On the eve of the birthday of the first female programmer: my story

In the picture: Ada Lovelace , who is not only the first female programmer, but also the first programmer in history in general. Born December 10, 1815.

You would know how many times I have heard phrases like "You're a girl, why do you need this?" or "In women, the brain is not adapted to programming." They told me so many times: "We will be doing business here, and you are the decoration of the team." Even worse, if "needed to wipe the board." At the same time, there were sleepless nights, months without leaving the computer, tons of saved videos, bookmarks, courses, articles, and most importantly - a constant battle with yourself and others for the Purpose. And here’s the result: I’m 22 years old, I graduated from university less than a year ago, but already managed to work in the main office of 2GIS in Novosibirsk, and then get a job at Mail.Ru Group. My name is Daria Pushkarskaya, and here I will talk about the chain of events that led me to this result.

There is no specific day on which the decision was made - "I will be a programmer." Everything happened almost by itself. So much so that you can even repeat the banal phrase: it was not me who chose the profession, but it was me. What? It sounds beautiful.

I was born in Kazakhstan in the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk. Even at school, it was not difficult for me to get first at city, and then international programming competitions. The question of choosing a university and specialty, therefore, was also not particularly painful - we take what is given easiest to do for sure. The path of least resistance, yeah. I would have known what he would turn into later.

And everything turned out to be a total disappointment in university education. Even the most interesting subjects and topics there gave crumpled and boring. Of course, there were people who were happy with everything. In general, I often meet people who are “happy with everything”. But personally, my desire to seriously participate in such an educational process disappeared quite quickly.

However, the university still had one big plus - it was time to find yourself and try your hand at various fronts. It’s difficult to talk seriously about it, but with whom I just didn’t work as a bartender, a waitress, a hookah worker, an organizer of events and student parties. I participated in beauty contests, was a model at expo exhibitions (or, for example, a promotional consultant for Lenovo products), and even worked as an assistant to the head of a modeling agency. And everywhere the same thought haunted me: it should not be so. That is, it’s normal to earn extra money when you are a student. But I met guys who are 25-30-30 years old, and they did the same.

Once I tried on this scenario for myself and was horrified. Then she calmed down and decided to stop and look at her own life from the side. At that moment, I realized that I already had three courses behind me, and I don’t want to continue to “earn extra money” after university. I set myself the goal - to graduate from university, being a sought-after specialist, and as a diploma to bring a really cool project, done from start to finish on my own.

From this moment, it seems, I no longer parted with the computer. She saved an apartment for accumulated savings and moved out of the hostel, completely enclosing herself. I even got a dog so that at least something made me regularly leave the house and breathe fresh air. At the same time, in spite of everything, I felt happy.

The choice of direction for that “cool project” fell on web technologies because of their relevance in the market and my craving for animations, dynamics and visual component. And then diving began - to the depths of the topic. There were hundreds of pinned tabs, saved demos, downloaded and sorted by video daddy. All the examples that I did on the video were also saved to files and sorted into folders. I subscribed to many VKontakte groups and YouTube channels. It was impossible to tear me from the computer.

So I sat for three months. This was my first summer in my life, when I didn’t sunbathe and didn’t sunbathe in principle. However, no regrets. The only thing that really worried me was that learning was too slow. I began to worry that I would not succeed.

Then I spent a good part of my savings on courses. Only 20 thousand rubles, but for me it was as much as 20 thousand rubles for an online course, provided that before I did not even buy things on the Internet. The most interesting thing is that I obviously did not choose a training program in terms of my level, but I promised myself that I would finish it better. It was crazy - a lot of new technologies, knowledge, again pinned tabs and the search for additional information. So you can call a whole stage in life - "the time of pinned tabs." This is the time when you are really inspired by something.

With the end of the holidays, the university began again, where, in order to pass "three", one also had to work hard. In combination with additional courses, time pressure was obtained. Webinars began at 20.00 Moscow time. It was already 11 pm in Novosibirsk, and classes were going on for 3-4 hours. Then HE came into my life - a polyphase dream. From that time I’m with this guy on you.

A little shock, by the way, was the very first task on the course - to get to know your classmates. In my lifestyle, where only I and the code were, everything suited me. Nothing could disturb my peace. However, the experience was useful. We were divided into teams of the most successful students, and together we worked on a common project. My first project in a team. Moreover, I was a team leader. Briefly describe the essence of the work, then we did watermarks. I have this project, by the way,survived on GitHub , it has now become for me something like an album with photos, on which you can nostalgic and remember how fun it was with some people.

One way or another, the thing was done. And that is to say the least. I just chose a new course for myself, as I received a gift for the New Year. Tars developer Artyom Malko, whom I asked about using its builder, noticed a watermarked project. He sent me a link to my own repository and directly asked: “What do you have to do with this project?” I almost started to make excuses! When all the points on i were placed, Artyom suggested I try my hand at his company, and after the New Year and a series of interviews, I worked in 2GIS.

Here I got a great leader - Timofey Chaptykov, the developer of Makeup . And in general, I got into a strong team of very cool guys and team lead Roman Salnikov (here is one of his reports: “ State Management in Redux ”). Fortunately there was no limit! They allowed me to work at eleven, but I was there from nine in the morning. She left at night simply because I was interested! The technologies that were used in the team were generally crazy - React, webpack, redux, mongodb. All in all, a complete set of hipsters.

At the same time, I tried to share everything that I learned with other novice developers. I used my free time (read - nights) to teach at the online web development school. I was eager to talk about the newly acquired knowledge to others. I liked to help them grow and develop. And still like it!

With this kind of fueling, of course, I made my “cool project” by graduating from the university. Imagine my disappointment when no one understood a word in defense of the thesis. For the selection committee, my site did not visually differ from the site on the designer. However, by this moment no one had expected anything from the university.

I continued to work with great pleasure, but soon got another bandwagon. I made close friends, I became attached to people, and they began to leave the company ... One by one. Important for me people, cool specialists flew to other countries or went to competitors. This really upset me: okay - one, well, two, but not in orderly rows?

And then I decided that I also want to change the location to Moscow. By that time, I was already trying on my own to organize parties for developers in Novosibirsk, but nothing worked out for me. In the capital of such events there was always a sea, so I agreed with 2GIS to transfer to the Moscow office.

Before the move, I had to fly to a conference at the Mail.Ru Group at the Moscow Loftblog Meetup to make a presentation there:How long does it take to learn new technology? ". And imagine, right before the flight I was informed that the very one, the office I needed was being closed! But do not change your mind because of this? After the conference, I went through an interview at Mail.Ru Group and, not having time to get out of the plane in Novosibirsk, received a call with a job offer.

Now I am in an excellent team of media project developers. More recently, the trial period was closed, and I finally got my slippers. In parallel, although I no longer work in an online school, I continue to share experience and knowledge with novice developers.



Agree, all this looks like a set of many coincidences? But they wouldn’t be there, if I didn’t use my best efforts in order to increase their probability. Yes, I heard a lot of unpleasant words. Yes, it was hard at times. Perhaps someone will even consider me an upstart. But let me repeat something from the very beginning of this story - "I am 22 years old, I graduated from university less than a year ago." For me, everything is just beginning! I am sure that for many of you as well. Therefore, if you have difficulties, questions or doubts, write to me. Sorry for the big words, but there are no accidents. There are only goals that we achieve.