobs at home - we planned for the future study of children. I have a computer, my husband has a laptop, to which a monitor and keyboard are connected from the office. We work with husband at the same time. He has regular meetings, it is convenient for him to be in the workplace when he is usually expected to see him there. It’s convenient for me to collect the kernel in the morning according to the results of nightly tests. Later it is more convenient to work in children's sleep.

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Children play in the morning together on their own. Of course, they often distract, sometimes they sit on their hands. But to work in turn, in my opinion, would be generally inconvenient. This means that one of the two of us is constantly busy. This option is acceptable for one to two weeks, but the second month has already begun. There should be some rest (albeit at the same time as household chores), when you can talk to each other not about work.

I consider remote work an option in an emergency, as it is now. I wouldn’t want to work like that all the time. Cooking should be much more than on a normal working day. By the weekend, everything is strewn with toys - it's cleaning. Well, sad, not enough communication.

To summarize ... After five years of the decree, my memory returned to me in the process of work. What I had to do, I was looking for. Sometimes I feel that I need to think about the task once more, look at the code for a longer time. Mistakes happened, but I didn’t repeat them. As for personal qualities, with the birth of children it became easier for me to make decisions and take responsibility.

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