Veeam Academy for C # Developers: New Season

In the fall of 2018, Veeam Academy will once again open its doors for students who want to upgrade their skills in developing in C # and the .Net Framework.

In this article we want to tell you how classes are held at Veeam Academy, what are the main stages of training, and what the Academy gives to our graduates. All this you learn firsthand, looking under the cat.

Own Academy: why, how and for whom?

The goal of this business project is to search, train, and hire young C # developers from among students and recent university graduates. In this regard, the Academy provides an opportunity for our colleagues involved in the training to get to know the students better. And from the point of view of hiring managers, our course is a kind of interview, test assignment and probation, all together lasting two months.

"Often, the interview process is stressful for the interviewee (and sometimes for the interviewer) and does not allow for full knowledge and skills. In fact, the Academy is a long interview in a comfortable environment for both parties. We have more time to see how people think and it works, how it writes code, to understand how quickly it learns and how it fixes mistakes. This allows you to make an adequate assessment of how one or another potential candidate will cope with the complexity and flow of tasks solved in combat sloviyah. " Denis Serov, Technical Leader.

The students of the Academy allow them to gain experience and practice of industrial development, which is especially important for novice developers at the beginning of their careers. After all, programming is first and foremost a practice.

The course is taught by a professional teacher, Cand. Physics and Mathematics, Dmitry Shalymov.

Many employees of Veeam Software also actively participated in the preparation and organization of the course. They gave presentations, conducted code reviews, mentored students and shared their experiences.

"I, as a mentor, the Academy gives an opportunity to refresh and deepen my knowledge when preparing presentations, to reflect and discuss interesting questions asked by students. As a reviewer and a hiring manager, the Academy gives an excellent opportunity to look at the work of children for a long time, on their ability learn new things, learn from experience and develop - everything that cannot be seen in 2 hours of a regular interview. " Artem Grigoriev, Experienced Developer.

To get to the Veeam Academy, participants undergo preliminary online testing: 30 questions on C #, OOP, multithreading, algorithms, and other topics. Those who scored a passing score, waiting for an interview in the office. The study group is formed from 10-15 students. More information about the results of the spring flow and the qualifying round can be found in our previous article .

“I accidentally stumbled across the Internet from courses at Veeam Academy. But as soon as I read the announcement, I immediately started registering. There were many reasons for this. First of all, it happened that for the past few years I worked with C # and .Net , I liked this stack, although at that time I didn’t even really understand what the development process was, secondly, it’s a convenient time, I’m a student, and this places some restrictions on my time management. I’ve almost got used to it with the fact that the only possibility is some kind of summer practice. But evening ku The Veeam Academy races with an ideal schedule for students were salvation. Well, an additional factor was the atmosphere I felt at the first meeting, at the presentation of the course. " Alexey, graduate of Veeam Academy.

How is the training

At the very beginning of the course, the students choose the topic of a common pilot project, where they will train team development skills. According to the results of the voting, the service of the type of electronic trading platform has repeatedly won. It is intuitive, easy to use, and its prototype is quite possible to have time to prepare for two and a half months.

The project is being developed using the Scrum methodology. For many students, this turns out to be the first experience of team development, and almost none of the students have ever encountered practical experience with Scrum before.

To work on a common project, all students are divided into five groups:
UI - User Interface
BL - Business Logics
DB - DataBases
NWK - Networks
QA - Auto Testing

"During my studies at Veeam Academy, I not only noticeably improved my C # programming skills, but also gained invaluable team development experience. It was the teamwork on the overall task that seemed to me the most interesting and challenging stage. Probably, for the most part the fact that it was a novelty for me. The sense of responsibility before my partners, the awareness of the importance of the task entrusted to you for the project as a whole motivate you to work twice. On top of everything, it was very interesting to see how this mechanism of becoming Mandas - when 15 originally isolated and completely independent programmers establish communication, argue about the problems that arise during the solution of problems, find compromises, support each other and eventually become one. " Alexander, graduate of Veeam Academy.

Also, each student has his own individual individual project, in which students get acquainted with Microsoft.NET technologies. Students' code is checked by Veeam Software employees - leading programmers of the company, to whom students can always turn for advice or recommendation.

“The most fascinating were the lectures in conjunction with the tasks. In some lectures I sat and caught myself thinking“ Ahhh, so this is how it works! ”And it was fixed all later using the lessons learned in tasks that could be discussed with a more experienced developer. It was the most interesting and useful part of the course. " Tatyana, graduate of Veeam Academy.

The course has a point-rating system. The table with the results of each participant is updated every day on a shared resource. It takes into account the activity and performance of the main indicators (laboratory work, team project, intermediate testing, attendance, weekly reports, etc.). Such a system supports many sports interests and motivates to be more active.

The course lasts two and a half months, classes are held three times a week, in the evenings. Let's face it, it is quite intensive, especially since in addition to classes in the office, the guys had to perform laboratory work at home. But, as a rule, projects capture our students, and the time spent on the course flies by.

"The information content of the lectures at the end of the introductory part was higher than I expected: from ways to create an interactive UI to database profiling, from the reactive paradigm to the clean code lectures - the range of topics affected became considerable. reviewer: all the subtleties do not cover the lectures, but when you personally check the code of the problem, which you did not pay attention to before, it becomes obvious. " Alexander, graduate of Veeam Academy.

About motivation

The guys try not to miss classes. Moreover, it has repeatedly happened that someone came in his spare time from lectures and worked in a class on his own. So, for example, according to one student, this was his first experience of working in a team, and he literally “lived by this project” for two months, giving him all his time.

“Going to these courses, I couldn’t imagine that they would absorb me so much. For 2 months Veeam Academy was really very tight in my life. Often, almost all team members came to the office long before the classes began, and left almost at night. Work on the project did not stop at home. Also, the labs were not allowed to relax. Throughout the course, I was in a state of euphoria, indescribable pleasure in knowing that I was a participant in this project. My expectations were full Tew justified: I got invaluable experience of team development training products combined with interesting lectures. " Alexander, graduate of Veeam Academy.

And what after the Academy?

Intensive ends with the protection of their project, the guys represent the program modules and problem solving, in which they were engaged in both individual and team projects.
After completing the course, each student receives a certificate of professional development and a certificate from Veeam Academy. Well, as without graduation? We celebrate it in the restaurant with the whole team: former students and their mentors, who have the opportunity to communicate in an informal setting.

Successful graduates who showed themselves well during the training and were able to demonstrate high results to the hiring managers (ability to write high-quality code, learnability) were invited for interviews to company vacancies.

Already, graduates of past Veeam Academy courses work in our company. Here is one of them:

"The work leaves only good impressions first of all because of the team I work with: all great professionals, communicating with you even with the boss, the atmosphere is as friendly as possible and free from unnecessary formalism. The product is much bigger than anything I have come across before , so it was difficult to understand all the features at first, but everyone is ready to help and explain what and how. The tasks that are put in almost always require a little more than you can, therefore the growth is constantly felt. " Alexander, graduate of Veeam Academy.

Many seek to recommend Veeam Academy to their friends:

"At the end of the course, I can say with confidence that these were the best two months for all the time that I am programming. Of course, even before the end of the course I told my classmates about Veeam Academy and highly recommended. I really hope that they will get on the next course and will also be pleased with his passing. " Alexey, graduate of Veeam Academy.

"During the course, the next day, after another class at the Academy, at the university, I enthusiastically told my classmates about everything that happened the day before. Those, in turn, listened to me very attentively. There was a slight envy and mistrust associated with that they could not imagine that a third-year student without any serious practical experience could take part in something like that. So, Veeam Academy provides such an opportunity. " Alexander, graduate of Veeam Academy.

"I will recommend Veeam Academy to my friends and acquaintances who already have some initial knowledge base in programming, IT in general, and who have already managed to work with C #, with Microsoft technologies and understand that they want to develop as C # developers. For them this intense can be a good start to a career! " Tatyana, graduate of Veeam Academy.

Fall Semester 2018

We are pleased to announce the start of recruitment for the autumn course for C # developers in St. Petersburg and invite everyone to take an online test on the Veeam Academy website.

The course starts on September 24, 2018, will run until mid-December and will, as always, be completely free.

Registration and link to entrance testing is already available on the Academy website: academy.veeam.ru