Hello, my name is Dima Demchuk. I am a senior Java programmer at Scalors. General programming experience in the IT industry for more than 12 years. From a programmer at a factory, I grew up to the level of Senior and managed to work in top IT companies in Ukraine. Of course, at that time, programming was not yet mainstream, nor was there much competition among IT companies and among candidates for every worthy position. In the article, I will talk about my experience in companies such as: EPAM, Luxoft, GlobalLogic, Nextiva, Ciklum and Scalors.
Early career: study and factory 2008
I have always liked mathematics, so the choice towards the Faculty of Informatics and Computer Engineering was predictable. I graduated from the Kiev Polytechnic Institute named after Igor Sikorsky. At the institute, like everyone else, we studied standard programming in Pascal, Delphi, and also had a little C ++. After studying, everyone was placed in a job by distribution, I ended up at the ASTC aviation plant.
This is where my story begins. The salary was very low, but it seemed to me that 800 UAH (at the rate of $ 100) is quite good for a start. In general, similar work at an aircraft building plant is highly valued abroad, and people earn good money, unfortunately, we do not. I don’t know what kept me, but I worked at the plant for three and a half years. In fact, there was very little work, the salary was calculated for the time spent in prison, it was important to arrive and leave on time. Basically, we processed data on machines on JSP. Once they even gave out a prize in the amount of 300 UAH. At some point, I acutely felt that the salary was barely enough to live on. Around the same time, my partner moved to a private company and told how cool it was, the tasks were interesting and they paid much more. I also thought about changing jobs, and just one of my colleagues said that his friend was recruiting a team at EPAM and they were ready to consider me.
EPAM and my first dollar salary
After the factory, I went to work at EPAM. Here I first got a job on a salary tied to the dollar. I was delighted that everything was very different from the factory, especially the salary, which was 12-13 times more. True, I sat on the bet for about nine months, they were looking for a project for a very long time, I received a salary, in fact, doing nothing. At first, I was hired on the UBS project, but the clients thought for a long time, and as 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 so I was connected to the project of the investment bank Barclays Capital. On the technical side, we used Spring and JSF. I did not work for long, because I realized that I asked for little and asked for a pay raise. But they told me, I'm sorry, but we won't even add $ 300 to you.
My history with Luxoft
The offer from Luxoft arrived just in time. I passed the basic interview and got accepted. I really liked it there at first. Especially the first year: the project, colleagues and paid decently. In the second year, regular communication problems with clients began to arise, which led to confusion and inefficient work. This is because our team leader from a programmer began to abruptly become a manager, he was busy all the time, and direct communication with the client was not practiced at Luxoft. We could ask all questions only through the team lead or through the product manager. I believe that good communication plays the most important role in effective problem solving. I liked the project, but the tasks did not change much, and the implementation was difficult due to communication problems, it became a little boring. The second year was already coming to an end and I asked for a salary increase. Naturally, they told me that there was no money and 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 received the promised bonus. It so happened that I was transferred to a new project. In fact, when half a year had already passed, I approached the new manager, who was not informed about the increase in my salary. Then I sent him a letter that was kept at the post office and they raised my salary. I noticed that it is important to keep any promises and agreements in business correspondence or documentation, only then they have a place to be.
Some time later, I was offered a relocation to Poland, which was necessary for the project. Of course, when relocating, a standard contract for a year is attached, which protects both sides of both the customer and the contractor, but I still refused. In Ukraine, salaries for programmers were higher than in Poland, because we have less taxes. Later I was transferred to another project that I didn't really like.
Frontend at GlobalLogic and Luxoft again
My next project “pleased me” with the opportunity to get to know Java Script better. There was also a plus 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. I was promised a backend, and also warned that there would be some JS at the beginning, so I agreed. My surprise was boundless when there was no place for Java among the few JS at all. And all because the guy who developed the project on the back end was planning to leave and they took me as his replacement. Temporarily put on the frontend while it was still working. As a result, when he left, they didn’t return me back to the backend, and I basically didn’t want to sit out on the frontend, the tasks were petty and such work brought little pleasure.
And so I returned to Luxoft, where the task was to transfer the project to new technologies, but the customers abandoned all newcomers and changed us to the main team in St. Petersburg. I was taken to another project that I wanted to transfer to Angular with JQuery and FTL, the customer seemed to be okay, but they didn’t allocate time for these tasks. My partner once said: “No, I want to stay on FTL, I don’t like JavaScript, because there are the words Script,” I remembered this phrase for the rest of my life.
Nextiva and my dream salary
From time to time, recruiters send me offers on LinkedIn, and for fun I answer that I agree with a very large salary, and then some agreed. That’s how I got to Nextiva and the salary of my dreams. It worked out, so they recruited too many people and they transferred me to the Legacy Project. In all large IT companies, what I like is that they promise and pay, even if the project changes. But I don’t like that very often they promise one thing, but the output is completely different.
We didn’t have a team leader, there were only three programmers and one tester with a completely different vision, and everyone believed that he was right and his decisions were the best. I would have stayed in this company, but in the end, our disagreements led to the fact that the customer cut all the Javiers and left only the Pythonists.
Offer from EPAM
Once, EPAM recruiters called me with an offer to relocate 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 aspired to leave Ukraine.
Full Stack, America and Ciklum
In search of a new project, I decided to send my resume to Ciklum, signed, as always, Java Senior Back-end Developer. I was invited for an interview almost immediately and asked if I had experience with JavaScript, so I told a little. I was told well, we take you as a Full Stack programmer, we will need to go to America for a month. They offered a good salary, so I agreed. The visa was 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 in total, a month later, my partner and I, who took the girl with him, flew to America, New Jersey. I liked it there, of course, the work, it is 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 only an hour and a half or two from us. There, almost everyone drives cars, since I do not have a driver's license, it was terribly inconvenient to get there. My colleague who rented a car and dropped me off every morning and evening to and from work.
According to the project, we were hired purely because of the frontend to close the holes, there are a lot of java programmers in the States, so there is not much need for them, but there are sorely lacking frontend specialists. I already had a fairly good experience with previous projects at the Middle level. When I talked with my American colleagues and shared knowledge on the front-end, they said: “Wow, you are so smart.” I wrote the project in TypeScript. In total, I spent exactly a month in America, after which I returned to the Kiev office of Ciklum. Although I was taken as a Full Stack, I mostly performed tasks only on the frontend. The trend for Full Stack programmers is justified by the benefit for the customer, but in fact such programmers cannot do front-end and back-end well at the same time, because this is impossible. You need to focus on one thing.
I worked on the project for a total of 8 months and one day I was thrown out of the virtual machine. I was surprised because there were no disagreements with the customer. Emails were not answered, and a day later the Ciklum manager confirmed that I had been made redundant. In fact, I completed all the front-end tasks, closed the necessary holes, and the customer no longer needed me. In America, it is not very profitable to pay stateless workers, so they turn to outsourcing when it is very hard to press and just as quickly say goodbye when you complete all the tasks.
Pure 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 client. As my current colleagues joke, life has abandoned me. As a result, I was interviewed as a Java developer in the German company Scalors. I had a good experience, so the interview was laid-back and the technical part passed quickly. I was offered to start the project in a week. I agreed only on the condition of signing the contract. A couple of weeks later I was sent on a business trip to Stuttgart. I was in Germany for the first time, what I liked was the attention from the customers. They constantly invited me to lunch, eat pizza, asked if I was comfortable and took into account my opinion. According to the impression of the work, this is the second project after Luxoft that I like. I have been working on the backend for more than five months. I communicate directly with customers, so there are no misunderstandings on tasks.
Conclusions
My experience in all of the above companies gave me a general understanding of how to properly communicate with recruiters and customers. It is important to find out all the details during the interview, especially in terms of tasks.
No one is immune from a change in the mood of customers, even it often happened to me when they take on one project, and in the end they transfer it to another. Stability in terms of projects is possible in a product 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 by: Marina Tkachenko
Source: habr.com