How Tech Courses Help Start a Career. The Case of a Startup Summer Graduate
Before coming to Paralect and starting a career in tech Eugenia Shibkova worked as a UX designer and shop assistant. Why she decided to become a JavaScript developer — Eugenia tells in her story below.
From a designer to a JavaScript developer
Eugenia studied interior design at the State Institute of Management and Social Technologies at BSU. By the end of her studies, she realized that design wasn’t really her thing. So Zhenya started looking for alternatives.
At first, I didn’t plan to become a programmer but decided to try tech design instead. In May 2016 I applied for UX-design courses. While studying I found out that I was really interested in page making and programming but not in design itself, — Eugenia
She wanted to understand the operation principles of user interfaces. Eugenia completed a design course and applied for the next one in January 2017. It was dedicated to page making.
After finishing that program I really didn’t know what to do next. I carried out some UX-design tasks as a freelancer but felt that I was more into programming by that moment. Anyway, I wasn’t confident about my prospects in development.
She monitored tech vacancies for juniors at different development companies and studied the requirements.
On the internet, Eugenia came across the Rolling Scopes community. There she saw an ad for lectures taught by programmers. She decided to attend the event and discovered Rolling Scopes School for beginners in tech development there. It was free of charge and gave her a chance to study Front End online under their mentor’s supervision.
Eugenia enrolled in a six-month course and started practicing programming on JavaScript. Meanwhile, she was working as a shop assistant in a clothing store.
It was an extremely hard period of life. I didn’t manage to succeed in studying because of being overloaded. So I applied for the course once again and graduated from the school only after the second try.
Challenges and insights at Startup Summer
In July 2020, there were not enough vacancies for juniors on the job market.
So I continued my education studying React and Angular.
In 2021 Eugenia was determined to change her job from a shop assistant to a programmer.
There is an opinion that small businesses are interested only in middle-level and senior employees but not in juniors. So I created a list of big companies which are considered to be junior-friendly. They usually have labs and courses for newbies in tech. To be honest, Paralect wasn’t on my list.
Eugenia found Paralect by accident. She saw the ad for Startup Summer 2021 in the Rolling Scopes jobs community and decided to apply.
The deadline was in three days. So I started working on the test task immediately. I was ready to spend two months on education without making money. Moreover, I knew that courses at some big companies took even longer.
Before coming to Startup Summer she didn’t know anything about Paralect.
On the first day of Startup Summer, all the students were invited to take part in team-building. We got to know our mentors and teammates, and I was really impressed by the atmosphere at the company. From that very moment, I wanted to stay at Paralect. And it’s curious that my motivation was mostly connected with nice people but not with a salary.
Previously Eugenia had taken tech courses, so she could compare. She realized that two months of intensive training at Paralect gave her a good chance to upgrade her skills really fast.
Before Startup Summer I knew only Front-end and wasn’t familiar with Back-end tech at all. Thanks to the courses I got acquainted with a full stack of tech development.
Eugenia was very happy that Paralect gave her a chance to work together with her team on a real product.
Before I worked only on practice projects. At Startup Summer I participated in real meetings with real clients, and it inspired me a lot.
Eugenia was on the team that worked on the Paralect Accelerator’s product — Nudge.
It was the first time in my career when I had the chance to contribute to a product with an incredible design. In the previous courses, my code wasn’t reviewed, so I felt I was doing useless work. At Paralect the situation was completely different.
The brightest of Eugenia’s memory connected with Startup Summer happened the day before the internal demo.
I was told about a new introductory point. It meant I had to redo my part of the job from scratch within a day. I was super nervous. I realized I wouldn’t manage to complete the task by demo day. I was able to cope with a part of it at best. That’s how it went. Eventually, everything was OK. Later I reflected on that situation, but at that moment I felt very stressed.
Why it's important to believe in yourself and follow your dreams
By the second month of Startup Summer Eugenia Shibova quit the job at the store because she wanted to spend more time studying.
I worked at the shop every weekend and didn’t have enough time for self-preparation and self-education. I decided to make a choice and concentrate on programming. Was I sure about the upcoming job offer from Paralect? Not at all. I knew there were more experienced people on the team. Anyway, I was very happy when I was offered to stay at the company.
It wasn’t the first time Eugenia drastically changed her career.
We live in such a world where people constantly study and try something new. In my opinion, it’s absolutely normal and not scary to change a sphere although my ex-colleagues didn’t understand my motivation to change something in my life. Probably, they didn’t believe I could succeed in tech. In any case, I’m very glad that I went with my gut feeling and decided to follow my real passion.
Today Eugenia Shibkova is a full-stack developer at Paralect. She feels very comfortable in this area and underlines that tech people differ from others in their mentality and corporate culture.
I feel psychological freedom here. It’s a pleasure to work with well-educated and inquisitive colleagues.
One more advantage of the tech sphere for her is the unstoppable quest for self-development.
I continue to read tech literature and take courses. It’s required to upgrade yourself if you want to be a well-paid developer. And it motivates me a lot, — Eugenia.
