Is one university education enough to develop a strong IT specialist? What are the requirements of employers for graduates? Do Belarusian IT specialists aspire to go abroad? The correspondent of the agency "Minsk-Novosti" addressed these and other questions to the young developers of the SoftTeco company.
Ekaterina Senko, java and web developer: is computer engineering hard
- I chose to work in IT thanks to a lucky chance. When I was finishing 9th grade, my teacher advised me to try going to college - just for fun and to test my strength. She submitted documents to the Minsk Radio Engineering College, and unexpectedly the attempt was successful - it passed through a competition for the budget. After graduating from college she entered the Belarusian State Radio Engineering University of Informatics and Radioelectronics. In the first three years I practically repeated the college program - with the only difference that there was more practice.
I am convinced that until you try yourself in a specialty, you will not know whether you like it or not. In addition, a lot depends on the person himself. The university gives about 30% of the knowledge that you need. This is such a basis, general knowledge, which is useful, but not practical enough. Therefore, you will simply have to take additional information in your free time: read books, constantly practice, look for part-time jobs.
I would give every freshman who entered BSUIR the following advice: if you don’t try to put knowledge into yourself from the very first day at the university, then no teacher will put it into you. It is a mistake to think that having received a university degree, you will immediately become a programmer. This is not true. The IT sphere is very global and wide, with many directions. And it is important at the start to decide what exactly you like and what you want to do.
During my studies, I made an interesting observation: a lot of girls studied in my specialty - about 50 to 50%. In the ranking of academic performance, they always occupied the top lines: the girls were distinguished by great perseverance, responsibility, and commitment. However, when we graduated from college, most of them chose testing, not programming. I asked them: why? It turned out that the girls tended to underestimate their strengths, were not confident in themselves and chose testing in order to avoid unnecessary problems. This is fundamentally wrong, because you need not be afraid and try yourself.
Even now, some time after graduation, I pay great attention to my self-education: I go to English courses and advanced training. Unfortunately, the language training at the university is rather weak. Meanwhile, it is imperative for an IT specialist to know English: this is your communication tool and access to foreign textbooks.
Is it possible to find a job in IT simply by completing retraining courses? Experience shows that this is possible. I see a lot of such examples in the company where I work. Their difference from university graduates is only that they lack the basics (the same ones that are given at the university), but they develop over time.
Generally speaking, in order to succeed in the IT sphere, a person needs two qualities - one must love to cope with tasks and challenges (like in chess) and be ready to constantly learn.
Vladislav Gus, 4-year student of BSUIR, Android developer:
- In my case, the choice of profession was largely due to the fact that my older brother is a programmer. When I started to think about what I want to do in the future, he gave me a try in this business. I realized what I was getting - I have a mathematical mindset (after the 9th grade I studied at lyceum №1). The decisive argument in favor of choosing a profession was that programmers, in principle, are in great demand in our country.
He studied at BSUIR as a programmer - business analyst. This is such a combined specialty, where programming is taught, and a lot of the economic part. I got good fundamental knowledge at the university. However, this was not enough: I pored over textbooks for a lot of time, additionally learning programming languages.
In the third year I already had some confidence in my knowledge, and I tried to get a job. The first two interviews were not very successful. By the way, I strongly advise everyone for the future - not to be afraid to go to interviews, even if previous attempts were unsuccessful. Literally after the first interview, you get an idea of what is expected of you, what questions you have to answer, how to present yourself in general. I got a job in the company where I work in March last year.
In fact, the university provides a foundation, a basis for you to move further and develop independently. Before studying at the university, I was mistaken, thinking that after studying for 4 years, I would become a class specialist. So this doesn't work. If you are not determined to study very hard and hard, then you will not succeed.
Nikita Tsvirko, 4-year student of BSUIR, software engineer:
- I first thought about who I want to be in the 10th grade. Of all the academic subjects, he showed the greatest success in mathematics, so he decided to enroll in BSUIR. After the 2nd year I tried to determine the direction. Enrolled in a test automation course. However, I realized that this is not exactly what I would like to do in the future (however, the knowledge gained was not superfluous and eventually found its application). From the very beginning of my studies at the university I was interested in programming mobile devices and in my 3rd year I went deep into Android development.
It's nice that my current employer invests in the education of their employees, and in general, the company is very encouraged to self-educate. In our department, for example, thematic classes are held on Fridays, where everyone can share their new knowledge with colleagues. There are also courses in English and public speaking.
Unfortunately, today there are not very conscientious employers who want to get a very good specialist for a low price. That is, they invite a not very experienced person for an interview, ask him as an experienced person, and offer payment as a beginner. Others ask such questions specifically in interviews to confuse you and make you feel insecure, so that you reduce your requests for wages. It's just dishonest.
Good employers try first of all to check how good you are in the basics and in the subject. They also pay attention to communication skills, because programmers work in a team, and you need to be able to interact with other people.
Thinking about whether I want to go abroad, over time I came to the conclusion that I was ready to leave only for a year in order to expand my boundaries and ideas. I do not see any point in moving to another country for the reason that the salaries of programmers are the same everywhere, only in other countries the living costs are higher.
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