◾️ 🖕🏾 💃 Program yourself. How to find a job in IT 🧜🏽 🕑 👨🏻‍🏫

I work as a Software Engineer at Farmers Insurance. My department is engaged in the implementation of the chatbot in business structures and its improvement to reduce the load on the company's support service. Now one of my projects is analyzing messages from clients and predicting intent using NLP algorithms. I live and work in Los Angeles. My wife Julia and I moved to America in October 2018.

Four years ago, I lived in Siberia, Kemerovo. He worked as an ecologist at a design institute. I had a very poor knowledge of programming and machine learning, but there was a clear goal to retrain and get a job as a programmer.

When I started to study programming, I read a lot of different articles and publications about those who worked in IT companies, who, just like I decided to move to another field of activity. There was a lot of usefulness in these stories; one could see the experience of other people. Therefore, I decided to share my story, if it helps at least one person - my work is not empty.

About finding yourself

After graduation, I did not have a clear goal, understanding that I like what I want to do and where to go to work. There was only 100% certainty that I did not want to work in my specialty. My specialty is a mechanical engineer of chemical machines and apparatus.

Almost immediately, when I received my diploma, I got a job as an environmentalist at a design institute. 4 years he worked and looked for himself. During the search, I managed to try a lot of different areas of activity. Analytics in the Forex market, small “investments” in various projects on the Internet, network marketing, promotion of accounts on Instagram, helped friends with the promotion of the franchise and much more. And at the end of 2015, by chance, I stumbled upon programming, I had no experience writing code, and I never went through algorithms with a data structure at a university. But I realized that computer science is exactly what is close to me and what I want to do all my life.

If you do not like what you are doing, then who you are working with, do not be afraid to look for and try something new. Start learning a new specialty right now or sign up for courses in your city in a new field for you. Finding your own business can be long, but never stop.

Try to remember what you liked a lot as a child?
In junior classes I really liked mathematics, I participated in district and city competitions, at school I went to additional classes of increased complexity in algebra. Then adolescence and all things, only after a while I come across programming and understand that I like it.

About the beginning of studies

The main thing to start !!! Nothing more is needed, understand this, and you will succeed.

I immediately found programming courses on the Internet. Now there are a lot of different courses in various disciplines and you will surely be able to find something for yourself. If you don’t want to immediately get a paid course, then on YouTube you can find training videos on the discipline you are interested in. Start by watching free videos, and when you realize that you need some more knowledge and that you want to go deeper, then buy a subscription to an online or offline course.

My training start was in January 2016, and I bought my first paid course only in December. Although I should immediately take a paid course, since I was an absolute beginner. After all, there the information is presented on the shelves, arranged in the correct order, and this will help you save a lot of time searching and filtering information.

About Courses

My first online course was JavaRush. I liked this course, because the information was cool and there were interesting links. Lectures for completing assignments were often not enough, and you had to look for answers on the Internet yourself and study the topic more deeply. But the skill of a proper search on the Internet is always useful to you, so this was only a plus. JavaRush was just the beginning, then I found Coursera, Stepic, Udemy, Udacity for myself. There are a lot of sites for online courses. I always tried to look for a lecturer who would be nice to listen to, and did not want to quickly rewind and close the course.

I also began to take courses in English, it was difficult at first, but the more courses I took, the easier it became to understand the language and material. I think it’s better to take courses in English, especially if you are aiming to work in a foreign company. Firstly, the practice of language will be, and secondly, in English often more information can be found and the content is much more interesting and easier to understand.

About the choice of specialty

The concept of a programmer is like a doctor, doctors are different: therapist, traumatologist, dentist, surgeon, and many other doctors. So programmers are different: web developer, game developer, app developer, and even some people, system administrators consider programmers. Therefore, asking your friend “programmer” to hack the VK page, this is how to ask a traumatologist to treat your teeth. No, of course, both can theoretically help.
I began to search in which direction I specifically want to work. He took courses on Unity, developed applications for android, made front-end for sites. Thus, I realized that I definitely do not want to engage in design and visualization, I prefer numbers, tables, the search for patterns in them. That is why Machine Learning and Data Analysis turned out to be closer to me.

About practice

In programming, yes, as in many areas, the most important thing is practice. Therefore, I was constantly looking for where I can practice new knowledge. When I was studying Java - at my work as an ecologist, I came up with how I can automate my workflow with the help of new knowledge. When I studied android programming, I wrote an application for friends' business. When I studied machine learning, I did my project to predict the results of a match in Dota2.

For better assimilation of information, it is necessary to practice not only on educational tasks, but also to make a project for something real. To live to try their knowledge and learns from mistakes.

About Kaggle

If you know what it is, but put off starting it, then my advice is to start right now. After a while, I understand that this is the best way to gain experience and find many new friends in Machine Learning. This tells you the person who wrote his project, studied machine learning and never tried Kaggle. In my practice, there has not been a single competition, not counting the Titanic. And this is one of my biggest mistakes, I had to start the competition on the first day when I registered on the site, and not put it off until later, thinking that the home project will give enough experience and lines in the resume. No, of course, the project also brought a lot of experience and knowledge, but I believe that participating in different competitions will give much more experience and new acquaintances than just predicting one thing. But that's my personal opinion.

About ODS

Do you know such people who are constantly chatting, but do not write anything, such dead souls? So, I’m just such a person, and in the UDF I also rarely wrote, but read more. But when I wrote there, people helped, the main thing is to correctly formulate the question. In the UDF, they are mostly very friendly guys, they will tell you what and how. Thanks to ODS, you can find new friends, so I started talking with Alexei, who always helped me with advice, while looking for work. I am very grateful to him for the help at the time of my immigration. So you will also find some new friends, you can write to me, I will always be happy to help.

Search for new acquaintances

When you learn something new, and even on your own, the mentor is very lacking. Try looking for a mentor or just someone who can give advice or who already have experience. I was not able to find a specific mentor, but I found new friends Alexey Shvets, Nikita Danilov, who helped with advice and with whom I can communicate on topics of interest. And with Nikita we began to be friends with families. Do not be afraid to write to people, and perhaps you will find your friends, mentors, friends !!!

Be sure to attend the events you are interested in in your city. So I managed to get acquainted with Evgeny Doronin (Zhen, as I will be in Kemerovo, I’ll dial it!).

You never know who you can meet and who will help you in life, so expand your circle of acquaintances !!!

About resume

Making a normal resume is a very long and laborious process. It was just like that with me, and most importantly, you don’t know how to do it right. Each recruiter wanted to see the information that he considered necessary. And sometimes it came to the point that one said one thing, the other another. It was very annoying.

If you are writing a resume for Data Science, then ODS has an ods_resume_mastering channel where you can drop your resume and people will tell you what is wrong or what needs to be corrected. My resume was corrected 5 times, and even when I was already looking for work in America, it reigned over and over again. I wanted to improve the resume as much as possible, therefore, I adequately responded to criticism. There is no ideal resume, it’s better to compose a separate resume for each position, so the response will be much better and faster to find a job.

About LinkedIn

If you are going to look for work in Europe or America, then LinkedIn is vital for you. In Russia, you can use a VPN to access the site. I did just that, and even in Kemerovo I began to develop my account. On the Internet you can find a lot of useful information about the correct filling of the profile. You can write a whole article about this, maybe later I will write what experience I had.

The most important thing is to start as early as possible, because the promotion can take a long time, and when you start the job search itself, there will be no time for it. Every day I added 50-100 people manually, focusing on recruiters from California, now I have 7600+ Connections.

My Account is not perfect, but recruiters wrote to me every day when I was looking for work, and this is already a great step towards finding a job.

About the first job search

On October 16, 2018, we first landed in America, and on the 17th I started sending out resumes for the positions of Data Science and Machine Learning. The first month there was no feedback at all, I sent a resume of 20 pieces a day.

Perhaps, I was doing something wrong in my head, or something was wrong with my resume. As I said, there is no perfect resume, so the first thing to do is change the resume and look at the response. After the next edits, I began to receive calls from recruiters. It was a breakthrough for me, and I’m one step closer to employment, the next stage is a telephone interview! But calls from recruiters did not fall upon me like manna from heaven, it was necessary to do something else. The simplest and most obvious is to deliver the resume in person. He put notes on the map, where there are companies that post vacancies, and went to their office with printed resumes. So, I was able to chat live with people. Firstly, it’s an excellent practice of English, and secondly, people saw me live, and this is much better than the depersonalized resumes in the hands of a recruiter.In some companies I could not get into the office, the security did not let me in, but in others I managed to leave a resume and talk with people. Yes, it did not bear fruit in the form of employment, but everything possible must be done and maybe in your case it will help to find a job.

Life, or rather lack of finances, makes its own changes, and we had to get a job at a Russian grocery store so that there would be at least some kind of income. 6 days a week from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. we worked in a store. Before work hours at 4-5 in the morning, I sent a resume, took various online courses, solved problems on LeetCode, then went to work, in the evening, after work I answered mail. It was not easy.

This went on for about 4 months, I already changed jobs, started to work at Lyft, worked 10-12 hours a day, continued to send resumes and answer calls to recruiters. The telephone interview didn't even smell. It seemed that again I was doing something wrong, and there was absolutely not enough time to deliver the resume personally. I began to search for online developers working in companies that need employees, and write to them on LinkedIn so that they refer me to their company. If it works out, then a bonus in the form of a couple of thousand dollars will fall, and I will find a job. Everything is in the black.

So another month passed, but there was no progress. After 6 months of searching for a job, I could already see my gaps in the knowledge and technologies that are needed in many vacancies. But to tighten this knowledge, look for work, communicate on LinkedIn, solve Dwarves and work as a taxi driver for 10-12 hours was difficult, and it was not possible to do everything normally. It was decided to completely stop the job search. Although all my friends and acquaintances said that it was not necessary to do this, but I understood that then I would not be able to focus normally on my studies. You need to really evaluate your strength and time, focus on what will bring a good result.

Throughout May 2019, in the mornings, before work, I took courses at Coursera, studied new technologies for me and solved problems on LeetCode. I set a framework for myself that within a month I complete one course, tighten my knowledge of technology, and then continue to search for work.

A couple of lines were added to the resume, and in June I started looking for work again, thinking that now I would definitely trample and there would be a result.

The result was! I got the first telephone interviews and I successfully failed them. But it was progress!

Then again silence and only calls of recruiters, and it was already the end of July.

All the time, Lech told me that it’s worth starting with finding a job for Java Developer or Python Developer, since there are much more vacancies than in Data Science. But I wanted to get it in Data Science, I really liked it, and did not listen to his advice for 9 months.
The absence of a positive result for such a long time is very crushing. Yes, of course, there were small results in the form of telephone interviews, but this was not enough. And I decided to completely rewrite the resume and LinkedIn account under the position of Java Developer.
August and September 2019, I was busy looking for work for the position of Java Developer and working as a taxi driver 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. I have significantly increased the number of telephone interviews, but I have never reached a live interview. Again, you invest so much effort, but there is no long-awaited result.

If you are looking for work in America, try to chat more live, send out resumes of 20-50 pieces a day, and look for real contacts. From my own experience I was convinced that this, if it does not help to find a job, will be excellent practice and communication with people. I completely stopped my job search a couple of times to study, and I advise everyone to correctly distribute their time and energy, and not to forget about rest, this will help you not to burn out and be in shape.

About burnout

According to psychologist Ellen Hendricksen, there are three main signs of burnout:

Emotional exhaustion is a feeling that you have squeezed all the strength out of you, that you have no motivation and that you are tired both physically and psychologically. It seems to you that you get stuck in a swamp.
You cease to perceive those with whom you work as people.
Inability to concentrate - for smaller tasks, you need more time and effort.

In October 2019, this is exactly what happened to me. I arrived home after work and I did not want to do anything at all: neither to meet with friends, nor communicate, nor work, nothing at all. The people I carried were just passengers, I almost did not communicate with them. I could not concentrate normally on my studies or any project.

The only thing I wanted to do then was to lie, watch a movie and be a vegetable. There was only one feeling - apathy. In order to be distracted somehow, I began to play more computer games. Fortunately, we had savings, Julia had a part-time job, and I did not have to tax for a while. With my willpower, I forced myself to send out 10 resumes a day, solve one problem on LeeetCode, and then play. The most useful thing I did during this period was to send an application to 42 Silicon Valley.

When a burnout occurs, you don’t want anything at all, you try to look for possible escape options from reality. Something to hammer your thoughts and not think about the environment: someone is watching a lot of TV shows, I played computer games. And this is not bad. If you have a burnout, relax and be distracted, but do not stay too long, otherwise you can be dragged in a lot.

After 2-3 weeks, thanks to our friends, we found a part-time job in another city, and agreed to go to work for 1 month with a full stay. There I could not send out a resume, so this month completely fell out of the job search. And in December, we took tickets to Russia for a month, with a visit to relatives in New York. So, the normal mailing of the resume was postponed for another month, but on the other hand, I managed to study.

We returned to Los Angeles on January 3, and on January 5, I left for 1 month at 42 piscine in San Francisco.

Pro 42 SILICON VALLEY

Admission to 42 school was one of the best solutions. This school is suitable not only for those who decided to learn programming, but also for those who already know a lot, but have never worked with “C”, have gaps in basic knowledge and who have virtually no work with the terminal.

That was exactly what I was. By that time, I had already solved about 100 problems on LeetCode, completed about 10 different courses on Coursera and read several books on Algorithms and Data Structures. But I never had to write in “C” and my work with the terminal was, let's say, minimal.

Gaining basic knowledge and experience working with the terminal is certainly cool and necessary, but the main purpose of my study at school is new contacts of IT specialists and live communication. Over time, one becomes harder and harder to learn, like-minded people are needed. Just such you can find there.

It’s easier for you to focus when you can devote all your time to learning, without being distracted by earnings and so on.

A month in 42 school is a 24/7 training, like-minded people at the next table, free accommodation and cheap lunches. Participation in competitions, preparation for the defense of their work, passing exams. I plunged into it completely. He got up at 3-4 a.m., went to the forehead, and solved problems all day. This is really cool and pumping you a lot. In my experience, if you are an absolute zero in programming and want to learn, then 1 month of immersion in piscine will help you to reduce about 1.5 years of your life, about the same amount I spent at the very beginning on the acquisition of the same knowledge.

After that, you can continue your full education at this school if you pass the exams well and prove yourself.

A week later, I received a congratulation on entering the School, and I almost went to study in San Francisco for 3 years, but, on the first day of study, I received a job offer in Los Angeles.

Employment

Two weeks before receiving a job offer, I actively sent out a resume, I noticeably became more confident in my abilities, I changed something in my resume. Actively began to call recruiters, and came to full telephone interviews. And then they write to me about a telephone interview at Farmers Insurance.

The telephone interview went very well. They asked me to tell myself, asked a couple of technical questions and said that a recruiter would contact me if they wanted to continue.
On the same day, they called me from another company and invited me to an interview at the office (I remembered when I was in school at 42, I had a telephone interview with this company, I was dissatisfied with myself and did not expect to be called back). This was the first invitation to a live interview. One more step has been reached. The next is to receive an offer.
Preparation for the interview began on the same day. I had only 3 days until Tuesday, the dates of my first live interview.

On Monday, for the next task, I received a letter saying that on Thursday they want to see me at the Farmers Insurance office. I did not have a single live interview for 1 year and 4 months of job search, and here, in one week, I have two at once! My joy knew no bounds. This is a clear progress !!!

At the first interview, they asked me a few questions, gave three problems and left to solve. Due to the excitement, I spent much more time solving problems, but they were solved. Leaving the office, I had a clear awareness that I could do better. It was the first live interview, it’s a shame that I didn’t show my best side, but I got experience.
At another interview, they gave me one easy task and asked a lot of behavior questions. They accounted for almost 90% of my interview. It was very easy for me to interview and seemed to like me. Following the results of 40 minutes of communication, I was told that on Monday there will be a decision about me. For Local IT companies, this is very fast.
Monday's wait was painful, I really liked the guys who interviewed me, and I wanted to work with them.

And then a letter comes to the mail with the heading “Offer letter from Farmers Insurance". There are a lot of different thoughts in my head, and if you change your mind, and suddenly something is wrong with the documents, etc. But everything went smoothly, and on February 24, 2020 I first came to work as a Java developer in an American company.

Conclusion

Do not be afraid to start a new one.

Set goals and every day, do something to achieve it, and after a while you will see the result. There will be many difficulties on your way, many mistakes, many different people, they will say that it will not work, that it is not yours. The main thing - do not stop and constantly go to the goal if you want to achieve it.

If you are told that this is not possible, be the first to do it.

Program yourself. How to find a job in IT