The historian's path from HR to Java programmers: a bit of luck and perseverance
Surely you know stories when someone purposefully began to study, say, Java, at school, then went to college, to work - and now he is already a programmer in Silicon Valley with an impressive salary. I want to tell you about a very unusual way to encoders. From historians through HR.
This is the real story of one of our employees. He received a liberal arts education, graduated from the Faculty of History, all his student years studied literature, philosophy, history - nothing close to information technology. After graduating from a university in a specialty, it was difficult to get a job, and acquaintances advised him to try his hand at recruiting employees in a recruitment agency. At that time, he was glad of any chance that turned up.
In 2014, having worked a little at the agency, having worked out the selection of specialists of various profiles, he realized that it was time to change something, move on. The head advised him of several promising areas in which the HR manager will never be lost: IT, pharmacy and the like. The choice fell on IT. He began to look for options, came for an interview at one of the banks. And bingo! Took in Promsvyazbank.
At first, our hero had to deal with conventional banking selection, but soon he completely focused on IT specialists. In the process of selecting suitable IT candidates, he was faced with the fact that he needed not only to know the terms, various three-letter abbreviations, but also to understand what was hidden behind them. Super deep knowledge was not required, but it was necessary to have an idea of everything a little.
So he worked as an IT recruiter for about 3 years. The work itself made people dig deeper into IT, and at some point he dug so deep that he himself was on the other side.
In general, this is a rare case when someone from outside comes to IT. More often there are people who initially aimed at programming, chose the appropriate university. And when the humanities have a crazy idea to escape from HR to IT, a lot of “buts” immediately arise. Purely statistically, this almost never happens, however, the hero of our story decided to try to take this path.
He only encountered programming at school: in computer science classes, he tried to write something in basic, pascal, and made HTML pages. And so he decided to write something in a more complex language. First took up java-script. I started talking with colleagues about this topic, and they advised me to learn Java.
He decided to pick up an educational online Java course, watched both free courses and full-fledged paid programs. And then one colleague advised to pay attention to the proposal from JavaRush. So began the online training.
He had no particular illusions, he simply decided to go all the way - until it became completely difficult. And gradually, getting drawn into everything, through a bunch of questions to colleagues, in about a year this course was completed. As a result of training, a large number of basic knowledge and a lot of questions appeared. Helped colleagues from IT. They tried to help understand the intricacies, threw links to useful articles. Thus, after the basic course, he continued his self-education.
If you set a goal, you can’t give up, otherwise all the efforts will be in vain. In this regard, paid courses are very motivating.
Online courses, on the other hand, are not a panacea. They do not give a full baggage of knowledge, after them you can do something primitive, simple, but for a full-fledged corporate development you still need to learn a lot. And this barrier had to be taken somehow.
Our renegade historian often communicated with Java developers at work and did not miss the opportunity to ask questions of interest. As a result, they talked about the situation to their boss, who summoned our hero and asked about plans for the future. “I want to become a professional developer,” he answered.
The development manager promised to take a self-taught programmer to his team if he can pull his skills to a normal level. He gave materials for study, a voluminous book, practical materials.
Toward the end of the year, IT specialists had free corporate training, and they offered our hero to join, however, at their own expense. The courses were not cheap, but he was ready for this purposeful investment. After all, the courses made it possible to obtain the relevant knowledge, the necessary skills that will be required directly in the work.
When a large ancient project is being developed, it is difficult for a newcomer to understand it, especially to those who have no work experience. But in a new project, you can take a person who will understand everything in the process of creation. And then the stars came together. Not so long ago, a new employee came to the development department, who began to do alone a fairly large new project within the team. And there was an understanding that he needed a man to help for simple tasks. Our self-taught took in amplification.
Now he works in the department that is developing a unified front-end banking system. He does the server backing, and he likes it: complex logic, data manipulation, new techniques that can improve and speed up development.
From the moment when our hero wanted to try his hand at IT and about a year and a half passed before entering work. This, of course, cannot be compared with 5-6 years at a university that many students spend on studying IT. There is a difference in what: they gain wide knowledge and can choose further development from many options, and in this case, the person had to initially focus as much as possible.
For those who want to follow this example, we want to advise one thing: do not be afraid and go to the end.
This is the real story of one of our employees. He received a liberal arts education, graduated from the Faculty of History, all his student years studied literature, philosophy, history - nothing close to information technology. After graduating from a university in a specialty, it was difficult to get a job, and acquaintances advised him to try his hand at recruiting employees in a recruitment agency. At that time, he was glad of any chance that turned up.
In 2014, having worked a little at the agency, having worked out the selection of specialists of various profiles, he realized that it was time to change something, move on. The head advised him of several promising areas in which the HR manager will never be lost: IT, pharmacy and the like. The choice fell on IT. He began to look for options, came for an interview at one of the banks. And bingo! Took in Promsvyazbank.
Jobs at IT-HR: technology is addictive
At first, our hero had to deal with conventional banking selection, but soon he completely focused on IT specialists. In the process of selecting suitable IT candidates, he was faced with the fact that he needed not only to know the terms, various three-letter abbreviations, but also to understand what was hidden behind them. Super deep knowledge was not required, but it was necessary to have an idea of everything a little.
So he worked as an IT recruiter for about 3 years. The work itself made people dig deeper into IT, and at some point he dug so deep that he himself was on the other side.
In general, this is a rare case when someone from outside comes to IT. More often there are people who initially aimed at programming, chose the appropriate university. And when the humanities have a crazy idea to escape from HR to IT, a lot of “buts” immediately arise. Purely statistically, this almost never happens, however, the hero of our story decided to try to take this path.
Self-study: money as a whip
He only encountered programming at school: in computer science classes, he tried to write something in basic, pascal, and made HTML pages. And so he decided to write something in a more complex language. First took up java-script. I started talking with colleagues about this topic, and they advised me to learn Java.
He decided to pick up an educational online Java course, watched both free courses and full-fledged paid programs. And then one colleague advised to pay attention to the proposal from JavaRush. So began the online training.
He had no particular illusions, he simply decided to go all the way - until it became completely difficult. And gradually, getting drawn into everything, through a bunch of questions to colleagues, in about a year this course was completed. As a result of training, a large number of basic knowledge and a lot of questions appeared. Helped colleagues from IT. They tried to help understand the intricacies, threw links to useful articles. Thus, after the basic course, he continued his self-education.
If you set a goal, you can’t give up, otherwise all the efforts will be in vain. In this regard, paid courses are very motivating.
Online courses, on the other hand, are not a panacea. They do not give a full baggage of knowledge, after them you can do something primitive, simple, but for a full-fledged corporate development you still need to learn a lot. And this barrier had to be taken somehow.
Horse Riding: Corporate Courses at Your Own Cost
Our renegade historian often communicated with Java developers at work and did not miss the opportunity to ask questions of interest. As a result, they talked about the situation to their boss, who summoned our hero and asked about plans for the future. “I want to become a professional developer,” he answered.
The development manager promised to take a self-taught programmer to his team if he can pull his skills to a normal level. He gave materials for study, a voluminous book, practical materials.
Toward the end of the year, IT specialists had free corporate training, and they offered our hero to join, however, at their own expense. The courses were not cheap, but he was ready for this purposeful investment. After all, the courses made it possible to obtain the relevant knowledge, the necessary skills that will be required directly in the work.
Good luck again: a suitable project
When a large ancient project is being developed, it is difficult for a newcomer to understand it, especially to those who have no work experience. But in a new project, you can take a person who will understand everything in the process of creation. And then the stars came together. Not so long ago, a new employee came to the development department, who began to do alone a fairly large new project within the team. And there was an understanding that he needed a man to help for simple tasks. Our self-taught took in amplification.
Now he works in the department that is developing a unified front-end banking system. He does the server backing, and he likes it: complex logic, data manipulation, new techniques that can improve and speed up development.
And finally
From the moment when our hero wanted to try his hand at IT and about a year and a half passed before entering work. This, of course, cannot be compared with 5-6 years at a university that many students spend on studying IT. There is a difference in what: they gain wide knowledge and can choose further development from many options, and in this case, the person had to initially focus as much as possible.
For those who want to follow this example, we want to advise one thing: do not be afraid and go to the end.