From aircraft to programmers in one year, or how to become a Jedi

Yoda: Master Qui-Gon, is there anything else to say to you?
Qui-Gon Jin: With your permission, Master. I found the point of concentration of the Great Force.
Yoda: Concentration, you said?
Mace Windu: Inside a living creature?
Qui-Gon Jin: In a boy. His cells contain the highest level of midichlorians from all that I have seen. He was probably conceived by midichlorians.
Mace Windu: You are hinting at a prophecy about the Chosen One that will bring balance to the Force. Do you believe that this is the boy?
Star Wars. Episode I. Hidden threat.

Buddy, if you read this, then most likely you are an engineer. And, perhaps, you already got everything. Or maybe not. However, I want to share with you the experience and thoughts about how I managed to make my sudden dream come true.

The dark side of the Force hides everything. It is impossible to foresee our future ...

I defended my red diploma on the subject of unmanned aircraft and decided to introduce my own drone, which I myself also “fired”. By that time, I had been working as a design engineer in the aerodynamics department of the experimental design bureau (experimental design bureau) for a year and a half. Eh, I would have known in advance how quickly they would land me along with all my ambitions and Wishlist ... In general, I realized the harsh reality and continued to work quietly in a rag.

The romance of the work of an ordinary engineer usually consists in calculations, reports, recalculations, in perpetual rework, or even loss of connection with reality. We even our boss had a funny print “All * nya. Redoing! ”And everything would be fine, but the fact that you conjure, conjure over the years, and I was dumbly began to oppress me wildly! There is no clear group brain interaction - half the work we do turns out to be unnecessary. Hence, the eternal processing, and exits on weekends. Well, somehow there is no that “Soviet” one, the general idea and the desire of the leadership to overtake the “cursed states”. But the main motivator in experimental design is the general idea.

I worked like this for more than three years - I got tired of it, I need to change something. And then I remembered my impulses to become a programmer. I wanted to pass the EGE on computer science in order to enter where it was necessary, but the gloomy teacher at the very first elective quickly fought off the desire: “You cannot pass the EGE. You are very weak in computer science. ”

After long evenings of reflection, I suddenly realized that I had to become a developer! Down with all these calculations, bales of bureaucratic meat and timeless formalities! I want to cod and be cool! Well, or vice versa.

You should rather let go of everything that you are afraid of losing ...

Which language to choose?

The first thing I encountered was the choice of a programming language. You never know how it will end. So I - read a lot, saw enough, showered. As a result, I found myself between two giant kurultais: the first were “javista” (code in Java), and the second were “sisharpists” (code in C #). I almost became a sischarpist, but here Java was seduced by its cross-platform nature and the fact that there are few javistes. Well, we, as they say, are not looking for easy ways. The end result is java.

How to learn to write Java code?

The first thing that comes to mind is self-education. Well, I think I will learn it myself on tutorials and vidosik, especially, for free! But after a week of bullying my will, I realized that I needed courses, because with the pseudo-self-study I risked losing all my interest in coding.

The search did not take me much time. Among the online courses, trainings and schools, I found a course on Java programming in Kazan IT-park (52 at Peterburgskaya), and there I was just recruited to launch a group. Schedule promised convenient: on Saturdays and Sundays, 70 academic hours in general. The price for the course for 2017 was 24 tons of wood. They could be paid in installments monthly for 6k. For the engineer will come down. Yes, and sacrificing the weekend for a common goal - we have already passed this, do not flinch.

I agree. Knowledge light the way will tell us

Before the start of the course we were divided into two groups: senior and junior. Shared through uncomplicated testing. I hit the eldest. And who would doubt, I'm an engineer.

Then the work went on in the key “you are preparing a homework week, you hand it over at the weekend”. Thus, from the output of “Hello, World!”, It took 5 months to write and deploy your web service on a remote Linux server.

After the course, I already had some idea how to write simple applets, showed where to poke in SpringBoot, taught me how to create a virtual machine and install Linux there, showed how to deploy my service there, etc. At the exit, I had the first mini-project in the form of a RESTful web service with a swagger bolted on. Oh yeah, the cherry on the cake was a certificate of professional development.

Use your instincts, and you will find him.

A month before the end of the course, I created a resume on our favorite "he-he ru" and slowly began to look for a new place for my actions. The feeling of my own coolness after the courses interrupted the reality a bit and, starting to go on interviews, I became important as paperwork. Somewhere it played a cruel joke with me, but somewhere I was even offered to retrain in PHP.

After a month of self-promotion, I found what I was looking for. Jobs on the intern by a Java developer. So what? And the Jedi Temple was not built immediately. After completing the test task and passing the interview, I was accepted. And I got settled not only part-time, but also part-time, because I still remained part-time in my Design Bureau! Yes, yes, aviation did not want to let me go, and we, engineers, love all sorts of sophisticated ways of doing business. And if on garlic, then “it was necessary to live on something”.

Patience! Jedi are having dinner now. Hehe

Options for the outcome of the internship were agreed in advance. Depending on the acquired knowledge, I either immediately take to the state, or they offer another internship, or we say goodbye. The duration of one internship is three months, there can be no more than two internships.

Buddy, my personal Obi-Wan Kenobi, was assigned to me. By the way, another plus to my overall motivation. He was almost always and everywhere. Eh, it's nice to feel like a Jedi. Oh, that is, “javist” =)

I was charged with patience, dementia and courage and rushed to conquer the vastness of the programming experience! The very fact that they took me as an intern was already a small victory, because at this stage the experience counter in programming was launched.

My first internship gave me the experience of autonomy from any IDE, I understood the essence of JVM deeper, and Java itself, learned how to find the causes of errors and mastered servlets. At the same time he began to pull up his English, because almost all the documentation for languages, APIs and frameworks is completely in English. Wait a minute. I said the first internship ?

But he still has a lot to learn. He is very talented and therefore arrogant

Yes, yes, that's right. After the end of the first internship, I was offered to undergo another one in order to gain knowledge and experience. All in vain? No, of course, it’s just that I haven’t got enough of the knowledge base that IT professionals usually get in four or six years of study. Usually at this stage unmotivated people begin to fall off, and a recent dream suddenly turns into an object of hatred.

During the second internship, I had to learn the basics of SQL, get acquainted with the JavaScript language (please do not confuse with Java), use the jQuery library and a lot of interesting things. In general, a little hapnul everything. As my first Java teacher used to say: “Now the tendency to learn programming languages ​​tends to the letter“ T ”, the horizontal line is a superficial knowledge of several languages, and the vertical line is a profound knowledge of one.”

Yes, the second internship was really interesting. The portfolio of my projects was replenished with various pages with search for goods, authorization pages, etc. But the main graduation project was a site with a bunch of pages and users. I have invested in it everything that I studied for the whole of this year!

Let the force be with you

Well, actually, the moment of truth - they took me as a junior Java developer or, if in “engineering”, then a software engineer of the 3rd category! Finally, I quit my old job and started doing purely programming. Now my main goal is to become Yoda in Java programming!

Yesterday, when I was going to work, my diploma, flying from the top shelf of my wardrobe, encroached on the landing on my head. But my Jedi flair did not disappoint me, and I stopped him with the help of the Great Force. This was the last attempt of the Sith to make me go to the dark side of the Force. But now I know that in order to be a Jedi, no diplomas are needed, but the bright side of the Force and the midi-chlorians are needed!

Here is such a “horizontal promotion” to another branch of the technical industry in just one year. Not so much to radically change the professional direction to one of the most promising in the next few years, or even the rest ... We spend more time at the university for that specialty, which we may never use.

And you, my friend, you work in a promising environment? See the result of your work? Are you ready to work now for the idea? Who do you see yourself in five years? If you answered (a) at least one question "no" or "I do not know," think about it!

Skywalker is all over the horizon. But what about here and now, mmm? The decision is in front of your nose!
Master Yoda