The path of the programmer from working at the factory with a salary of 800 UAH to €€€€ in top companies in Ukraine

Hi, my name is Dima Demchuk. I am a senior Java programmer at Scalors. General programming experience in the IT industry for over 12 years. From a programmer at the plant, I grew to the Senior level and managed to work in top IT-companies in Ukraine. Of course, at that time programming was not yet mainstream, as there was not much competition among IT companies and candidates for every decent position. In the article I will talk about my experience in such companies as: EPAM, Luxoft, GlobalLogic, Nextiva, Ciklum and Scalors.

Career start: study and plant 2008

I always liked mathematics, so the choice towards the faculty of computer science and computing was predictable. I graduated from the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. At the institute, we, like everyone, studied standard programming in Pascal, Delphi, there was also a little C ++. After studying, all of them were employed by distribution, I got to the Aviation Plant Aviation Plant.

Here my story begins. The salary was very low, but as it seemed to me, 800 UAH (at the rate of $ 100) is quite good for a start. In general, abroad, a similar job at an aircraft building plant is very much appreciated and people earn good money, unfortunately, we don’t. I do not know what kept me going, but I worked at the plant for three and a half years. In fact, there was very little work, the salary was calculated during the period of the release, it was important to come and go on time. Basically, we processed data on machines on the JSP. Once even the award was given in the amount of 300 UAH. At some point, I acutely felt that the salary barely enough to live. Approximately, at the same time, my partner moved to a private company and told how cool it was, the tasks are interesting and they pay a lot more. I also thought about changing my job and just one of my colleagues said that his friend was recruiting a team in EPAM and they were ready to consider me.

EPAM and my first dollar salary

After the factory, I went to work at EPAM. Here, for the first time I got a job on a salary pegged to the dollar. I was delighted with everything very different from the factory, especially the salary, which was 12-13 times more. True, I spent about nine months on the betche, I was looking for a project for a very long time, I received a salary, in fact doing nothing. At first, I was hired for a UBS project, but my clients thought for a long time, and how it happens the project did not start. There were a lot of people who, just like me, were sitting without a project, and they needed to be put somewhere. And I got hooked up to the project of the investment bank Barclays Capital. On the technical side used Spring and JSF. I did not work long, because I realized that I had requested a little and asked for a salary increase. But they told me, I'm sorry, but we won't even add $ 300 to you.

My story with Luxoft

Luxoft received an offer on time. I went through a basic interview and they took me. I really liked it there at the beginning. Especially, the first year: the project, colleagues and paid with dignity. In the second year, regular communication problems with customers began to arise, which led to confusion and inefficient work. All because our programmer from the programmer began to abruptly become a manager, he was busy all the time, and in Luxoft direct communication with the client was not practiced. All the questions we could ask only through the team leader or through the product manager. I believe that streamlined communication performs the most important role in effective problem solving. I liked the project, but the tasks didn’t change much, and implementation was hampered due to communication problems, it became a bit boring. Already approached the end of the second year and I asked for a salary increase. I was naturally told that there was no money and they sent a letter, in the contents of which they indicated that they would raise my salary only after half a year. I agreed to stay and wait for the day when I receive the promised premium. It so happened that I was transferred to a new project. Practically, when half a year has already passed, I approached the new manager, who was not informed and of the increase in my salary. Then I sent him a letter, which was stored at the post office and I was paid a salary. I noticed that it is important to keep any promises and agreements in business correspondence or documentation, only then they have the place to be.
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After some time, I was offered a relocation to Poland, which was necessary for the project. Of course, when relocating, a standard contract for a year is applied, which protects both sides of both the customer and the performer, but I still refused. In Ukraine, salaries for programmers were higher than in Poland, because we have lower taxes. Later I was transferred to another project that I didn’t really like.

Frontend in GlobalLogic and again Luxoft

My next project “pleased” with the opportunity to get to know Java Script better. There was also an opportunity to work in a project on Docker. But still, in search of a backend, I moved to GlobalLogic, where I worked for about six months. They promised me a backend, and also warned that there would be a little JS in the beginning, so I agreed. My surprise was limitless when there wasn’t a place for Java among some JS. And all because the guy who was developing the project on the backend was planning to leave and they took me as his replacement. Temporarily put on the front end while he was still working. As a result, when he left, they didn’t bring me back to the backend, but I basically didn’t want to sit on the front end, tasks were petty and such work brought little pleasure.

So I returned to Luxoft, where the task was to transfer the project to new technologies, but the customers refused all newcomers and changed us to the main team in St. Petersburg. They took me to another project, which I wanted to translate to Angular with JQuery and FTL, the customer did not seem to mind, but they did not allocate time for these tasks. My partner once said: “No, I want to stay on FTL, I don’t like JavaScript because there are Script words there,” I remembered this phrase for life.

Nextiva and my dream salary

Periodically, recruiters send me offers on LinkedIn and I answer for fun that I agree with a very large salary, and then some agreed. So I got into Nextiva and for the salary of my dreams. It turned out that people scored a bit too much and they threw me on the Legacy Project. In all major IT companies, what I like is that they promise and pay, even if the project changes. But I don’t like that they often promise one thing, but the output is completely different.

We did not have a team leader, there were only three programmers and one tester with completely different visions and everyone believed that he was right and his solutions were the best. I would have stayed in this company, but in the end our disagreements led to the fact that the customer reduced all the javista and left only the pythonists.

Offer from EPAM

Once, EPAM recruiters called me with a relocation proposal to America, they offered to everyone who worked with them less than 5 years ago. I was offered a normal amount, but not so much to give up life here and move to America, so I refused. Besides, I never wanted to leave Ukraine.

Full Stack, America and Ciklum

In search of a new project, I decided to send a resume to Ciklum, signed, as always, Java Senior Back-end Developer. I was almost immediately invited to an interview and asked if there was any experience with JavaScript, so I told you a bit. I was told well, we take you as a full stack programmer, you will need to go to America for a month. Salary offered good, so I agreed. Visa opened without problems in a couple of days. Initially, the first two weeks we were waiting for the final decision on the project from the customer, the next two weeks we studied technologies that at that time seemed to be quite innovative Mono, Flux. And a total of a month later, I and my partner, who took the girl with me, flew to America, New Jersey. I liked it there, of course, it’s work, and it’s work in America, but in terms of entertainment, there is something to do. On weekends I often went for a walk to New York, it’s just an hour and a half or two from us. Almost everyone drives there, as I have no driver's license, it was terribly inconvenient to get there. My colleague, who took a car and threw me every morning and evening to work and go home.

According to the project, we were taken purely because of the frontend, in order to close holes, there are a lot of java programmers in the States, so there isn’t much need for them, but there is a catastrophic shortage of front-end specialists. I already had quite a good experience from previous projects at the Middle level. When I spoke with my American colleagues and shared my knowledge of the frontend, they said, “Wow, you are so smart.” I wrote the project on TypeScript. In total, I spent exactly one month in America, after which I returned to the Kiev office of Ciklum. Although they took me as a full stack, the tasks were mainly performed only by the frontend. The trend on Full Stack of programmers is justified by the benefit for the customer, but in fact such programmers cannot do well the front-end and backend at the same time, because it is impossible. You need to focus on one thing.

I worked a total of 8 months on the project and one day they threw me out of the virtual machine. I was surprised, because there was no disagreement with the customer. They did not respond to the mail, and a day later Ciklum manager confirmed that they had cut me down. In fact, I completed all the tasks on the frontend, closed the necessary holes, and the customer was no longer needed. In America, it is not very profitable to pay stateless employees, so they turn to outsourcing when they squeeze very hard and also say goodbye very quickly when they are doing all the tasks.

Net Java in Scalors

In the fall of 2018, I was looking for a job for a very long time, about two months, because I wanted to choose a good project and a stable customer. As my current colleagues joke, life has abandoned me. As a result, he was interviewed as a Java developer at the German company Scalors. I had a good experience, so the interview was easy, and the technical part quickly passed. I was offered to start the project in a week. I agreed only on the condition of signing the contract. A couple of weeks I was sent on a business trip to Stuttgart. I was in Germany for the first time, what I liked was the attention of the customers. They were constantly invited to lunch, eat pizza, asked if I was comfortable and took my opinion into account. On the impression of work - this is the second project after Luxoft, which I like. About five months working on the backend. I communicate directly with customers, so there are no misunderstandings about the tasks.

findings

My experience in all the above companies gave a general understanding of how to communicate with recruiters and customers. It is important to get all the details during the interview, especially in terms of tasks.

No one is insured against a change in the mood of customers, even with me it often happened when they take on one project, and as a result are transferred to another. Stability in terms of projects is possible in a grocery company, but on the other hand, when you change projects it is an interesting and unusual experience in terms of learning new technologies.

The most important thing is the mood and spirit within the company and well-established communication with customers.

Text prepared: Marina Tkachenko