On the way to a dream

Some time ago, something radically changed in me and it became clear that there is no point in deceiving myself: I want to get into "the company of my dreams." Naturally, everyone has his own dreams, and mine did not immediately acquire the outlines that it has now. But first things first.

Tell us about yourself

I graduated from the regional branch of a Moscow university, I studied there above average, from the third year I became an excellent student. In the fourth year officially got a job. In principle, in the specialty, but not in the core organization - the local employees got confused and called me a programmer, then a programmer. At that time, thoughts of the “company of my dreams” sometimes visited me, causing painful sensations in the Ego area, but they immediately dismissed me - where is the Company and where am I.

In the world of web programming, I got through the bed through a web-studio engaged in the creation of sites. There are many similar studios, but this one is the best :) I remember that I accidentally saw an announcement at the institute about getting an internship, I decided to go for an interview. Have taken. According to the results of the internship was invited to work.

It was an exciting time. Ignorance of technology and the lack of practical experience forced the brain to work to the fullest, and a great team and an abundance of tasks encouraged to come to work early and leave later. It is true then the excitement abated and routine entered into business. Days away, I built websites on a corporate CMS, wrote modules if necessary - I did my best, so to speak. However, the ordinariness slowly took its toll and aggressively outlined the ceiling in development. As soon as he took shape, there was dissatisfaction with work, unpleasant thoughts, and even (oh no, there could not be) laziness and negligence. Of course, at times there were interesting projects, and at the end I was able to participate in the development of a new version of the corporate CMS, but ...
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Congenital ambitious manners whispered, whispered and eventually whispered that we must go further. And as it often happens, the programmer leaves the company that nursed him for further growth, gaining experience and similar fun. I left too. True, gone badly. In one company, I was simply deceived with a salary and work, in the other they were tortured with flexible development methodologies, in the third they simply did not work out ... It happens — not rushing, as they say. Well, okay. I gathered internally, found work in another city, threw a bag with a laptop, things and my girlfriend on my shoulder (I have a lot of it, yes) and moved. The current situation: a friendly team, understanding bosses, interesting work, pleasant atmosphere and a good salary. And, most importantly, there is time to think ...

Four months ago ...

There is free time - expect trouble.

Procrastination in company with Habrom led me to reading the seemingly innocuous, articles by Alexander Fetisov ( alexfetisov ) about internship on Facebook . What can I say, the article has affected me very much. I well remember my emotions immediately after reading: first, “this is cool, lucky as a guy,” then some resentment and envy - “I’m supposedly working in a normal company, even if it’s a big one, but he ...”, then sadness and despair - "I somehow will not succeed ...". Stop. Who said that? In addition to my internal bugs - no one. And then, the thought that I, too, can try, gave rise to unprecedented inspiration. Param, I am a superhero ... The inspiration a little later cooled a few very specific questions, one of which was, well, the most basic: “How?” And here the thoughts ran off ... Comments on the article, where Alexander and Other habrazhiteli expressed opinions: Kormen and associates, someone Skienna, someone Sedzhvik , topcoder.com and codeforces.ru for a snack. Ok, this is understandable. But ... damn, how to start?

First step

How to start prompted Providence and mailing :) A couple of days at coursera.org Robert Sedgwik's course on algorithms should start - a fairly clear hint, I think. From this and began. I watched the courses, performed the tasks, plus in parallel read the book of the same Sedgwik on the algorithms. The original of the work, not the translated edition, also gave a magic kick in the direction of filling the gaps in the English language. The next was (and is, at the time of writing) Ananias Levitin and his work. Next will be Kormen. Then again Sedgwick, but with a different work.

I am ashamed to admit, but I was scared to go on codeforces.ru and similar sites. Partly because of self-doubt, partly because of the unsuccessful experience of the Olympiad in Informatics in his student years. Well, nothing, he pulled himself together and climbed, because I am already a “star”, I already got acquainted with the course of Bob :) It turned out, not scary, guys, absolutely. Not scary, but incredibly interesting. If I could, I would bite myself on the elbow for not cope with it before. Armed with C ++ and now I solve puzzles, several per day, I try as much as possible, if the work allows. The day before yesterday I took part in the first contest - I didn’t decide anything, really, but I wasn’t upset at all - this is only the beginning. Now I tell everybody what a thrill it is - some do not look very approving :)

I conceived several interesting projects - the mention of their implementation would be a good addition to the summary. One is already very close to completion.

I read a bunch of articles about interviews with large companies, about phone calls, about the interview process itself, about the results. A good source of information in this regard is the glassdoor.com site.

Bye all

In conclusion, I’ll say that I’m starting to get very worried and worried when I think about the future interview in the “company of my dreams”, but sitting still and doing nothing would be even more painful.

Four months have passed since the start of my training and I feel like growing up (Mei bi rastishka from danon in the morning?). I remembered the forgotten, I learned a lot of new things and I am ready to accept even more information - it began to cause really strong emotions. I hit in all directions: English, practical problem solving skills and their theoretical foundations, system design and algorithm design. Yes, a lot has already been done, but more needs to be done - the dream is worth it.

PS Sasha Fetisov, thank you very much.

PPS Thanks to the director ( vasyay ) of the same web studio that raised me for giving an invite.