Why attach an applied linguist?

“What the matter? This is the many glorious way. ”
ON. Nekrasov

Hello!

My name is Karina, and I am a “part-time worker” - combining studies in a magistracy and the work of a technical writer at Veeam Software. About how I got it, I want to tell. At the same time, someone will learn how to come to this profession, and what advantages and disadvantages I see for myself in my work while studying.

I work at Veeam without a year and a half year and a half, and it was the richest half year of my life. I am writing technical documentation (and I am learning to write it) - now I am working on a guide for Veeam ONE Reporter ( here it is ) and guides on the Veeam Availability Console (there was an article on Habré about it) for end users and resellers. I am also one of those who find it difficult to answer the question "Where did you come from?" The question "How do you spend your free time?" Is also not an easy one.
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Looking working student when they complain about the lack of free time

If it is necessary (and if I strain my brain), I can write some program or even a simple neural network on keras. If you are very tense, then at tensorflow. Or conduct a semantic analysis of the text. Maybe write for this program. Or declare that the design is no good, and justify it with the Norman heuristics and user experience funnels. Joke, I don't remember heuristics by heart . I will also tell you about my studies, but let's start with where I came from and why it is quite difficult to explain (especially at the university). And as you already understood, Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov, a classic of Russian literature, will help me.

“You will be at the university! A dream will come true! ”

I was born in Dimitrovgrad. Few people know, but this is a town in the Ulyanovsk region, and the Ulyanovsk region (as shown by communication with people, very few people know about it too) is located in the Volga region, and the Volga region is around the Volga, from the confluence of the Oka and below . We have a scientific institute of nuclear reactors, but not every Dimitrovgrad schoolboy decides to devote himself to nuclear physics.


Dimitrovgrad, Central District. Photos from kolov.info

Therefore, when the question of higher education arose, it became clear that they would send me away from home for a long time. And then I had to thoroughly think about who I want to be when I grow up to whom I want to learn.

I still have no answer to the question of what I want to become when I grow up, so I had to proceed from what I like to do. And I liked, I can say, the opposite things: on the one hand, literature and foreign languages, on the other - mathematics (and to some extent programming, I mean computer science).

In search of a combination of the incompatible, I came across a program for training linguists and programmers, implemented at the Higher School of Economics - Higher School of Economics (hereinafter - “HSE”) in Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod. Since I have a persistent allergy to Moscow, it was decided to submit documents to Nizhny, where I successfully entered the bachelor's program “Fundamental and Applied Linguistics”.

Having survived an avalanche of questions like “Higher School of Economics - will you be an economist?”, “There is a tower everywhere, what kind of university?” And other associations on the topic of capital punishment and “who will you work?”, I arrived in Nizhny, settled in the hostel and began to live cheerful student everyday life. The main fun was that of us were to be applied linguists, but what to attach ...


Jokes about linguistic programmers

It was precisely to programming that we were mainly applied, right up to machine learning and writing neural grids in Python, but it was still not very clear who was to blame and what to do after graduating from the university.

Salvation was the obscure phrase "technical writer", which appeared first in the lexicon of my mother, and then the teachers of the course as much as 4. Although it was a beast and what it was eaten with, it was little clear. It seems humanitarian work, but it is necessary to understand the technique, and, perhaps, even be able to write code (or at least read it). But it is not exactly.


3 of the most incredible hybrids on our planet: tigrolev, spoon, technical writer

Just at the 4th year, I first encountered this profession, that is, a vacancy for it, at Intel, where I was even called for an interview. Perhaps I would have stayed there if not for two circumstances:

• The end of the bachelor’s degree was coming up and the diploma was still not written, and I didn’t find a master’s program that I liked.
• Suddenly, the 2018 Mundial arrived, and all the students were politely asked from the hostel sometime in the middle of May, because they gave the hostel to volunteers. Because of the same Mundial, all studies ended early, but it was still a shame.

These circumstances were due to the fact that I was leaving Nizhny permanently for good, and therefore I had to refuse Intel in the invitation for an interview. This, too, was somewhat offensive, but where to go. It was necessary to decide what to do next.

“I see a book in a knapsack - well, you go to study ...”

The question of admission to the magistracy was not, or rather, was, but the answer to it was taken only positive. It remained to determine the magistracy, and what I want to be when I grow up what I want to do, I still did not really understand. I took care of this matter even in the winter and at first wanted to go to St. Petersburg State University for a near-linguistic specialty, but a couple of trips there quickly recaptured this desire, and I had to quickly look for a new option.

As we say, “after the HSE, you can enter only the HSE”. Too different learning systems, rules and traditions. Therefore, I turned my eyes on my native university, or rather, on its St. Petersburg branch (allergy to Moscow again said hello). The choice of master programs was not very large, so I decided to start writing a motivation letter for one and urgently pumping math for another. It took two weeks to write, all the summer went to mathematics ...

Of course, I entered exactly where the motivation letter was needed. And here I am - on the program "Information systems and human-computer interaction" in the Petersburg HSE. Spoiler: only now I have learned more or less how to answer the question "To whom do you study?".

And the first time it was difficult to explain to groupmates, where I am from: few people can imagine that you can be born in one place, learn another and come to study again in the third (and I fly home to the fourth, aha) .

But then we will talk not about this, but about work.

Since I am now in St. Petersburg, the question of finding a job has become a bit more acute than in Lower. For some reason, there was almost no study in September, and all the forces were thrown on the job search. Which, like everything else in my life, was found almost by accident.

“The case is also not new - do not be shy, do not be lost!”

On the HSE vacancies page, developers posted jobs on Veeam, and I decided to see what kind of company it was and if there was anything else there. “Something” turned out to be a vacancy of a junior technical writer, to which I, after some deliberation, sent my small resume. A few days later I was called by Nastya, a charming and very positive recruiter, and conducted a telephone interview stage. It was exciting, but interesting and very benevolent.

Several times we discussed whether I can combine everything. My study is evening, from 18:20, and the office is relatively close to the academic building, and I was sure that I could combine (and there was no other choice, in fact).

Part of the interview took place in Russian, part - in English, I was asked what I studied at the university, where I learned about the profession of a technical writer and that I think about her that I know about the company (at that time it was “nothing”, what I honestly admitted). Nastya told me about the company, all sorts of social buns and that it is necessary to do a test task. This was the second big step.

The test task consisted of two parts: translate the text and write instructions. I did it for about a week without much haste.

From a new one: I learned how to connect a computer to a domain (later it even came in handy).

- From the interesting: zadolbala all the friends who have already worked on the work, so that they check my translation and read the instructions. All the same, she was terribly shaking when sending a task, but everything went fine: soon Nastya called and said that my test task was pleasant to the guys from the technical documentation department and they were waiting for me to meet in person. The meeting was scheduled somewhere in a week and I exhaled for a while, plunging into learning tasks.

A week later, I arrived at the office on Kondratyevsky Avenue. I was in this part of Peter for the first time and, frankly, it was scary. And shy. It became even more embarrassing when I did not recognize Nastya by her voice - in life he was thinner. Fortunately, her friendliness overcame my shyness, and by the time I came to the small cozy meeting room of my interlocutors, I more or less calmed down. Anton - the head of the department talked with me, and Alena - as it turned out later, my future mentor (I hadn’t thought of anything at the interview).

It turned out that everyone really liked my test task - it was a relief. All questions were on it and in my very short summary. Once again, they discussed the possibility of combining work and study thanks to a floating schedule.

As it turned out, the last stage was waiting for me - a test task in the office itself.

Thinking and deciding that it is better to solve everything at once, I agreed to go through it immediately. If you think this was my first visit to the office. Then still quiet, dark and a little mysterious office.


Some walls in the corridors and halls of the office building are decorated with reproductions

All the time while I was doing my assignment, to which it took far less than 2 hours, no one spoke - everyone did their work, looking at the monitors, and no one turned on the big light.


It was a bit strange, but it allowed to study what was happening. So, I noticed that one of the guys recently had a birthday, and that the place to conduct the tests is in the most interesting position - between Anton and Alena. It seemed that my arrival, short stay and care had little effect on the life of a small office, as if no one had noticed them, and the general atmosphere had not changed at all. And I just had to go home and wait for the decision.

Which, as you might guess, was very positive, and at the end of September I came back to the office, already for official employment. After registration and lectures on safety, I was again taken to the office of technical writers as a “recruit”.

“There is a field of shirόko: know, work and do not be afraid ...”

I still remember my first day: I was surprised by the silence of the department (no one spoke to me except Anton and Alena, and Anton mostly communicated by mail), as I was settling in the common kitchen, although Alena wanted to show me the dining room I rarely carried food with me, but on that first day ...), as I tried to formulate a request to leave early. But in the end, the request was formulated and approved, and then October came slowly, and real study began with it.

The first time was easy enough. Then there was hell. Then it somehow stabilized, but the cauldron under us sometimes flares up again.

If you think about it, it is quite possible to combine work and study. Sometimes it is even easy. Not when a session and a release are dangerously close to each other, deadlines overlap one another or it is necessary to turn in a lot of things at once. But in other days - very much so.


A brief summary of my program and interesting things that study on it

Let's look at my usual week.

I work from Monday to Friday, I study 2-5 days on weekdays in the evenings and on Saturday mornings (which saddens me a lot, but nothing can be done about it). If I study, I get up at eight o'clock in the morning to arrive at work at nine, and a little before six I leave work to go to the training building. There are couples from half past six until nine in the evening, and at the eleventh hour I return home. Of course, if there is no study, then it is easier to live, and you can get up later, and even at nine I’m already quite at home (the first time because of this fact, the tears dimmed), but let's look at another important point.

I study at the master's program, and some of my classmates also work. Teachers understand this, but no one has canceled homework, as well as course work and mandatory project activities. So you want to live - learn how to spin, allocate your time and prioritize.

Homework is done usually in the evenings of non-school days and the rest of the weekend. Most of it is group work, so you can quickly do your part and switch to other things. However, as you know, any plan is imperfect, if there are people in it, therefore, it is better to always monitor group projects so that everything does not fail. Plus, until recently, teachers were very fond of sending a task the day before a couple, so it had to be urgently done the same evening, and it doesn’t matter that you come home at the eleventh. But the pros and cons a bit lower.

The peculiarities of the evening master's studies (and her working students) are connected with the fact that they are loyal to being late and absenteeism, until they forget what you look like. And some time after that. The late delivery of the final assignments is also overlooked, until the session is closed (but nobody has checked the coursework). Due to the characteristics of the beloved Tower, we have 4 sessions: autumn and spring for 1 week, winter and summer - for 2 weeks. But since nobody wants to do anything in the session, the heat comes a week before - you need to pass all the tasks and get grades in order not to take exams. But in May (on which no one does anything, because the holidays) fell spelling coursework, and therefore all a little pressed. Summer is near, and deadlines of all projects will come soon, so everyone will squeeze even more. But this later.


In general, combining work and study has its advantages and disadvantages. To me, it looks something like this:

pros

+ Independence. In the sense of financial. In the end, to have the opportunity not to ask the parents for money every month is happiness for any student. And at the end of the month, for a lightened wallet, you answer only to yourself.

+ Experience. As in terms of "experience" (which is needed by everyone and always), and in terms of "life experience." This is facilitated by the hostel, about which there is always a pack of awesome stories, and such existence itself - after it almost nothing is scary.


The very moment when in the recruitment ad I read “it takes 10+ years of Go experience”

+ Ability to prioritize. When you can skip a couple, when you can podzabit at home, to whom it is possible to shift it, how to perform all the tasks in order to manage everything. Such a way of life erodes well the “inner perfectionist” and teaches us to distinguish between what is actually important and urgent.

+ Savings. Saving of time - you study and already you gain experience at work. Saving money - living in a dorm is cheaper. Saving forces - well, this is not here, of course.

+ You can have training practice at work. Conveniently.

+ New people, new acquaintances. Everything is as usual, only twice as much.

Minuses

And now about the minuses:

- Mode. I am a night owl, and early ascents are a real punishment, as well as weekend rises.

- Free time, or rather, its total absence. Rare week evenings are spent on homework, and one and a half of the rest of the weekend is spent on domestic affairs and homework. So when they ask me what I had time to see in St. Petersburg, I laugh nervously and answer “the training building, the working office and the road between them.”


In fact, the sights can be seen even from the windows of the office.

- Stress. Caused by the previous two factors and in general the change of lifestyle to a more stressful one. It is rather an initial situation (a person - he is such a beast, he gets used to everything), well, at the moments of releases / sessions, when you want to go somewhere and die. But this time is passing, nerves are slowly recovering, and at work I am surrounded by amazingly understanding people. Sometimes it seems to me that I do not deserve it.

- Loss of sense of time. Something from the category of my grandmother's conversations that “you just yesterday seemed to go to the first class”. The six-day weeks, closed in “work-study-sleep-food-affairs”, fly surprisingly quickly, sometimes - until the panic quickly (deadlines are always close), the weekends are surprisingly short, and matters are not a good thing. The end of May came suddenly, and I caught myself thinking that I didn’t remember the rest of the month. Somehow scrolled. I hope it will pass with the end of study.


But I found such traces of Veeam in one of the HSE computer classes. Probably, they gave bachelors to the Career Day)) I also want this, but on the Career Day all the masters work

There are still a few problems associated with the unused program (the first set, after all), but in general, the advantages outweigh or I’m just an optimist. And in general, everything is not so difficult, and it will last only 2 years (1 left already). In addition, this experience hardens character well and teaches many new things, both professionally and personally. And it allows you to learn a lot about yourself (including “for how much you can write a term paper”).

Maybe when the study finally ends, I will even miss her (in fact, no).