How IT professionals work. Anton Karpov, Head of Security at Yandex

We continue to ask specialists about the mode of work and rest, professional habits, the tools they use, and much more.

It will be interesting to find out what unites them, in what they contradict each other. Perhaps their answers will help to identify some general patterns, useful tips that will help many of us.
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Today our guest is Anton Karpov, the head of security. Anton is one of those who are ready to give subordinates a “second chance” several times in a row, delegating tasks to them. He believes that only in this way the manager will be able to avoid overloads.

What do you do in the company?

I do everything so that everything in Yandex is safe and human.

One phrase (phrase) best describes how you work:

I care.

How many hours a day do you spend on work?

I always work. Even on weekends, on vacation, in a bar, and so on: anyway, I sit with the phone, check my mail, watch calls in the messenger. I do not perceive my work as “I came, worked N hours, went home and forgot”.

How many hours do you sleep?

Hours 6-7.

Do you have breakfast

Very rarely. When I have time. I can easily skip breakfast.

How long does the road take?

20-30 minutes.

How do you spend your time on the road?

I listen to music in the car.

What kind of todo-manager do you use personally?

This is not a todo manager, this is a Notes program on Mac.

What issue tracker'om / repository do you use?

We have everything in Yandex.

What tools, frameworks do you use for development?

We have a monitoring system, our own console ... - in general, specific tools for security tasks.

Do you have any internal projects or libraries in your division, and why were they created?

Yes. Because of our specifics, tools such as security analysis tools, vulnerability scanners, and so on, are created inside. Ready-made solutions that are on the market do not suit us: their customization takes too much time.

Well, in general, creating your own tools is part of the Yandex corporate culture.

What annoys you most in the professional field?

Ignorance, and when people are stupid.

What professional literature would you recommend?

If a person has a favorite book, and he can easily name it, then, in my understanding, there is a sign of limitation: the person did not read anything except this.

During my professional life, I read so many things, that now I cannot single out specific books.

What do you prefer: electronic reading rooms or paper books?

Paper books.

What technology (computers, tablets, smartphones) and operating systems do you prefer at work and at home?

At work - Mac and its standard software. There is UNIX under the hood, a convenient GUI, and a nice piece of hardware. Although in the past year, two or three Mac OSs have become less and less like “classic” Unix, and many things have become annoying. Therefore, perhaps I will move on to something simpler.

I have ThinkPad and OpenBSD at home.

Do you listen to music when you work?

Not. For me, music can not be the background. It is necessary to listen, not being distracted by work.

Which life hack allows you to be more efficient?

Surround yourself with people you can trust, delegate important and voluminous tasks.

When you lead a big service, you either fall into the micromanagement and you don’t have time for anything, or you delegate. If people did something bad the first time, then you should give them a chance: the second or third time they will do better.

Thus, they can become your deputies, who can safely delegate certain directions. And most do new horizons.

What applications and services can you do without in your work or in your personal life?

Mail, calendar, messenger. By the way, I do not like messengers, but I consider them to be an inevitable evil. I am a retrograde, I don’t like it when people try to solve work issues in the messenger, which are better addressed in the mail. In the messenger correspondence is not saved. If you did not have time to respond promptly (and instant messengers imply an instant response, as in SMS), then the discussion is delayed, the details are forgotten.

What would Anton Karpov write in a letter to the future to himself?

There is nothing impracticable. Everywhere people, with all people can communicate.

You have come a long way. And someone is now at the beginning of this path. What would you recommend to a person trying to go the same way?

If you like something - do it. Now there are a lot of resources, books, publications, the Internet everywhere. If earlier I wanted to install, for example, the Linux distribution, in order to just play around, I had to download it over dial-up for several nights. And people who started, for example, in the 80s, will tell even more terrible stories.

And if you are told that it is harmful to sit at the computer for days, that it is “cool and right” to engage in “social life”, travel, and so on, and you like to run at the computer, then do not listen to anyone. Because the only way to achieve something: the maximum time to devote only what you like.