12 interviews with russian experts

https://mkdev.me/en/posts/how-to-become-a-programmer-12-interviews-with-russian-experts
How to become a programmer? 12 interviewswithrussian experts.
How to become aweb-developer?How tolearnprogramming?How a programmercan finda job?Does
he needa highereducationforthis?How longshouldone studytostart makingmoneyonthe
development?
I think,almosteveryonewhoconsidersacareerof a programmerwondersthis.Relyingonmyown
experience,Ididmybesttoanswerthe major part of these questionsandwrote Self-educationforweb
developers.Butmyopiniontowardsself-studyandthe waysof studyingisjustthe opinionof one
particularperson(though,certainly,Iamsure aboutitsrightness:) ).
That's whythe ideacame to myhead:to take 12 programmerswhose professionalismIhave noreason
to doubtand to ask themhowtheystartedout, how theylearnedeverythingtheyknow now andhow
theygot a well-paidjob.Here belowthere are 12 storiesaboutthe formationof the professionals,
people whose workexperience exceedsthe amountof fingersonone hand(withsome reservations).I
hope youwill make goodconclusionsfromthese stories (spoiler:self-study rocks) andfindacouple of
advicesconvenientforyou.
MaksimKremnev,Software Developer, Aviasales
How longhave youbeenworkinginweb-dev?
For 5-6 years.
Why didyouchoose programmingandweb-development?
It's an opportunitytomake moneydoingwhatyoulike.
What were the waysyoulearnedthis?
Self-study
Tell usa little bitmore howyoustartedout:how,when,what?
18-19-20 yearsold. At that time Iwas workingasa systemadministratorandat the same time I was
takinga great interestinsome of the curiousthingslike gentoo,bash,django(the firstthingsthat
occurredto me).One day I ran againsta vacancy of a ruby-programmerfrom@ipronixonsome local
jobboard and decidedtotry,I thoughtmaybe theyneededpython-programmerstoo.Asitturnedout,
theydidn't,butruby-programmers,evenjuniors(Ididn'tknow thiswordbackthen) were needed.Well..
theyofferedme money,besides,itwasmore thanI wasgettingas a systemadministrator,andIdecided
to combine offline andonline job.
How longafterthe start of the educationdidyouearnyourfirstmoneyon web-development?Howdid
youget yourfirstorder?
In 1 month.It's all @ipronix
What shoulda beginnerstartwith?
WithHow To or Get started

What didyou lackat the beginningof yourjourney?
Time
Can youadvise some books,websites?
google.com
How's yourself-studygoingnow,whatnew directionsdoyouexplore?
golang,python,chef,differentdb
Pavel Khrulev,RubyonRailsdeveloper,freelanceronodesk,elance.
For 6 years.
That's a difficultquestion.Ichose programmingbecauseIhada passionforit, thiswasinterestingfor
me.Web-development- well,Itjustworkedoutthisway.Ihad startedmy careerintimeswhenweb-
developmentwasbeginningtogainpopularityandthe demandforweb-developersbecame huge.The
demandbredsupplyrepresentedbyme :)
Self-study
WhenI startedgoing for a programmingIhad writtena little game.Itbecame necessarytomake a
website forit.That'showI made myfirstwebsite inhtml.ThenIwasaskedto make anotherwebsite for
moneybyotherpeople,andafterwardsIfoundajob as a web-developer.Itwasinthe endof 2007 -
beginningof 2008.
I receivedmyfirstmoneysomethingabout4monthsafterI had made the firstwebsite inhtml formy
ownpurposes.Igot the ordereasily - my talentswere spread,andthe customerfoundme first.
Passionandthirstfor knowledge.Explore something,developsomethingforyourself,forpleasure,using
gainedknowledge.

Informationmade simple.There weren'tmanygoodwebsitesandbooksonRussian,andIhadn't
masteredenglishsowell.Imean,Ilackedthe knowledge of english,too.
It dependsonthe subjectyouare interestedin.There are alotof booksoneach subject.Ican onlytell
youwhat one needsforthe general developmentasa programmer.
 For learningandimprovingenglish - the books"EnglishforRussians"andthe
website lingualeo.com
 One can learnabout newtechnologiesandtrendsfrom habrahabr.ru
 Problemsolving- stackoverflow.com
 One can gain practical skillsof codingusingthe new technologiesinanentertainingform
on codeschool.com
NowI am learningCordovaandRhodesframework,i.e.mobile developmentcombinedwithweb-
technologies.
I findoutabout all the newsandtrendson habrahabr.If somethinggetsme interested,Istartdigging
further,readingbooksonthatsubject,articlesonwebsites.
I learnaboutsome methods,engineeringpracticesfromdevelopers'blogswhichIamsubscribedto.
Usuallythese developersare notthe worstpeople inpopularopen-source projects.
I am constantlyworkingonimprovingmyenglishgrammar,expandingmyvocabulary,gettingridof my
accent.As I wrote,the books"EnglishforRussians",the website lingualeo.comandthe experience of
communicatingwithcustomershelpme withIt.
Varvara, Ruby andnode.jsdeveloper, Social Quantum
I am not familiarthismuchwithweb,butingeneral - forabout 6 years.
I was studyingatthe profession-orienteduniversity,ithadbeenworkingoutanditwas interestingfor
me.
The university,self-study.
RightafterI had graduatedfromthe universityIgota jobinthe office thathad wonthe tenderforthe
projecton Saint-Petersburg'sinformatization - the state-servicesbooth.Ihadbeenworkingthere for
almosthalf a year,I had beenwritinginterfacesandsearchof addressesinDBfor these boothsetc.

How longafterthe start of the educationdidyouearnyourfirstmoneyon web-development?HowdidI
getmy firstorder?
I have neverbeendoingfreelance,have alwaysbeenworkinginanoffice.
Choosingagood companyand a team, that inhalf a year will teacha beginnernottosteponthe rake
typical forbeginners),instill agoodcodestyle andsome otheruseful stuff inthe spiritof testingand
code profiling.
Exactlysuch goodteam.I sat buriedinbooksandsteppedonthe commonrake.Though thisisgood in
termsof self-discipline.
If I needtofindoutsomething,Igoogle.Butfirstof all, of course,readdocs.
ruby& haxe.
Daniil,aprogrammer, Social Quantum
For 3 years
As forprogramming - it justcame outlike this,Ihave beeninfrontof a computersince 7, startingwith
spectrum.It'scool to be a magicianand an architectat the same time :)
I didn'tchoose web-development- Ihave alwayswantedtodevote myself togames,andthat'swhat I
am doingnow.But before thisIhadbeenworkingwithweb,don'trememberforhow long,that'swhyI
wrote for 3 years:)
7 yearsold,ZXSpectrumon my birthday,BASIC.Asa teenager - FIDONET,C,a little bitof Pascal.
Adolescence- Linux,Python.Youth - web-development,Python, JS,Pylons,Zope,alittlebitof Django.
The recentyears - Python,JavaScript,AS3,C#, Haxe,node.js,Flash,Unity3D.

WhenI was about20, I had justput myCV online andstartedworkinginanoffice asa Pythonweb-
developer.
Understandingthe principle - "write lesscode,butnotlessthanyouneed"
What didyou lackat the beginningof your journey?
Communicationwithgeeks.
Oh,I don't know.Indue time I had readquite a lotof interestingbooksthatwere one wayor another
connectedwithprogramming,butIwon'tpresume toadvise generally.
Compilers,OCaml.
Mikhail,teamlead, Social Quantum
Webin particular- for 5 years.
Programming- because Ihave beeninterestedinitsince childhood.Web - low barrierstoentry:on
knowledge (lotsof manuals),onpractice (youonlyneedawebbrowseranda notepad,well,andpaint,
youdon't needtopull any heavyweightide bydialup,etc) andonjob(free-lance.ru,suddenlythere are
people whoare readyto payfor the thingsI have learnedjustoutof interest).
Tell usa little bitmore howyou startedout:how,when,what?
Secondaryschool,holidays,i486,my motherbroughta diskwithvideotutorialsonvisual basic,where it
was explainedhowtomake real programswithwindowsetc.There wasnocompileronthe disk.Ihad
beensalivatingfora week.ThenIgot a compilerandstartedexploringeverything.
Later I borrowedsomewhere abookaboutthe basicsof html,startedexperimentingandmakinga
homepage withawebsite builder - itwas verypopularbackthen.

Also- logo studygroup,pascal courses,phpcourses,pascal and c on IT lessonsinhighschool,reading
xakep.ru,interestinvirusesandassembler,flash.Tobe honest,Idon'trememberwhenexactlyitdid
start.
Once my fathertoldme such storyabout mypreschool childhood:he removedwindowsfrommy
computerandleftme withpure DOS. Sohe comesback fromworkat eveningandseesme playing
computergames.He asks me "howis itpossible"andgetsananswerthat I have typedoverseen
commands"cd nc", "nc",and then"the blue thing opened",thatisnortoncommanderwhichIwas
alreadyfamiliarwith(:
I had foundmyfirstorderon freelance sometimewhenIwas inhighschool.Idon't rememberexactly
whatit was - perhapsa flashbanner,perhapsa layoutrework.Backthen,of course,I wasn'tso self-
confident,andthat'swhymostof the time I wasjust hangingaroundonsome competitionsandI
workedmainlynotformoneybutfor the portfolio.OnLebedev'sadvice whichIhadread inhis
mandership,Ididthe worksforimaginaryclientsinordertofill myportfolioandshow thatI can.
Easy way:
 learnhowto use google
 google a tutorial like "introductiontohtml"
Hard way:
 school physicscourse
 electrotechnics
 digital circuitry
 the basicsof informationtechnology
 microcontrollersprogramming
 assembler
 structural programming,C,arrays, pointers,dynamicdatastructures,networking,etc.
 object-orientedprogramming,C++
 operatingsystems
 whateveryoulike
The dialupspeed
htmlbook.ru stackoverflow.com

The funnythingisI practicallydonot read complete booksontechnologies. Because:
1. outdatedknowledge
2. one-sidedview
3. doubtful author'scompetence
4. a lot of letters
Insteadof it,whenI encountersome kindof technology,firstof all,Isearchforthe official website,
some kindof gettingstartedguide,docsonAPI,examples.If itgoesslow,thenIaskgoogle the specific
questions(mostof the time itleadsme to stackoverflow),andif itgoesveryslow - thenI turnto the
thematiccommunityinordertoask a question(butitisan extremity,since waitingforthe answeris
veryannoying).
NowinparticularI am experimentingwithcommonnode (node.jswrapper,thatimplementsCommonJS
standartsand usesfibers) andmongodb.AndIneedtolearnRailsformy job.
RomanKolesnev,FullstackRailsdeveloper; Social Quantum
For 3 years
I had writtenaprogram, debuggedit,made some tests,all testspassedandthenyoustandup at full
height,perkyourfingeratit saying"now Iam yourGod!"
Self-study
I had triedprogrammingalittle whenIwasinprimaryschool,that's whythe informationabouthowI
had startedoutwouldn'thelpthe others.Ihadn't quite realizedyetwhatIwasgettinginto,a fool.But,
insuma, I can say the following:self-studyhereiseverything,butonfirststagesa goodbook or a video
tutorial,andan elderteam-mate whowill directyourthinkingthe properway,are veryhelpful.
Masteringwebwasirregularandimpermanent,buthalf ayearafterI hadconcentratedonrailsI started
to earn500$ at flexiblehoursandcombine work withstudyonthe 3rd course of MIPT. Before the
concentrationonrailsthere hadbeenquite abigexperienceinprogramming,abasicunderstandingof
JS,CSS, HTML and a little bitof PHP(intotal,I had writteninPHPsomethingabout40-50 man hours,no
more)

codeschool.com
A mentor
codeschool.com stackoverflow.com
Scala,Playframework,Unity3D, inthe nearestfuture Swift
SergeyRezvanov,ruby-developer, IkitLab
For 4 years.
I became interestedincomputertechnologieswhenIwasinschool, I feltsomethingratherinexplicable
and attractingin it,some kindof man-machine symbiosis.These timesacomputerwithoutamanis just
a piece of iron,but a man,too, alreadycan't live withoutacomputer.Buttogethertheymake atandem
where everyoneisinitsproperplace.Forme developmentandprogrammingingeneral are the same
as, forexample,art,i.e.a painterwithan easel,amusicianwithhisinstrument - these are the equal
figuresof a creative personality,the same asdeveloperwithhisskillsandknowledge.
Self-study
For me the path of programminghadstartedwhenIfoundmyself ajobas an oracle-developerina
companyCompassPlusin mytown(thisjobwasn'tconnectedtoweb),where Ihadspent5 yearsof my
life andcareer.
In the lastyear of work I became interestedinweb-developmentandthe follow-uptechnologies.All this
playedalow-downtrick - I couldn'tbearworkinginCompassPluswherethe stackof technologieswas
from90-s. That's whenIhad decidedtofindadistributedteamwithwhichIcouldfostermyskillsasa
web-developer.That'showI gota jobinSecoint,thiswasa companyin Tver',that was makingonline-
shops on Spee.Forsometime Ihadbeenworkingat2 jobs - inCompassPlus,inoffice,atday,and in
Secoint,remotely,atevenings.
Several monthslateritbecame verydifficulttocombine 2jobs(Ialreadyhada familybackthen),andI
got registeredasanIE and quitCompassPlus.Ibecame fullyimmersedinweb-developmentand
studyingtechnologieswhile still workinginSecoint.

Since thenI have changedseveral companies,butIam still loyal toweb-developmentandI workonly
remotely.
Aftertwomonthsof studying.Iturnedto the ruby web-developerscompanyandofferedmyservicesas
a dislocatedworker.Theygave me thumbup.
Thinktwice if youneedall this.If youdo, thenwrite code,readsmb.else'scode andwrite itagain.
Communicationwiththe same people asIwas...Unfortunately,Istill know noruby/railsdevelopers
frommy town.All the professionalsIknow are virtual,Ihaven'tmettheminlife.
My favorite bookstore- PragProg.There Ioftenbuybooksconnectedwithweb-development(mostlye-
books).Nothingspecific,Iam interestedineverything.
I oftenfindthe answerstomyquestionsonStackOverflow andsimilarresources.ButmostoftenIstill
lookat the sourcesof some big projects,because sometimesone canfindthere more useful information
than inbooksand articles.
For the last couple of monthsIhave beenworkingonone verybigprojecton mobile analytics-
http://inside.ly AndIcan sayjustone thing:datarulesthe world,andthe future isinthose whocan
collectthatdata and analyze it.That's whydata science iseverythingtous.
Konstantin,technical team leadinone of the start-upsof Saint-Petersburg
For 5-7 years.
I have alwaysbeeninterestedincomputersandinternet.
University,self-study,workwithamentor

I startedout withself-studyandDelphi,Pascal,C++programming.ThenIbecame interestedinUnix
systemsandPerl programming.Then,gradually,Iturnedtoweb-developmentandsettleduponruby
(well,andJavaScripttoo,of course).ItriedPython(Django),butmyheartwasnot init.
youget yourfirst order?
I got my firstfull-fledgedorderonfreelance.Imade alittle website inPerl.It'shardto sayhow much
time I spentonstudyingatthat time.I suppose thatwasthe "start" for me.
The basics andalgorithms.Books,screencasts,more practice.
A competentmentorwhowouldtellme how andwhatI shoulddo.Andshouldn'tdo,too.
The more youread, the better.I personallylikedthe books"DesignpatternsinRuby"(forruby-
developers) and"The artof optimization"(simple,butpopularalgorithmsmade easy) verymuch.
A little bithere andthere.Iam planningtostudyClojure more seriouslyandtoexperimentwithSwifta
little :)
KorneevEvgeniy,teamlead,SmartSpace
For 5 years
Because I like tocreate somethingthatthe otherswill use later.
Self-study
I became interestedinprogrammingbackwhenIwas12, moreover,Ididn'tevenhave acomputer.
WhenI was about14, I had alreadybeenactivelymakingsimple programsforWindowsinC++and
Delphi andwhenIwas 16 - I hadbeenmakingcomputergames.

Thenthere wasa yearof stagnationatthe universitywhere Ihadbeenentertainingmyself onlywith
Warcraft and makingcourse papersforolderstudents.ButwhenIunderstoodthatI hadn'tbeengetting
any useful informationhere,Ihadquitthe universityandfoundajob.WhenI was17-18, theydidn't
wantto hire me as a programmer,that'swhyI startedsellingdisksata computergamesstore.Half a
yearafter I wasalreadyconfiguringandcustomizing1Cinthe mothercompany.One more yearafter,
whenmybrainstartedto dry up from1C, I hadturnedto freelance andstartedmakingwebsites.Atfirst
- online shopsonphp-enginesandthen,afterawhile,Igotinterestedincool frameworksandchose
rubyand rails.
If to speakabout earlystages,whenIhadbeenmaking"turnkey"websitesonstuff like Wordpess,thenI
don't remember.Probablyone of myacquaintancesaskedme tomake somethingandpaid,asitusually
happens.If tospeakabout Rails,thenitturned outmostlythe same.I offeredtomake agood website
for the dance studioI wasworkingat,for a small consideration.Igotmyfirstfull-timejobalsothanksto
friends - one of the developersIknewsharedwithme the clientof one of hisprojects.
Firstof all,learningenglish:) Secondly,some basicthingslike HTML,CSS.You can try anothertack and
at firstjustlearnprogramming - learnpascal,basic or somethingelse.A goodprogrammeris
distinguishedbyhisalgorithmicthinking.Thisisa long,butproperway.
I guessa mentor.
The coolestthingaboutweb-developmentIsaw: http://www.railstutorial.org/book.Fromgeneral-
purpose things - "Code complete"byMcConnell
RightnowI am exploringdifferentthings:fromios-developmenttogame engines.If tospeak about
web:I am constantlylookingforand,if needed,studyingdifferenttrendsandtechnologies,butnothing
special.
In general,Itrynot to get stuckon web,butalsoto explore differentfields.
AntonCherepanov,web-developerin Evrone,mkdev.me mentor.
For 3 years
Historically,Ihadbeenplayingwow,andthenIdesiredtohave myownweb-serverandof course,a
website.

Self-study,workwithamentor
WhenI was youngI enjoyedplayingWoW,butthenIgot boredand I thought:whatif I made myown
server?Andeverythingbegantotake off,at firstI wasdownloadingwebsitesandinstallingthem,thenI
startedto copy html fromone website toanother,thencss.
ThenI got acquaintedwithmangosandtrinity - theyare wow opensource engineswritteninC++.It was
verydifficulttoinvestigatethemwithoutunderstandingof whatandhow one shoulddo,butI had
definitelylearnedhowtocompile andpatch:) ThenI foundoutthat one can earn goodmoneyonit and
continuedstudying,butonlyweb-development,becausethiswasmore pleasantforme thantaking
trouble withC++.
ThenI enteredacollege in"Software engineeringforcomputersandcomputer-basedsystems",andit
gave a goodbasisinalgorithmsanddatabases.Thena yearwithphpand thenthe beautiful worldof
ruby.
Notverysoon,for a longtime I didn'tevenknow thatone can earn moneyonit,so maybe inabout 2
years)
Searchingfora mentorand readingdocs.
I had everythingIneeded.
 rusrails.ru
 http://greenruby.org/
 http://rubydaily.org/
 https://www.codeschool.com/
 http://thoughtbot.com/
 https://twitter.com/evrone_ru
 http://www.rubeque.com/
 http://railscasts.com/
 http://www.rubyflow.com/
 http://www.rwpod.com/
 http://rubynoname.ru/
We are activelygamificatingthe processof ourworkusing Track2Win.

Employeestracksome of theiractions:watchedaconference,readabook,spoke at a meet-up,
contributedetc.And,tokeepup,youare keepingpace witheveryone andtryingtodistinguishyourself.
Technologies:AngularJS,Go
Kirill Shirinkin,DevOpsandCloudconsultant
How longhave youbeenworking?
For 7 years
An unscratchable itchtomake webapplications.Wasinspiredby37signalsandothers.
Self-study
At some pointbetweenthe agesof 13 and14 myfatherofferedme tomake websites.Itried
Dreamweaver,lookedatCSSand gave upon it forsome time.Andthen,at the age of 15, I had decided,
all of a sudden,that,afterall,Iwant to make websites.IstartedlearningHTML,CSS,a little bitof JS.
Aftersome time the wordingchangedto"Iwant to make cool websites".IheardaboutRails,newand
popularback then,onhabrahabr.I decidednottolistenthe programmersIknew whorecommended
me to learnPHP and Java.I startedto learnRailsandwrote a couple of applicationsinitjustformyself.
One of themI still use everyday.Inabouta yearafterI had startedlearningRailsfate broughtme
togetherwith DmitriyVasilets, @pronix whobecame mymentorandemployerforthe nextyearanda
half.
I don't rememberthe exacttime,Icanjustsay that I was 16, so no more than a year of trouble with
html and css. I neededtomake alayoutfor http://digitalshop.ru fromscratch.The website wasmade up
intable layoutback then,andone fellow whoworked asaprogrammerthere offeredme tomake itup
againin blocks.ThenIexperiencedthe sufferof makingupforIE6, the happinessmoderndevelopers
are deprivedof :-)
Self-educationforwebdevelopers.Thisisafree tutorial forthose whodon'tknow where tostart and
whatdirectiontofollowwrittenbyme.Inshort,thisisa 60-page answerto the question"Whatshoulda
beginnerstartwith";-)
The most important:findyourmotivationanddon'tlose it.Andconcentrate of yourgoal.Thisis a
universal advice thatisproperforany kindof situation,itiseasiergiventhanfollowed:-)

I will nevergettiredof repeatingthatinorderto achieve successinweb-developmentfieldone needs
twothings:the desire tostudyconstantlyanda cool mentor.Iwas unbelievablylucky:throughoutall of
my careerI had brilliantmentorswhomIwill alwaysbe grateful to.One of them, EvgeniyYanusov,
helpedme togainthe firstknowledge inweb-development(html,cssetc.).Anotherone, Dmitriy
Vasilets,notonlytaughtme toworkbut alsoplayeda crucial part inmy move to Berlin:-)
Thiswill looklike aruthlessself-aggrandizement,butin myfree book) Ihave collectedall the linkstoall
the necessarybooksandwebsiteswhichIcan recommendconfidently.
DevOpsandCloud.Notreallynew,butIalwaystry to deependmyknowledgethere.AlsoIamtrying
hard to write more correctly.Forexample,forsome reasonitdoesn'tcome easyforme to write
"advise"insteadof "advice"sometimes.
DmitriyVasilets,aconsultant
For 9 years
I have neverbeenconcentratedonweb.Ijustcomplete tasksmaximallysimple andfast.
Self-study
I was studyingatthe universityin2007.
There wasa gang of fraudsthat was providingotherswithinternetandmakingsome moneyon itin
dormitory.
The projectwas verysuccessful - more than100 clientsanda steadyincome.
I wrote an operatingpanel inordernotto communicate withclients,rightawayinRails.Andpassed
everythingtoasteadyperson.He organizedthe workevenbetterandthe income became predictable.
As a result,the projectwasworkingwithoutmyparticipation,andIhad a secure source of moneyevery
month.
It's a pitythat all thishappinesshadlastedonlyforayear.

Before thatI had beenwritingsystemscriptsandequipmenttestsonRuby.
Rightaway.It's shame to workfor free.Itook a task ona freelance boardandsaidhonestlythatIwill be
doingitlong,but cheap.Andthenmy appetite startedtogrow inproportiontothe task load.
Withdoingsomething.Close tickets.Parse files.Clocksonjs.If one asksquestions,buthaven'tdone
anything- it's time togive up.
I had everythingIneeded. Lifeisalwaysamazing.
Bible,Litvak,Bulgakov,The GoldenCalf.
Data science,management,finance,math,chemistry.
That's all for now.Anattentive readerwill notice one andthe same patterninall of the interviews:
 Everyone startedoutwithpassionforsomething,whetheritwere gamesorwebapplications.
Thus,most often,programmingisnota self-objective butaskill one hasto acquire inorderto
accomplishitsgoal. Butit doesn'tmeanyoucan't love programming.:)
 Each and everyone was active atself-study,andforthe majorityitwasthe onlyway of studying.
 Havinga mentoris a bigadvantage and hadhelpedalot of people (if notthe majorityof them) to
achieve success.
Professionalswhohave readthisarticle - share yourstories withusat the commentsbelow,inspire
those whohave justtakenthe path youhad traveledandhelpthemnotto lose theirway.
Beginnerswhohadalreadytakenthispath - tell uswhat techniques,sources,people helpyouandmake
your educationmore productive.

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