How a violinist became a developer at Paralect

Today, Evgeny Chabrouski is a JavaScript developer at Paralect. But his path to web development wasn’t a straight one — he worked as an orchestra musician, bank teller and economist. This is his story.

From a violinist to a developer

Evgeny played the violin for 17 years. He dreamt of becoming a musician. After graduating from school he entered a music college and then a conservatory.

So he decided to get a degree in economics and entered a private university in Moscow. Evgeny chose correspondence study at the Faculty of Economics. He didn’t plan to drop out of the conservatory. So Evgeny graduated with two diplomas — as an orchestra artist and an economist.

After graduating from the conservatory he was posted to the Belarusian State music theatre for two years where he worked as a violinist.

Later he quit and started a career in banking.

“I usually describe that period as ‘I was paying the bills and changing the currency throughout the year.’ Was it fun? Not at all. Firstly, a bank teller’s work is boring. Secondly, It’s really hard in both physical and mental ways. I served 100-120 clients per day and had only 15 minutes per two hours for a break. If I stayed with a client a bit longer or did something wrong – time was up.” – Evgeny.

In a year he got promoted to the bank cards department. But, to be frank, it didn’t excite Evgeny at all.

“When I was fed up with it, I quit the bank.”

He lived off his savings and started to learn coding.

“When I worked at the bank I faced different programs and processes. Not all of them were understandable. So I wanted to figure out how they work. I was looking for some information on forums and in books. I also asked my brother-in-law for advice because he’s a programmer. I read not only about coding itself but also programmers’ success stories and their experiences of failure — It made me really interested in the topic.”

Later Evgeny found a job in construction but it was a story about earning money not his real passion.

Startup Summer wasn’t the first program Evgeny applied for. He also attended Rolling Scopes School classes and IT Step courses but didn’t finish either of them.

“At Rolling Scopes School I didn’t manage to combine studies with my work so I had to leave the course. At IT Step Academy I didn’t want to study PHP and came back to JavaScript.”

Startup Summer experience and a job offer

At Startup Summer Evgeny competed for a spot with technical university students. He wasn’t confident in his success at all.

“When I heard from Paralect's HR team that I had made the cut I couldn’t believe it.”

Over the next two months twelve students learned about the technology, practiced the skills, and worked together to become full-stack developers. They also applied these skills together to create functional products under mentor’s leadership. Evgeny was on the team that worked on the Paralect Accelerator’s product – VISXA.

“We were working for 8 hours per day 5 days a week. The course was very intensive and useful. From time to time I failed but always had an opportunity to ask for mentor’s help and advice. I was never left one-on-one with a problem. In two months I didn’t stop making mistakes but came to understand their reasons. It was fantastic progress!”

Evgeny was happy to work with a real project rather than a simulation.

“We had a real client, real meetings, processes and technologies. It made the studies significant indeed. We influenced the result. It was kind of a wow-effect for me. I can’t even compare Startup Summer format with all these video-training and online-courses I tried before.

I’m convinced it is worth it to spend two summer months on education. The course upgraded my skills rapidly. At the beginning of Startup Summer I possessed only front-end knowledge. Today I know how to work with back-end tech as well.

This kind of course is great for starting a career in tech.

It would be much more complicated to start not with an internship but a trial period. When you are a student you’ve not so many responsibilities and expectations. It helps a lot!”

After two months of studies the best students got job offers at Paralect. Evgeny was among them.

Currently Evgeny works on Paralect’s internal project. He finally found his dream job.

“Every day I wake up smiling and going to a job I’m fond of. Isn’t that happiness?”

Why it’s never too late to change life

Evgeny is confident that it can’t be too late to change something in life. And his wife agrees.

“We’ve just become parents for the second time. For sure my wife could’ve asked me not to take this risk and keep a stable job. But thank God she didn’t. Every day she saw my mood when I came home from work which I didn’t like. So she totally supported me in my decision to change.

She knew I wasn’t afraid of any job if it was necessary to earn money for living. I worked as an economist, driver and mover — but in the long term it’s crucial for every person to be satisfied with what he does. And if you finally find a job you are keen on, why should you give up? My example shows that you’re very much on time at any period in life.

Today I have my favorite job. I spend a lot of time working and studying. Even after coming home I continue thinking of tasks and processes. There’s so much information. And now I really understand why it’s a well-paid industry.

I know this might be only the beginning of my road. But I enjoy my way.”

Evgeny’s journey to Startup Summer is just one of dozens — since 2016 the course has seen 70+ students graduate with many joining teams at Paralect upon completion.

Now that it has been paired with the Paralect Accelerator, the impact and experiences each student has goes beyond career development. Their work together gives founders the chance to launch a high-quality product and build their own thriving startup.