19 years in the same language. The story of how the Olympiad from Belarus became C ++ Chief Software Architect
It seems that Crossover has become a tradition to announce their career tournaments , telling about people who are already working on the specialization that will be selected. But today's case is special: although the “fitting” for the role of Chief Software Architect on April 7 is taking place in Moscow, our “Chief Software Architect of the Day” lives not even in Russia, but in the next republic for default habranation. Apparently, this is why Crossover offered me an interview with him - maybe they were hoping for some special Belarusian perspective in the conversation of two Belarusians, two Minskers and two freelancers?
However, it is now Sergey rserge Rogach lives and works in Minsk. The future Chief Software Architect of the company was born in the tenth-thousandth town of Deep Vitebsk Province, in the underbelly of the Braslav Lakes - and this series of toponyms as if takes it further, somewhere in the direction of the forest of Fangorn, lying in the spurs of the Misty Mountains ...
Raise your hands, who wants more to the Braslav Lakes than in Chicago?
')
... only Sergey after the ninth grade entered the lyceum at BSU - one of the most prestigious schools of Belarus at the main university of the country. Studying there in 2001–2003 was not boring to anyone: the abbreviation of BSU rumbled as the name of one of the funniest KVN teams in history, and two years in a row Sergei got into the top four high school students who represented Belarus at the international programming competition.
“In 2002 we flew to Korea, in 2003 - to the USA. Group of four - but we were not a team. Teams perform at the university. At school competitions, it is usually every man for himself. ”
Both times the program of the Olympiad was a classic: the chosen programming language had to solve the set algorithmic problem as quickly and efficiently as possible.
“Many participants then used pascal, but I preferred C ++, which I met back in 1999 and which, by the way, I am still writing,” says Versata’s C ++ Chief Software Architect, Sergei Rogach, “I chose C / S for myself ++ still in school years, and deliberately. Pascal, then widespread, was much slower and less common in the production environment. ”
From both trips he brought bronze medals, but not for third place:
“They were distributed to all who entered on the points in the first 50% of the participants. In my case, it was the hundredth place in Korea and one hundred and twenty-eighth in the United States, ” Sergei does not even think to grab, showing his“ bronze ”.
However, this is the case when the Olympic principle “the main thing is participation” is not just words. Sergey notes that he still appreciates the “habits of the olympiadist” that he gained at school then: first, the ability to solve problems quickly is imparted. Secondly, the skill to write clean and neat code was obtained, without which there is nothing to “catch” at olympiads of a level above the region.
“Olympiad as a type of learning activity develops useful skills excellently. I'm not talking about specific knowledge of programming languages ​​or some kind of "chips", but about a general discipline: all the olympiad tasks require you to squeeze out the "maximum" from both the code and your own brains. On the one hand, even if your program is correct, but it works slower, you lose. On the other hand, there are no resources for long thoughts. You should know how you will implement your own decision "here and now." This is an excellent experience, albeit fifteen years ago, hardening, which has no shelf life. "
It would seem that there is a choice: after the lyceum of the BSU programmer-olympiadnik, only the faculty of applied mathematics and computer science of the BSU could wait.
Now, in 2018, there are strong departments in BSUIR (the former Minsk RTI, I think, this abbreviation will be more understandable to non-Belarusians), but in 2003–2004 FPMI “vacuum cleaner” of all potential programmers and strong mathematicians. However, he still “vacuums” of mathematicians - only not everyone can survive studies at this faculty.
“But I have never been a strong mathematician - many guys in my background were monsters of science. I basically do not think that a strong programmer must necessarily be a strong mathematician. The science? It is possible, the options and outputs, like the "Olympiad" I had. But the difficulty of being a scientist is that they do not create the conditions for themselves, but work in the created ones. And they should be worthy, which is impossible at the rate of a scientist in Belarus. So even in the second year of BSU, I started working, and at the end of the fourth year I left him completely. ”
During those few years, Sergei managed to work hard and gain experience in two large international outsourcing companies at once - Itransition and EPAM - which opened offices in Minsk at the beginning of the nine years. However, these names may be familiar to many: EPAM has a large office in Novosibirsk, and even “Itra” geography is not the most modest.
From outsourcing to freelancing - one step that Sergey took in 2008, enrolling in the University of Amsterdam and leaving to live in the Netherlands to complete his education. Not without nostalgia, of course:
“At home, at BSU, there were only teachers who really had“ eyes burning ”and who were incredibly strong both in their subject matter and in scientific terms. And there were others who frankly didn’t care: they read lectures to themselves from paper, “hours” working off. In Amsterdam, everything was “smooth”. I did not meet some of the teachers of the stars, for whom the students ran after herds, but also did not see those who were “serving”, but did not work. But, as it seems to me, the Belarusian school can grow up scientists-stars. A Dutch - to ensure a stable level of mass education. Both systems have their pros and cons. "
When you went to Holland mind-mind to recruit and complete training
After graduating from university in 2010 with a master's degree in the specialty “Artificial Intelligence”, Sergey again had to make a decision. The need to learn a new, not the most common, and therefore not the most universal language, the unusual device of state-bureaucratic realities and the high cost of living (and Amsterdam is one of the most expensive cities in Europe!) - all this fell on the minuses.
“Honestly, on returning home, I thought to change the freelance to a“ normal ”office job. But every time I closed another major project and began to search for a permanent place, an order was tweaked that was “tastier” than a badge, tea, coffee, and communication with colleagues. In general, this is how I remained on freelance, having gained “experience” for about seven years: new clients, orders, individual entrepreneurs, accounting, and so on. In general, now life in this regard has become much simpler, at least in Belarus; Earlier it was necessary to roll every quarter to the tax and file a declaration on paper. The last few years have introduced an electronic declaration system, which significantly simplifies life. However, even the simplified bureaucracy strains me by its own fact so far. But what can you do - it is necessary to submit declarations.
The most difficult thing was in a one-room apartment with a small child. Daughters need to sleep, and me - to work. But, as a result, it is thanks to my work that we no longer have to face such a choice. ”
And Sergey’s transition to work in the ESW Capital group of companies turned out to be probably the most even of the other stories on this blog: already in freelance, already with his accountancy and living in Belarus, where he hasn’t yet conducted full-time Crossover tournaments, Showcase "Crossover in the regular period of the client search as a potential C ++ Chief Software Architect literally without getting up from the chair. Then all the guns on the wall were fired: the algorithmic tasks for which he had been trained at school and many years of experience in remote work were also useful. As a result, Sergei began to work for the company Versata.
“Among other things, I was working on an application that optimizes network performance, then as a database balancer, now I'm optimizing Cypher queries and Neo4j database for searching anti-patterns. Working on these projects gave me a deeper knowledge of Linux. ”
Science seems to have lost it. And not only Belarusian:
“My wife and I thought about immigration, but so far there have been no really worthwhile offers. And even “there”, in the West, in order to feel comfortable and not wrestle with the monthly budget, you need to have a degree not lower than PhD, which you still need to get. It's not about the money as such. And the ability to arrange your life according to the most basic criteria is comfortable enough to not think about comfort anymore. I respect the choice of those who are willing to fight and do science "for the idea." But I made my choice in favor of commercial development a long time ago.
Now, after more than fifteen years of work, I am working in the position of C ++ Chief Software Architect. If I get bored, I can always return to the classic freelance - my experience will allow me to find a large project for six months or a year. ”
And this, by the way, is logical: often emigration ceases to be a fetish when you are able and at home to feed yourself adequately. In the XXI century, “where he was born, it was useful there” was not hopeless fatalism, but the free choice of happy people.
And if you are at this weekend in Moscow, you can try to make your choice at the “Personnel Tournament” to select professionals who can qualify for a Chief Software Architect or Software Engineering Manager contract. You can evaluate your strength and level this Saturday.
However, it is now Sergey rserge Rogach lives and works in Minsk. The future Chief Software Architect of the company was born in the tenth-thousandth town of Deep Vitebsk Province, in the underbelly of the Braslav Lakes - and this series of toponyms as if takes it further, somewhere in the direction of the forest of Fangorn, lying in the spurs of the Misty Mountains ...
Raise your hands, who wants more to the Braslav Lakes than in Chicago?
')
... only Sergey after the ninth grade entered the lyceum at BSU - one of the most prestigious schools of Belarus at the main university of the country. Studying there in 2001–2003 was not boring to anyone: the abbreviation of BSU rumbled as the name of one of the funniest KVN teams in history, and two years in a row Sergei got into the top four high school students who represented Belarus at the international programming competition.
"In principle, I do not think that a strong programmer must necessarily be a strong mathematician."
“In 2002 we flew to Korea, in 2003 - to the USA. Group of four - but we were not a team. Teams perform at the university. At school competitions, it is usually every man for himself. ”
Both times the program of the Olympiad was a classic: the chosen programming language had to solve the set algorithmic problem as quickly and efficiently as possible.
“Many participants then used pascal, but I preferred C ++, which I met back in 1999 and which, by the way, I am still writing,” says Versata’s C ++ Chief Software Architect, Sergei Rogach, “I chose C / S for myself ++ still in school years, and deliberately. Pascal, then widespread, was much slower and less common in the production environment. ”
From both trips he brought bronze medals, but not for third place:
“They were distributed to all who entered on the points in the first 50% of the participants. In my case, it was the hundredth place in Korea and one hundred and twenty-eighth in the United States, ” Sergei does not even think to grab, showing his“ bronze ”.
However, this is the case when the Olympic principle “the main thing is participation” is not just words. Sergey notes that he still appreciates the “habits of the olympiadist” that he gained at school then: first, the ability to solve problems quickly is imparted. Secondly, the skill to write clean and neat code was obtained, without which there is nothing to “catch” at olympiads of a level above the region.
“Olympiad as a type of learning activity develops useful skills excellently. I'm not talking about specific knowledge of programming languages ​​or some kind of "chips", but about a general discipline: all the olympiad tasks require you to squeeze out the "maximum" from both the code and your own brains. On the one hand, even if your program is correct, but it works slower, you lose. On the other hand, there are no resources for long thoughts. You should know how you will implement your own decision "here and now." This is an excellent experience, albeit fifteen years ago, hardening, which has no shelf life. "
The choice between career and science
It would seem that there is a choice: after the lyceum of the BSU programmer-olympiadnik, only the faculty of applied mathematics and computer science of the BSU could wait.
Now, in 2018, there are strong departments in BSUIR (the former Minsk RTI, I think, this abbreviation will be more understandable to non-Belarusians), but in 2003–2004 FPMI “vacuum cleaner” of all potential programmers and strong mathematicians. However, he still “vacuums” of mathematicians - only not everyone can survive studies at this faculty.
“But I have never been a strong mathematician - many guys in my background were monsters of science. I basically do not think that a strong programmer must necessarily be a strong mathematician. The science? It is possible, the options and outputs, like the "Olympiad" I had. But the difficulty of being a scientist is that they do not create the conditions for themselves, but work in the created ones. And they should be worthy, which is impossible at the rate of a scientist in Belarus. So even in the second year of BSU, I started working, and at the end of the fourth year I left him completely. ”
During those few years, Sergei managed to work hard and gain experience in two large international outsourcing companies at once - Itransition and EPAM - which opened offices in Minsk at the beginning of the nine years. However, these names may be familiar to many: EPAM has a large office in Novosibirsk, and even “Itra” geography is not the most modest.
Grand Embassy to Holland
From outsourcing to freelancing - one step that Sergey took in 2008, enrolling in the University of Amsterdam and leaving to live in the Netherlands to complete his education. Not without nostalgia, of course:
“At home, at BSU, there were only teachers who really had“ eyes burning ”and who were incredibly strong both in their subject matter and in scientific terms. And there were others who frankly didn’t care: they read lectures to themselves from paper, “hours” working off. In Amsterdam, everything was “smooth”. I did not meet some of the teachers of the stars, for whom the students ran after herds, but also did not see those who were “serving”, but did not work. But, as it seems to me, the Belarusian school can grow up scientists-stars. A Dutch - to ensure a stable level of mass education. Both systems have their pros and cons. "
When you went to Holland mind-mind to recruit and complete training
After graduating from university in 2010 with a master's degree in the specialty “Artificial Intelligence”, Sergey again had to make a decision. The need to learn a new, not the most common, and therefore not the most universal language, the unusual device of state-bureaucratic realities and the high cost of living (and Amsterdam is one of the most expensive cities in Europe!) - all this fell on the minuses.
Attempts to get down
“Honestly, on returning home, I thought to change the freelance to a“ normal ”office job. But every time I closed another major project and began to search for a permanent place, an order was tweaked that was “tastier” than a badge, tea, coffee, and communication with colleagues. In general, this is how I remained on freelance, having gained “experience” for about seven years: new clients, orders, individual entrepreneurs, accounting, and so on. In general, now life in this regard has become much simpler, at least in Belarus; Earlier it was necessary to roll every quarter to the tax and file a declaration on paper. The last few years have introduced an electronic declaration system, which significantly simplifies life. However, even the simplified bureaucracy strains me by its own fact so far. But what can you do - it is necessary to submit declarations.
The most difficult thing was in a one-room apartment with a small child. Daughters need to sleep, and me - to work. But, as a result, it is thanks to my work that we no longer have to face such a choice. ”
And Sergey’s transition to work in the ESW Capital group of companies turned out to be probably the most even of the other stories on this blog: already in freelance, already with his accountancy and living in Belarus, where he hasn’t yet conducted full-time Crossover tournaments, Showcase "Crossover in the regular period of the client search as a potential C ++ Chief Software Architect literally without getting up from the chair. Then all the guns on the wall were fired: the algorithmic tasks for which he had been trained at school and many years of experience in remote work were also useful. As a result, Sergei began to work for the company Versata.
“Among other things, I was working on an application that optimizes network performance, then as a database balancer, now I'm optimizing Cypher queries and Neo4j database for searching anti-patterns. Working on these projects gave me a deeper knowledge of Linux. ”
Science seems to have lost it. And not only Belarusian:
“My wife and I thought about immigration, but so far there have been no really worthwhile offers. And even “there”, in the West, in order to feel comfortable and not wrestle with the monthly budget, you need to have a degree not lower than PhD, which you still need to get. It's not about the money as such. And the ability to arrange your life according to the most basic criteria is comfortable enough to not think about comfort anymore. I respect the choice of those who are willing to fight and do science "for the idea." But I made my choice in favor of commercial development a long time ago.
Now, after more than fifteen years of work, I am working in the position of C ++ Chief Software Architect. If I get bored, I can always return to the classic freelance - my experience will allow me to find a large project for six months or a year. ”
And this, by the way, is logical: often emigration ceases to be a fetish when you are able and at home to feed yourself adequately. In the XXI century, “where he was born, it was useful there” was not hopeless fatalism, but the free choice of happy people.
And if you are at this weekend in Moscow, you can try to make your choice at the “Personnel Tournament” to select professionals who can qualify for a Chief Software Architect or Software Engineering Manager contract. You can evaluate your strength and level this Saturday.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/352832/
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