A week ago, Nikita Aleksandrov, a Data Scientist, spoke on our social networks in Unity Ads, where he improves conversion algorithms. Nikita now lives in Finland, and among other things, he spoke about IT life in the country.
We share with you the transcript and recording of the interview
My name is Nikita Alexandrov, I grew up in Tatarstan and graduated from high school there, I took part in math competitions. After that, he entered the Faculty of Computer Science at the Higher School of Economics and completed his bachelor's degree there. At the beginning of the 4th year I went to study on an exchange, spent a semester in Finland. I liked it there, I entered the master's program at Aalto University, although I did not complete it completely - I completed all the courses and started writing a thesis, but left to work at Unity without getting a degree. Now I work in Unity data scientist, the department is called Operate Solutions (it used to be called Monetization); directly my team is engaged in the delivery of advertising. That is, in-game advertising - the one that is issued when you play a mobile game and you need to earn an extra life, for example. I'm working on improving ad conversion - that is, making the player more likely to click on ads.
How did you move?
First, I came to Finland to study for an exchange semester, after that I returned to Russia and completed my diploma. Then I enrolled in a master's program at Aalto University in machine learning / data science. Since I was an exchange student, I didn't even have to take an English exam; I did it easily, I knew what I was doing. I have been living here for 3 years.
Finnish is necessary?
It is required if you are going to study here for a bachelor's degree. There are very few programs in English for bachelors, Finnish or Swedish is needed - this is the second state language, some universities teach in Swedish. But in the master's and PhD programs, most of the programs are in English. If we talk about daily communication and life, most people here speak English, about 90%. People live normally for whole years (my colleague lives in general for 20 years) without the Finnish language.
Of course, if you want to stay here, you need to at least understand Finnish at the level of filling out forms - last name, first name, and so on.
Does the quality of education differ from universities in the Russian Federation? Do they give all the necessary base for the device as a junior?
The quality is different. It seems to me that in Russia they try to give a lot of things at once: differential equations, discrete mathematics, and much more. In fact, you need to take additional materials, as a term paper or a thesis, to comprehend something new on your own, to go to some courses. Here it was easy for me in the magistracy; I knew a lot of what was going on. Again, in Finland, a bachelor is not yet a specialist, there is still such a division here. Now, if you are a master, then you can get a job. I would say that social skills are important in graduate school in Finland, it is important to participate, to be active; there are research projects. If there are studies that are interesting for you and you want to dig deeper, you can get the professor's contacts, work in this direction, and develop.
That is, the answer is “yes”, but you need to be socially active, cling to every opportunity, if any. One of my friends went to work at a startup in the Valley - there is a program at the university that looks for suitable startups and arranges interviews. In my opinion, then he even went to CERN.
How does a company in Finland motivate employees, what goodies?
In addition to the obvious (salary), there are social benefits. For example, the amount of maternity leave for parents. There are health insurances, stocks, options. There is an unusual accrual of vacation days. Nothing special, basically.
We have a sauna in our office, for example.
There are also coupons - some amount of money for lunches, for public transport, for cultural and sports events (museums, sports).
What to advise a humanist to enter IT?
Repeat the school course and enter the Higher School of Economics? Often progers have a mathematical base / Olympiads ...
I advise, of course, to pull up mathematics. But it is not necessary to repeat the school course. More precisely, it should be repeated only if you do not remember anything at all. In addition, you need to decide which IT you want to go to. For a front-end developer, you don’t need to know math: you just need to take front-end courses and learn. My friend recently decided to sign up for courses from Accenture, she is now learning Scala; she is not a humanist, but she had no programming experience. Depending on what you want to program and on what, you need a different amount of mathematics. Of course, a Machine Learning major requires mathematics, in one way or another. But, if you just want to try it, there are many different tutorials, open information, places where you can play with a neural network or build it yourself, or download a ready-made one, change the parameters and see how it changes. It all depends on how strong the motivation is.
If it's not a secret - salaries, experience, what do you write on?
I write in Python, which is a universal language for machine learning and data science. Experience – was a different experience; I was a simple engineer in several companies, I was on an internship for several months in Moscow. There was no permanent work before Unity. I also came there as an intern, worked as an intern for 9 months, then took a break, and now I have been working for a year. The salary is competitive, above the median for the region. A novice specialist will earn from 3500 EUR; this varies from company to company. In general, 3.5-4 is a starting salary.
What books and tutorials do you recommend?
I don't particularly like learning from books - it's important for me to try on the fly; download something ready and try it for yourself. I consider myself more of an experimenter, so I can't help in books. But I watched some interviews and live broadcasts here, where the second speaker talks in detail about books.
Tutorials - there are various. If you want to try out some algorithm, take the name of the algorithm, method, method classes, and drive it into the search. Whatever hits the first link, then look.
How much stays clean?
After taxes - it is necessary to take taxes plus 8% (which, as it were, is not a tax, but a tax) - 2/3 of the salary remains. The rate is dynamic - the more you earn, the higher the tax.
Which companies apply for advertising?
You need to understand that Unity / Unity Ads are advertising mobile games. That is, we have a niche, we are very well versed in mobile games, you can create them on Unity. Once you've written a game, you want to make money from it, and monetization is one way.
Any company can apply for advertising - online stores, various financial applications. Everyone needs advertising. Specifically, our main clients are developers of mobile games.
What projects are better to do to improve skills?
Good question. If we are talking about data science, you need to pump yourself through an online course (for example, Stanford has one) or an online university. There are various platforms that you have to pay for - for example, Udacity. There are homework, videos, mentoring, but the pleasure is not cheap.
The narrower your interests (for example, some kind of reinforcement learning), the more difficult it is to find projects. You can try to participate in kaggle competitions: go to kaggle.com, there are many different machine learning competitions. Take what is already attached to some baseline; download and start doing it. That is, there are many ways: you can study on your own, you can take an online course - free or paid, you can participate in competitions. If you want to look for a job on Facebook, Google, and so on, then you need to learn how to solve algorithmic problems - that is, you need to go to LeetCode, get your hand there in order to pass interviews.
Describe a short Machine Learning roadmap?
I'll tell you ideally, without claiming to be universal. You first take math courses at the university, you need knowledge and understanding of linear algebra, probability theory and statistics. After that, someone tells you about ML; if you live in a major city, then there should be schools that offer ML courses. The most famous is ShAD, Yandex School of Data Analysis. If you get into it, and you can study for two years, then you will receive the entire base of ML. You will need to further hone your skill in research and work.
If there are other options: for example, Tinkov has courses in machine learning with the possibility of finding a job at Tinkoff after graduation. If it suits you, sign up for these courses. There are different entry thresholds: for example, there are entrance tests in the ShAD.
If you don't want to take regular courses, you can start with online courses, of which there are more than enough. It depends on you; if you have good English - good, it will be easy to find. If not, then perhaps there is something too. The same ShAD lectures are available in the public domain.
After obtaining a theoretical base, you can move forward - to internships, research, and so on.
Can you learn machine learning yourself? Have you met such a programmer?
I think yes. You just need to have strong motivation. Someone can learn English by himself, for example, but someone needs to go to courses, and this is the only way this person can learn. It's the same with ML. Although I do not know such a programmer who would learn everything on his own, but perhaps I just have few friends; all my friends were just trained in the usual way. I do not presume to say that 100% you need to study like this: the main thing is your desire, your time. Of course, if you do not have a mathematical base, you will have to spend a lot of time to develop it.
In addition to understanding what it means to be a data scientist: I do not do data sci myself
ence as research. Our company is not a laboratory where we develop methods, closing for half a year in the laboratory. I work directly with production, and I need engineering skills; I need to write code, have engineering skills to understand what works. People often omit these features when talking about data science. There are many stories of people with PhDs writing unreadable, terrible, unstructured code, getting into big trouble after they decide to go into the industry. That is, in conjunction with Machine Learning, one should not forget about engineering skills.
Data science is a position that does not speak for itself. You can get a job at a data science company and write SQL queries, or you can do simple logistic regression. In principle, this is also machine learning, but each company has its own understanding of what data science is. For example, my friend on Facebook said that data science is when people just run statistical experiments: click on buttons, collect results and then provide them. At the same time, I myself improve the conversion methods and algorithms; in some other companies, this specialty may be called a machine learning engineer. In different companies, everything can be different.
What libraries do you use?
We are using Keras and TensorFlow. PyTorch is also possible - it doesn’t matter, it allows you to do all the same things - but at some point it was decided to use them. With the existing production, it is difficult to change.
Unity not only has data scientists who optimize conversion algorithms, but GameTune is the kind of thing where you improve profit or retention metrics with various tutorials. Let's say someone played a game and said: I don't understand, I'm not interested - I abandoned it; it’s too easy for someone, on the contrary, he also abandoned it. That's why we need GameTune, which is an initiative that adapts the difficulty of games according to the ability of the gamer, or according to the history of games, or according to how often he buys something in applications.
There is also Unity Labs - you can google that too. There is a video there: you take a cereal box, and on its back there are games like mazes - but they are compatible with augmented reality, and you can control a person on cardboard. Looks very cool.
You can talk directly about Unity Ads. If you decide to write a game, and decide to publish it and earn money, then you have to solve some difficult tasks.
I'll start with an example: here Apple announced the launch of iOS 14. In it, a potential gamer can go into the application and say that he does not want to share his Device-ID with anyone. At the same time, he agrees that the quality of advertising will deteriorate. But at the same time, this is a difficult task for us, because if we cannot identify you, then we will not be able to collect certain metrics, and we will simply have less information about you. Optimizing work in a world that is more committed to privacy, to data protection, is becoming increasingly difficult for a data scientist - there is less and less data, as well as available methods.
In addition to Unity, there are giants like Facebook and Google - and, it would seem, why do we need Unity Ads? But you need to understand that in different countries these ad networks can work differently. Relatively speaking, there are Tier 1 countries (America, Canada, Australia); there are Tier 2 countries (Asia), there are Tier 2 (India, Brazil). Ad networks can work in them in different ways. The type of advertising used also matters. Is it a normal view, or a rewardable ad - when, for example, to continue from the same place after a game over, you need to view an ad. Different types of advertising, different people. In some countries, one ad network works better, in some - another. And as a side note, I've heard that the AdMob integration that Google has is more complicated than Unity.
That is, if you created a game in Unity, then you are automatically integrated into Unity Ads. The difference is in the ease of integration. What can be advised: there is such a thing as mediation; it has different positions: you can set positions in the "waterfall" (waterfall) for setting advertising placements. You can say, for example, like this: I want Facebook to be shown by priority first, then Google, then Unity. And, if Facebook and Google decide not to show ads, then Unity will. The more ad networks you have, the better. It can be seen as an investment, but you are investing in a different number of ad networks at once.
You can also talk about what matters for the success of an advertising campaign. In fact, there is nothing special here: you need to make sure that the ads match the content of your application. You can, for example, search Youtube for “app ads mafia” and see how ads may not match the content. There's also the Homescapes (or Gardenscapes?) app. It may matter whether the campaign is set up correctly: so that advertising in English is shown to an English-speaking audience, in Russian - to a Russian-speaking audience. Very often there are mistakes in this: people simply do not understand, they install at random.
You need to create various cool videos, think about the format, think about how often to update them. In large companies, this is done by special people - user acquisition managers. If you are a solo developer, then you do not need this, or you need to achieve a certain growth.
What are the future plans?
Still work where I am now. Maybe I will get Finnish citizenship - this is possible after 5 years of residence (if less than 30 years, you also need to serve if a person has not done this in another country).
Why did you move to Finland?
Yes, this is not a very popular country for an IT specialist to move to. Many people move with their families, because there are good social benefits here - kindergartens, nurseries, more maternity leave for any of the parents. Why I moved myself - I just liked it here. I could like it anywhere, probably, but Finland is quite close in terms of cultural mentality; There are differences with Russia, of course, but there are also similarities. She's small, safe, and never gets involved in any big trouble. This is not a conditional America, where a president who is not loved can get caught, and something will start because of this; and not the UK, which suddenly wants to leave the EU, and there will also be problems. There are only 5 million people here. Even with the coronavirus epidemic, Finland coped quite well, compared to other countries.
Are you going to return to Russia?
I'm not going yet. Nothing would stop me from doing this, but I feel comfortable here. Moreover, if I work in Russia, I will have to register for the military, and I can be drafted.
About Master's in Finland
Nothing special. If we talk about the content of the lectures, it's just a set of slides; there is theoretical material, a seminar with practice, where this theory is honed, then there is an exam on all these materials (theory and tasks).
Feature: they are not expelled from the magistracy. If you do not pass the exam, then this course will simply have to be taken in the next semester. There is only a limit on the total time of study: for a bachelor - no more than 7 years, for a master - 4 years. You can easily finish everything in two years, except for one course, and stretch it for 2 years, or take academies.
Is there a big difference between working in Moscow and in Finland?
I would not say. The same IT companies, the same tasks. In terms of cultural and everyday life, it is convenient, work is not far away, the city is small. The grocery store is one minute away from me, the hall is three, the work is twenty-five, door to door. I like the sizes; I have never lived in such cozy cities where everything is at hand. Beautiful nature, close to the beach.
But in terms of work, I think everything is plus or minus the same. As for the IT labor market in Finland, with regards to machine learning, some people notice that for specialties related to ML, they require a PhD or at least masters. I believe this will change in the foreseeable future. There is still a prejudice here: if you are a bachelor, then you cannot be a formed specialist, but if you are a master, you have a specialization and you can work. And if you have a PhD, then everything is already completely cool, and you can do IT research. Although, it seems to me that even people who have completed a PhD may not be integrated into the industry at all, and may not understand that the industry is not only about algorithms and methods, but also about business. If you don't understand business, then I don't know how you can grow into a company and understand how this whole meta-system works.
Therefore, the idea of moving to a graduate school and immediately finding a job is quite difficult; if you move to Finland with a bachelor's degree, you are a noname. You need to have some work experience to say: I worked at Yandex, Mail, Kaspersky Lab, etc.
How to live on 500 EUR in Finland?
You can live. If you are a student, you need to understand that you will not receive a scholarship; The EU can provide money, but only for exchange students. If you are applying to a Finnish university, then you need to understand how you will live. There are several options; if you enter a master's program with a PhD track (that is, both a master's program and a PhD), then from the very first year you will do research work and receive money for it.
Small, but the student will miss. The second option is a side job; for example, I was a teaching assistant for a certain course and earned 400 EUR per month.
By the way, there are good student benefits in Finland. You can check into a hostel for 300 or 200 EUR per room, you can eat in student canteens with a fixed price (everything that you put on your plate is 2.60 EUR). Some try to have breakfast, lunch and dinner in the dining room for 2.60; if you do this, you can live on 500 EUR. But this is the bare minimum.
Where can you go if you want to be a programmer?
You can enter the Faculty of Computer Science of the Higher School of Economics, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology - FIVT and FUPM, or VMK MSU, for example. You can find something in St. Petersburg. But I am not aware of the exact situation with machine learning training, try to google this topic.
I want to say that in order to become a programmer, it is not enough to study alone. It is important to be a social person, pleasant in communication, in order to make contacts as quickly as possible. Contacts can decide. Personal recommendations to the company give a tangible advantage over other applicants, you can simply skip the screening of the recruiter.
Naturally, life in Finland is not quite fabulous - he moved, and immediately everything became cool. Any migrant still encounters culture shock. Different countries have different people, different mentality, different laws. For example, here you need to take care of taxes yourself - fill out the tax card yourself; buying a car, renting a house – a lot of things work differently. It's hard enough if you decide to move. The people here are not very social, the weather is like in St. Petersburg - in November-December there can be 1-2 sunny days. Some even get depressed here; they come with the certainty that they are very needed here, but this turns out not to be the case, and you need to earn money by playing by someone else's rules. It's always a risk. There's always the possibility that you'll have to go back because you just won't settle down.
What advice would you give to novice programmers?
I advise you to try as much as possible, to understand what really interests you. Try not to get stuck in one area: try Android development, frontend/backend, Java, Javascript, ML, other things. And, as I said, you need to be active, make contact, be interested in what is happening; what friends, colleagues, acquaintances do. Go to workshops, seminars, lectures, meet people. The more connections you have, the easier it is to understand what's interesting going on.
Where else is Unity used besides games?
Unity is trying to stop being a pure game engine. For example, it's used to render CGI movies: if you're designing a car, for example, and you want to make an ad, you'll want to make a good movie, of course. I heard that Unity is also used for architectural planning. That is, wherever visualization is needed, Unity can be used. If you google, you can find interesting examples.
If you want to ask a question, feel free to find me on all social networks.
What was earlier
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Source: habr.com