Graduates of IT internships at Raiffeisenbank - about how it was
In 2018, we held seven IT schools in Moscow and the Omsk Raiffeisen TechCenter at Raiffeisenbank. The guys with different education and experience came to us, all of them were united by the desire to try their hand at big serious tasks and become classy professionals. During the months of internship, 60 novice professionals grew up in strong juniors, most of them remained in the team and continue to develop digital products with us. What can you do for a digital internship at a bank? Tell graduates.
Junior Developer in the CNP team, a
When I learned about the internship, I was still studying and working as a Java backend developer in a small company. I wanted to try myself in a larger company, and because of my studies I could not qualify for full-time employment, I decided to start with an internship. I already had about a year of experience, so I did not come empty-handed.
I submitted an application, they answered me, asked to tell about themselves and send a link to GitHub. Then a letter arrived that I had passed the first part of the selection and was invited to the office. Together with other candidates we were seated on the tables and given the task. It was necessary to describe how we will create an application with a given functionality: how to build an architecture, what technologies to use. Then one person from the team chose to protect the project. After protection, we communicated individually, asked questions on the knowledge of Java, Linux. I answered well and already then thought that I had to pass. And indeed, they soon called me and invited me for an internship.
At the very beginning we were divided into teams. Each had two supervising tehlida and his scrum master. All the time the internship was accompanied by lectures, mostly they were read by our techlids. We were given an individual team plan - what technologies and in what sequence we will study. First there were Java collections, then Gradle and Maven collectors, Java Reflection API, Spring - the main Java framework in the bank, Spring Data branches with the implementation of Hibernate, Spring MVC, Dependency Injection. In general, a big plan was made. The first few weeks we studied the basics, and then we formed a mini-project, theoretically associated with the bank. This was supposed to be a mini-application in which you can log in, check your account, balance, and transfer money from account to account. Then we continued to explore new technologies, and as they are learned new features are added to the project. We have a database where we store the accounts, balance and transactions of the user, then we studied Spring Security and authorization appeared. Separately, we studied unit tests (JUnit, Mockito, Spring test), and tried to cover all the new functionality with them. It did not always work, but we tried.
I really liked that we ourselves did our project. Worked as a team, and creating your own from scratch is much more interesting than performing individual tasks and modifying the finished product. You are more immersed, better feel the changes that are making - a good experience is gained. Although I already knew something at the time of the internship, there was still a lot of new things.
Sometimes I go to intrabank mitaps. I recently joined a functional club - using the example of the Scala language, they explain the principles of functional programming. very interesting, now I try not to miss.
I would say that the internship gave me a strong impetus in development compared to my previous job. We had experienced mentors, and they gave assignments that covered most of the studied functionality. If we studied some technology, we tried to use its capabilities in the application to the maximum. At the exit from the internship, I would rate myself as a strong Junior, and for starting it is very good. Honestly, I didn’t even think that this would happen.
After the internship, I stayed at Raiffeisenbank. Now I am in the team of CNP - Customer Notification Platform. She is responsible for all transaction notifications to clients, mass mailings and polls. Our application aggregates events that come from other banking applications through JMS: it processes them and scatters them on sms, pushes, letters, and so on. There are many atypical tasks related to Java Multithreading, JMS and JMX, so it's very interesting to work.
Tester of the risk management systems testing group,
I started qualifying in my third year at university. I firmly believe that by the end of training a graduate should already have a job - especially in our field. I understood very well that at university I get basically a theory, and I really wanted to try my knowledge and skills in practice, to plunge into the real world.
My friend and I went to the Raiffeisen Involve conference, where we learned about the internship program. They said that the application has already filed 2,000 people. And there are only 30 places. I thought that it would be unreal to pass with such a funnel. But still passed, and it was for me a great surprise.
I absolutely did not know what to expect from work. Testing, in principle, is not taught anywhere, I am a student of the “Information Technology” direction, but even at the university I have not heard anything about it. So I had to deal with everything during the internship process.
I also had difficulty in expecting what to do from working at a bank. At first, every day I dressed strictly - I thought, since I am in the bank, without a dress code anywhere. And then I look: all colleagues go in jeans, T-shirts. Another came every day clearly at nine; in the end, she sat alone and waited for her colleagues to slowly catch up to eleven.
Testing tasks gave me immediately. Probably for my first task I wrote more test cases than ever before. In fact, it was very simple, but I wanted to go all out right away. At first, a lot of time was spent reading the documentation - you cannot check the program if you don’t understand what it is doing. I read the TOR several times, asked my colleagues questions, and gradually the picture began to emerge.
The system I work with evaluates credit risks based on an internal risk assessment methodology. This is the Basel approach. Risk can be calculated in two ways: standardized or based on internal ratings. In late December, Raiffeisenbank received permission from the Central Bank to consider credit risks based on internal ratings (TACs) independently, and this will help save our capital and increase lending. We are the second bank in Russia who was allowed to do this.
The specificity of the system is that it is not a mobile application and not a website. Usually, manual testing consists of “clicking on” the graphical interface of the system, but we don’t have it - we are testing the backend: we look at the database, check that the data is loading correctly, everything comes in different layers. The complexity of automation is also related to this. We cannot automate the interface, since there is simply nothing to check on it, and automating the database is a rather specific and complex task. In the summer, my colleague and I were even trained in test automation and Java, but basically all of it is focused on automating interfaces and is not suitable for us. Every day I write SQL queries, automation goes to Java, plus we use the Cucumber framework.
In addition, to properly check such a system, you need to understand its logic. We are adopting analytical knowledge from business units to evaluate whether indicators work correctly for specific products. It turns out that you work at the intersection of testing and analytics.
Each intern has a mentor who helps to settle. My mentor was a colleague who also deals with testing. She talked a lot about the process, helped to understand the features of our project. At first, she gave me small simple tasks, and then I took on complicated things.
Maybe it sounds trite, but I really liked the atmosphere: understanding colleagues, calm - I never heard anyone raise their voice. You are treated with respect, regardless of your status, which, compared to the atmosphere at the university, was new to me. No one stands above you and does not monitor your work, does not control what time you came or went. You take responsibility and just do it. Nobody will “kick”, but you yourself are responsible for your result and its deadlines. And of course, I am pleased with the lack of a dress code. I may dress myself in classics myself, but because I want this myself, and not because I have to. Here, I still have a nose ring in my nose - this is already my second piercing, I have already worked here. And no one says anything. People with tatuha often see, too cool.
At times it was very difficult to combine with study - you do not get enough sleep all the time, especially when you are closer to the session, you are torn between exams and work. I used to come at eight in the morning, then after two hours I left for couples and in the evening I returned to work. Or, if I had the first couple, I just came to work later. But, thank God, nobody pressed at work, if they said that I was going to the exam, everyone just wished good luck.
During my internship, besides the fact that I mastered a new professional field, I had confidence in my abilities, the realization that I could do something, and it’s not so scary to look for work. Now I continue to work on the same system, but as an employee. There are still many areas in which you can develop, and many tasks
Junior Analyst of the Information Security Management Group,
I got into the Evolve program while studying in the last year at MEPI in the direction of “Information Security of Automated Systems”. I accidentally saw the announcement on the Internet and immediately responded, because at that time it was the only internship in my direction. I really wanted to try my hand at work in my specialty, so there was no doubt.
It was necessary to go through several stages of online selection and come to the internal stage. He was the most important. Of course, we were sent a letter with advice on preparation, but still I hardly imagined what was waiting for me, and it seems to me that this helped me not to be afraid and express myself. I realized that, however banal it may sound, the main thing is to be yourself and not try to artificially stand out. I also think that it was important to show my sincere desire to learn and develop, to demonstrate purposefulness.
When I came to the intramural stage, we were led through a bright and stylish office, where smiling employees were going to meet me with coffee. I thought: "That would be great to work here!". In the end, it turned out this way - on December 27, they called me and invited me for an internship. This was the best New Year gift!
Before that, I worked only in a student asset at my university, so the internship was my first job in a profile. When I arrived, I had no idea how everything was happening, everything was difficult. I was confronted with the fact that education in my area is more theoretical, and there was very little practice. The first month I wrote down all the unfamiliar words, and then I looked for their definitions on the Internet in order to somehow understand what was happening. It took a lot of time to study the documentation for new tools for me. All the tasks that were given to me during the year were absolutely new for me, I did not know how to carry them out. It was a kind of challenge to itself - not to be afraid. But colleagues have always prompted me, and exactly as much as I need, so that I can solve the problem myself.
I conducted more than 10 scans of web applications and network equipment, in the end I managed to eliminate more than 50 vulnerabilities! In the tasks on the practice of safe software development I was offered to fly new tools and report on their strengths and weaknesses, compared with the solution already in use at the time - it turned out that the old solution worked better than the pilots. As part of the task of countering internal and external fraud, I wrote rules and reports for the SIEM system.
An important part of the internship was training: I took courses on safe development in Java and under iOS, a video course on information security and other programs. They still help me in solving many problems.
During my internship, I gained practical skills that I lacked so much and gained confidence in my abilities. In addition, I learned responsibility. Although I still consult with more experienced colleagues on some important issues, I know that in many ways I can figure it out myself.
Raiffeisenbank has opened a set of SO DGTL annual paid internships . We invite developers, testers, security specialists, as well as data- and web-analysts, designers, managers and specialists from other digital areas. We will give all our experience and teach the best that we can do. All the details - on the project page . Call for applications is open until February 11.
Ildar
Junior Developer in the CNP team, a
graduate of the Java School internship, 2018
When I learned about the internship, I was still studying and working as a Java backend developer in a small company. I wanted to try myself in a larger company, and because of my studies I could not qualify for full-time employment, I decided to start with an internship. I already had about a year of experience, so I did not come empty-handed.
I submitted an application, they answered me, asked to tell about themselves and send a link to GitHub. Then a letter arrived that I had passed the first part of the selection and was invited to the office. Together with other candidates we were seated on the tables and given the task. It was necessary to describe how we will create an application with a given functionality: how to build an architecture, what technologies to use. Then one person from the team chose to protect the project. After protection, we communicated individually, asked questions on the knowledge of Java, Linux. I answered well and already then thought that I had to pass. And indeed, they soon called me and invited me for an internship.
At the very beginning we were divided into teams. Each had two supervising tehlida and his scrum master. All the time the internship was accompanied by lectures, mostly they were read by our techlids. We were given an individual team plan - what technologies and in what sequence we will study. First there were Java collections, then Gradle and Maven collectors, Java Reflection API, Spring - the main Java framework in the bank, Spring Data branches with the implementation of Hibernate, Spring MVC, Dependency Injection. In general, a big plan was made. The first few weeks we studied the basics, and then we formed a mini-project, theoretically associated with the bank. This was supposed to be a mini-application in which you can log in, check your account, balance, and transfer money from account to account. Then we continued to explore new technologies, and as they are learned new features are added to the project. We have a database where we store the accounts, balance and transactions of the user, then we studied Spring Security and authorization appeared. Separately, we studied unit tests (JUnit, Mockito, Spring test), and tried to cover all the new functionality with them. It did not always work, but we tried.
I really liked that we ourselves did our project. Worked as a team, and creating your own from scratch is much more interesting than performing individual tasks and modifying the finished product. You are more immersed, better feel the changes that are making - a good experience is gained. Although I already knew something at the time of the internship, there was still a lot of new things.
Sometimes I go to intrabank mitaps. I recently joined a functional club - using the example of the Scala language, they explain the principles of functional programming. very interesting, now I try not to miss.
I would say that the internship gave me a strong impetus in development compared to my previous job. We had experienced mentors, and they gave assignments that covered most of the studied functionality. If we studied some technology, we tried to use its capabilities in the application to the maximum. At the exit from the internship, I would rate myself as a strong Junior, and for starting it is very good. Honestly, I didn’t even think that this would happen.
After the internship, I stayed at Raiffeisenbank. Now I am in the team of CNP - Customer Notification Platform. She is responsible for all transaction notifications to clients, mass mailings and polls. Our application aggregates events that come from other banking applications through JMS: it processes them and scatters them on sms, pushes, letters, and so on. There are many atypical tasks related to Java Multithreading, JMS and JMX, so it's very interesting to work.
Elsa
Tester of the risk management systems testing group,
graduate of the internship Raiffeisen Evolve, 2018,
direction - "Testing"
I started qualifying in my third year at university. I firmly believe that by the end of training a graduate should already have a job - especially in our field. I understood very well that at university I get basically a theory, and I really wanted to try my knowledge and skills in practice, to plunge into the real world.
My friend and I went to the Raiffeisen Involve conference, where we learned about the internship program. They said that the application has already filed 2,000 people. And there are only 30 places. I thought that it would be unreal to pass with such a funnel. But still passed, and it was for me a great surprise.
I absolutely did not know what to expect from work. Testing, in principle, is not taught anywhere, I am a student of the “Information Technology” direction, but even at the university I have not heard anything about it. So I had to deal with everything during the internship process.
I also had difficulty in expecting what to do from working at a bank. At first, every day I dressed strictly - I thought, since I am in the bank, without a dress code anywhere. And then I look: all colleagues go in jeans, T-shirts. Another came every day clearly at nine; in the end, she sat alone and waited for her colleagues to slowly catch up to eleven.
Testing tasks gave me immediately. Probably for my first task I wrote more test cases than ever before. In fact, it was very simple, but I wanted to go all out right away. At first, a lot of time was spent reading the documentation - you cannot check the program if you don’t understand what it is doing. I read the TOR several times, asked my colleagues questions, and gradually the picture began to emerge.
The system I work with evaluates credit risks based on an internal risk assessment methodology. This is the Basel approach. Risk can be calculated in two ways: standardized or based on internal ratings. In late December, Raiffeisenbank received permission from the Central Bank to consider credit risks based on internal ratings (TACs) independently, and this will help save our capital and increase lending. We are the second bank in Russia who was allowed to do this.
The specificity of the system is that it is not a mobile application and not a website. Usually, manual testing consists of “clicking on” the graphical interface of the system, but we don’t have it - we are testing the backend: we look at the database, check that the data is loading correctly, everything comes in different layers. The complexity of automation is also related to this. We cannot automate the interface, since there is simply nothing to check on it, and automating the database is a rather specific and complex task. In the summer, my colleague and I were even trained in test automation and Java, but basically all of it is focused on automating interfaces and is not suitable for us. Every day I write SQL queries, automation goes to Java, plus we use the Cucumber framework.
In addition, to properly check such a system, you need to understand its logic. We are adopting analytical knowledge from business units to evaluate whether indicators work correctly for specific products. It turns out that you work at the intersection of testing and analytics.
Each intern has a mentor who helps to settle. My mentor was a colleague who also deals with testing. She talked a lot about the process, helped to understand the features of our project. At first, she gave me small simple tasks, and then I took on complicated things.
Maybe it sounds trite, but I really liked the atmosphere: understanding colleagues, calm - I never heard anyone raise their voice. You are treated with respect, regardless of your status, which, compared to the atmosphere at the university, was new to me. No one stands above you and does not monitor your work, does not control what time you came or went. You take responsibility and just do it. Nobody will “kick”, but you yourself are responsible for your result and its deadlines. And of course, I am pleased with the lack of a dress code. I may dress myself in classics myself, but because I want this myself, and not because I have to. Here, I still have a nose ring in my nose - this is already my second piercing, I have already worked here. And no one says anything. People with tatuha often see, too cool.
At times it was very difficult to combine with study - you do not get enough sleep all the time, especially when you are closer to the session, you are torn between exams and work. I used to come at eight in the morning, then after two hours I left for couples and in the evening I returned to work. Or, if I had the first couple, I just came to work later. But, thank God, nobody pressed at work, if they said that I was going to the exam, everyone just wished good luck.
During my internship, besides the fact that I mastered a new professional field, I had confidence in my abilities, the realization that I could do something, and it’s not so scary to look for work. Now I continue to work on the same system, but as an employee. There are still many areas in which you can develop, and many tasks
Antonina
Junior Analyst of the Information Security Management Group,
graduate of the internship Raiffeisen Evolve, 2018,
direction - "Information Security"
I got into the Evolve program while studying in the last year at MEPI in the direction of “Information Security of Automated Systems”. I accidentally saw the announcement on the Internet and immediately responded, because at that time it was the only internship in my direction. I really wanted to try my hand at work in my specialty, so there was no doubt.
It was necessary to go through several stages of online selection and come to the internal stage. He was the most important. Of course, we were sent a letter with advice on preparation, but still I hardly imagined what was waiting for me, and it seems to me that this helped me not to be afraid and express myself. I realized that, however banal it may sound, the main thing is to be yourself and not try to artificially stand out. I also think that it was important to show my sincere desire to learn and develop, to demonstrate purposefulness.
When I came to the intramural stage, we were led through a bright and stylish office, where smiling employees were going to meet me with coffee. I thought: "That would be great to work here!". In the end, it turned out this way - on December 27, they called me and invited me for an internship. This was the best New Year gift!
Before that, I worked only in a student asset at my university, so the internship was my first job in a profile. When I arrived, I had no idea how everything was happening, everything was difficult. I was confronted with the fact that education in my area is more theoretical, and there was very little practice. The first month I wrote down all the unfamiliar words, and then I looked for their definitions on the Internet in order to somehow understand what was happening. It took a lot of time to study the documentation for new tools for me. All the tasks that were given to me during the year were absolutely new for me, I did not know how to carry them out. It was a kind of challenge to itself - not to be afraid. But colleagues have always prompted me, and exactly as much as I need, so that I can solve the problem myself.
I conducted more than 10 scans of web applications and network equipment, in the end I managed to eliminate more than 50 vulnerabilities! In the tasks on the practice of safe software development I was offered to fly new tools and report on their strengths and weaknesses, compared with the solution already in use at the time - it turned out that the old solution worked better than the pilots. As part of the task of countering internal and external fraud, I wrote rules and reports for the SIEM system.
An important part of the internship was training: I took courses on safe development in Java and under iOS, a video course on information security and other programs. They still help me in solving many problems.
During my internship, I gained practical skills that I lacked so much and gained confidence in my abilities. In addition, I learned responsibility. Although I still consult with more experienced colleagues on some important issues, I know that in many ways I can figure it out myself.
Raiffeisenbank has opened a set of SO DGTL annual paid internships . We invite developers, testers, security specialists, as well as data- and web-analysts, designers, managers and specialists from other digital areas. We will give all our experience and teach the best that we can do. All the details - on the project page . Call for applications is open until February 11.