Do not be afraid to try, or How I became a programmer at an age far beyond 29
With the growth of the IT industry has increased the influx of fresh frames. The network has a huge number of programming courses, even on the streets now handing out flyers of children's programming schools. This profession is young and at the peak of its popularity. The average portrait of a novice developer is a beardless guy, a graduate of a good technical college, for example, Baumanki or MSU.
Few are willing to hire a 30-year-old former waiter or dancer for a Junior Developer position.
Fortunately, Moscow is a city of possibilities. At the interview I didn’t avoid unpleasant questions: “What did you do before 30 years old?” “Why did you decide to become a programmer?” “Why do you have no children? It would be time already. ”“ Are you married? ”“ Where do you live? Are you shooting or in yours? ”“ Why didn’t they graduate from high school? ” But first things first.
I spent 10 years working as a go go dancer in nightclubs. I do not say this at the interview so that the employer does not consider me stupid and frivolous. My background was 2 prerequisites:
I learned programming by myself on the Internet. There are communities of web developers: chat rooms, forums, blogs. I studied, communicating with them, performing tasks, asking questions.
I'm from a small town, just a point on the map. There are no development companies in the usual resort town. I realized that I didn’t want and couldn’t dance in clubs all my life. Therefore, I spent 3 years at home studying layout and web development, in parallel with copyright on the exchange.
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A couple of times I went to local web studios, but their owners were freelancing, had a shortage of orders and could not pay me. Then I moved to Moscow and settled in a hostel. There she settled down to dance at the same time attending interviews.
Unexpectedly, I managed to get a job in an entrepreneur without registration, the owner of which did and promoted websites for his clients. I worked for 30 thousand a month, accidentally broke the site and ran to another place.
The second place to work was the web studio, the owner of which underpaid its employees. For 1.5 months I was paid only 20 thousand. I kept looking for work.
A month later, I got involved in an outsourcing company thanks to my excellent English. Salary was upper middle . I was very proud of my achievement. For a whole year I tested WordPress and realized that I was not growing as a developer, either in terms of salary or professionally.
After that I changed 2 more companies. Now I work in the third - a large mobile operator. We have a great team and corporate culture. No one forces to sit for 9 hours, there is a focus on the result, not an imitation of work. 2 days you can work from home. This is very important to me, because I live outside Moscow and get 1.5 hours to the center and 2 hours to work. Year engaged in the development of VueJS and I really like it.
When I started to look for a job as a PHP junior developer, I performed a simple test in one consulting firm. After doing it, I wrote HR and asked where I worked until 29. I replied that it was nowhere. I was not called back.
A year later, I came across this letter and decided to look for a company. I found them on My Circle. A month after my test, they took a 30-year-old woman to a PHP junior position, who had worked for Delphi for 8 years and had a technical tower. She worked there for a year and was still listed as a PHP junior.
There was another case when the Security Council of a large bank did not let me go to work due to the fact that I did not have work until 2017. Since then, I delete letters from HR banks without reading.
IT is not a place where you can quickly and easily make a lot of money. If you are an age-old switcher, and even more so a woman, then get ready to face ageism and sexism, discriminatory questions at the interview, glass ceiling, under-pay:
Programming is an exciting activity that resembles a game. You feel yourself a creator, meaningful. You feel that you are changing the world by developing the interface of the internal system. And this is cool, this is self-realization. And if you like it, then do not be afraid of difficulties on the way to your dreamjob. The main thing is to be very honest in answering the question: Why am I going to IT?
Few are willing to hire a 30-year-old former waiter or dancer for a Junior Developer position.
Fortunately, Moscow is a city of possibilities. At the interview I didn’t avoid unpleasant questions: “What did you do before 30 years old?” “Why did you decide to become a programmer?” “Why do you have no children? It would be time already. ”“ Are you married? ”“ Where do you live? Are you shooting or in yours? ”“ Why didn’t they graduate from high school? ” But first things first.
Where I worked before IT
I spent 10 years working as a go go dancer in nightclubs. I do not say this at the interview so that the employer does not consider me stupid and frivolous. My background was 2 prerequisites:
- I loved to read, write and meditate a lot.
- I loved spending free time on the Internet.
“Perfectionism prevents us from taking double steps in our career. We think we’re perfect, but we don’t. ”- Reshma Saujani
How I taught programming
I learned programming by myself on the Internet. There are communities of web developers: chat rooms, forums, blogs. I studied, communicating with them, performing tasks, asking questions.
I'm from a small town, just a point on the map. There are no development companies in the usual resort town. I realized that I didn’t want and couldn’t dance in clubs all my life. Therefore, I spent 3 years at home studying layout and web development, in parallel with copyright on the exchange.
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“A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality of women and men.”
- Gloria Steinem
How I found a job
A couple of times I went to local web studios, but their owners were freelancing, had a shortage of orders and could not pay me. Then I moved to Moscow and settled in a hostel. There she settled down to dance at the same time attending interviews.
Unexpectedly, I managed to get a job in an entrepreneur without registration, the owner of which did and promoted websites for his clients. I worked for 30 thousand a month, accidentally broke the site and ran to another place.
“For what you want. It’s easy to use it. ”- Olivia Pavco-Giaccia
First years of work
The second place to work was the web studio, the owner of which underpaid its employees. For 1.5 months I was paid only 20 thousand. I kept looking for work.
A month later, I got involved in an outsourcing company thanks to my excellent English. Salary was upper middle . I was very proud of my achievement. For a whole year I tested WordPress and realized that I was not growing as a developer, either in terms of salary or professionally.
What are the conditions now
After that I changed 2 more companies. Now I work in the third - a large mobile operator. We have a great team and corporate culture. No one forces to sit for 9 hours, there is a focus on the result, not an imitation of work. 2 days you can work from home. This is very important to me, because I live outside Moscow and get 1.5 hours to the center and 2 hours to work. Year engaged in the development of VueJS and I really like it.
Funny case
When I started to look for a job as a PHP junior developer, I performed a simple test in one consulting firm. After doing it, I wrote HR and asked where I worked until 29. I replied that it was nowhere. I was not called back.
A year later, I came across this letter and decided to look for a company. I found them on My Circle. A month after my test, they took a 30-year-old woman to a PHP junior position, who had worked for Delphi for 8 years and had a technical tower. She worked there for a year and was still listed as a PHP junior.
“I think it’s very important to get more women in computing. My slogan is: “To be left to men.” - Karen Spärck JonesIt amused me, because in a year I had grown to a fullstack middle in a large company without a tower and 8 years of development experience, and she continued to sit in the juna in a web studio. This suggests that the experience and availability of those. towers do not always talk about the learner’s skills and skills.
There was another case when the Security Council of a large bank did not let me go to work due to the fact that I did not have work until 2017. Since then, I delete letters from HR banks without reading.
Instead of an epilogue
IT is not a place where you can quickly and easily make a lot of money. If you are an age-old switcher, and even more so a woman, then get ready to face ageism and sexism, discriminatory questions at the interview, glass ceiling, under-pay:
- You will always lose a fresh guy, a graduate of a good university in the eyes of the employer
- Working in male teams is not easy. Often they swear, joke is indecent or share with you intimate details of personal life.
- As a girl, you can run into a boss or a senior developer who will put pressure on you and scream like a man. This is called a "toxic team", it’s better to leave
- You can get 1 monitor and a bad PC without a SSD with 4 gigabytes of RAM and a corporate network, prohibiting work from your favorite MacBook
- You can get a mediocre office without Conder in the industrial zone, without tennis, fitness, Xbox and even a coffee machine. But do you go to the profession for the coffee machine and Xbox?
- Or for the MacBook?
- Or maybe you go to IT for untold wages?
- Or friendship with strange bearded men in stretched sweaters with a strange sense of humor?
Programming is an exciting activity that resembles a game. You feel yourself a creator, meaningful. You feel that you are changing the world by developing the interface of the internal system. And this is cool, this is self-realization. And if you like it, then do not be afraid of difficulties on the way to your dreamjob. The main thing is to be very honest in answering the question: Why am I going to IT?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/446044/
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