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Work, work and work (in IT)

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The anatomy of a pre-sale meeting to the USA

Reading time 5 min
Views 179
Case

My name is Paul Karol and I work connecting Russian IT with their customers in the United States. Please find on Hbar my previous article for a complete explanation of my credentials.

Today we're going to look at a presale meeting that was not successful and we will explain exactly how the Russian company lost this business. Please take a look at this photograph.

Going into this presale meeting the client (large American chain store) had worked with the software for a little more than a month and we're pretty happy with the result. From all indications they were going to buy the software this day. The sales manager had a good relationship with the American managers of the company. There was lots of buying sign that was known to the Russian company prior to this presale meeting. Suffice to say that they believe that they would have an easy sale today.

There was some very specific things that the Russians did that cost them this business.

We will be using this as a case study and we will discuss exactly everything that they did as a mistake and how to not do these same mistakes for your company.

First we must do some brain work. A thought experiment, if you will. What do you believe are the concerns of an American company doing business with Russian IT developers today. The current situation between the countries does make it more difficult but the same exact concerns are still there from before maybe slightly more amplified and there may be one more concern that wasn't there prior to the difficulties in Ukraine.

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Russian speaking IT presales and passing interviews to the West

Reading time 6 min
Views 1.1K

Russian speaking IT presales and passing interviews to the West

I'm Paul Karol an American and I've been living in Russia and working internationally with businesses for the last 10 years. My first client was a Gazprom high level director and we worked on international communication and connections with the West and China.

I am the keynote speaker in many events and also give companywide training for companies that interact with other countries. I have been working deeply with The IT community of Russia for 6 years. My job is to make them pass their project interviews. Also I work with the presales and make sure that the company gets the projects that they want.

I'm the expert on Russia, Chinese and the  Western cultural relations.

First: if your company is just beginning to approach the Western market including America you want to have success in the beginning. If you're successful at passing the first few presale meetings or project interviews your reputation will be established. If you fail a few interviews or presales then you start to develop a reputation.

@paulkarolgibrelstions4767
Total votes 4: ↑3 and ↓1 +2
Comments 4

What is it about IT. And when will it all end

Reading time 21 min
Views 1.3K
Translation

Yes, we need IT

The foundation of our civilization is tools. We didn't just evolve to a state that allowed us to use them, we began to improve them ourselves. The tools are becoming more intricate, more efficient and more perfect. It can be a hammer, an industrial robot, or a monetary relationship. 

Some of our tools are difficult to grasp or comprehend, they are more like an element or a subject of study: the Internet, the media, the transport system. It is even difficult to call them tools, rather it is a reflection of our activities. For simplicity, we will call everything that people do with their own hands a tool, meaning that they speed us up, make our life easier and more comfortable.

Why do we need tools? On the one hand, they help to solve emerging problems, on the other hand, they raise the standard of living. We enjoy creating tools. I would say it's one of our instincts. 

For the functioning of our body, we need some amount of mathematics. The processes in our head reflect this math into our language. We can write the language in the form of symbols. With the help of symbols, we can convey the discovery of one person to another or a thousand others. This allows us to build more and more complex tools. And most importantly, we really like it: the brain encourages us every time we invent or achieve something. Therefore, our tools are developing with us. The mechanisms of their development and improvement are sewn into us.

Migratory birds fly south in autumn, north in spring. It's their instinct. Ants build an anthill — it's their instinct. If people are left in satiety and peace, they begin to encode secret messages in the Bible, create complex etiquette, form mathematics, experiment with materials.

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Total votes 7: ↑6 and ↓1 +5
Comments 0

The Growing Field of Fraud Prevention: Insights and Career Opportunities

Reading time 4 min
Views 2.8K
Opinion

Hi Everyone,

I would like to draw your attention to some key insights from two comprehensive reports, shedding light on the importance of fraud prevention as a burgeoning field with substantial job prospects. The original reports can be accessed through the link provided at the end of this message.

Firstly, let's consider a couple of significant events from the previous year that remain highly relevant. Retail e-commerce sales surged to a staggering $5 trillion, with projections indicating a further increase to $8 trillion by 2026. Furthermore, the percentage of shoppers making cross-border purchases rose from 69% in 2019 to an impressive 76%.

These statistics affirm that online shopping is not a passing trend, as consumers are willing to make purchases from international vendors, even if it means enduring longer delivery times in exchange for lower prices. From a fraud prevention perspective, this highlights the escalating number of non-domestic payments and the rise in the use of lost or stolen cards for purchasing goods that can be resold in the future. Notably, refund fraud is becoming increasingly prevalent. However, many businesses have adapted their protocols to accommodate these emerging challenges. One such positive development is the gradual disappearance of restrictions on using payment methods that do not match the account country.

As cross-border purchases continue to proliferate, alternative payment methods are also on the rise. Current global statistics indicate that an average of four payment options are now available on merchant platforms. Additionally, open banking payment transactions are projected to surpass $330 billion globally by 2027, leading to a greater diversity of alternative payment methods. As companies embrace these methods, they are also becoming more aware of the associated risks. For instance, direct banking payment methods present unique challenges as they lack refund capabilities, while Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) options introduce their own set of risks.

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Networking for Programmers: How to Build Connections and Get Hired

Level of difficulty Easy
Reading time 8 min
Views 1.7K
Roadmap

As a programmer, building connections with industry professionals can help you in advancing your career. Whether you're looking for a new job or want to connect with industry professionals, networking can help you achieve your goals. In this article, we'll examine the importance of networking for programmers and share practical tips and techniques for making strong connections in the programming community.

From attending industry events to exploiting social media for developing soft skills and building a personal brand, we'll cover everything you need to know to network effectively as a programmer. So, whether you're just starting your career or looking to take it to the next level, read on to learn how to build connections and get hired through effective networking.

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Python Junior Plus, or the beginner's Roadmap to becoming a Python programmer

Reading time 8 min
Views 5.8K

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Hello! My name is Mikhail Emelyanov, I am embedded software engineer, and I was inspired to write this little roadmap on the capabilities of Python language by a certain commonality among the existing Python tutorials found on the web.


The usual suggestions to study, say, “Algorithms and Data Structures” or “Databases” are especially jarring. You can spend years studying these topics, and even after decades you'd still be able to find something you didn't know yet even without ever venturing outside the scope of Algorithms!


Using video game analogies, we can say that novice programmers often stand on the shore of the lake of boiling lava with an island with the ever-coveted jobs in the center, while the islands in between, which you have to jump on, gradually increasing your skills in successive mini-quests, are either missing, or arranged haphazardly, or their fairly smooth sequence breaks off, never having managed to get you any farther from the shore. Let's try to build a path of hint islands, a number of which, although not without effort, will finally allow us to reach our goal.

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Rating 0
Comments 3

Ten “Soft Skill” Job Interview Mistakes

Reading time 10 min
Views 2.1K
Tutorial
Translation

A job interview is one of the most stressful life events. According to research IT specialists change their jobs every 2-3 years, and every tame they are faced with interviews with HR, tech leads and future managers. Artem Golovachev, Director of IT architecture at Innotech, shares his insights on how to successfully pass an interview.

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What causes testers and developers to feud and how to avoid it

Reading time 5 min
Views 842
Translation

Testers and developers are the driving force of any IT enterprise. Their work directly influences the quality of the final product. Pavel Petrov, our Lead tester-engineer of the risk detection monitoring service for corporate clients, shares his insights on building a productive relationship between two different IT camps.

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Total votes 3: ↑3 and ↓0 +3
Comments 0

It's alive

Reading time 2 min
Views 1.1K

I wonder why IT developer interviews are so strange most of the time. It feels as if the people are looking for computer science teachers, not engineers. All those theoretical questions that have no relation to the working reality. It is strange to be looking for eloquent teachers, who can perfectly explain any term or pattern, and then ask them to do the actual work. Maybe it is the imprint from the years spent in university when the teachers looked like all-knowing gods and seemed to solve any issue in your life. May be, may not. Anyway, these teachers stay in unis and don't do the work.

You know, what would be my universal answer to all interview questions? “I have no idea how and why it works, but I can use it, and I can use it for good”. This is the reality. Actually, no one knows exactly these hows and whys. What is a computer? What is electricity? What is an electron? No one knows for sure. But it works and we use it.

Imagine a famous author, like Stephen King, asked a question about the difference between deus ex machina and Mary Sue. Would his answer change the quality of his books? He may or he may not know all those scientific literature terms, but he can use the language and use it for good.

Every time I turn on my computer it is a wonder. I have no idea what is going on, but it awakes, it becomes alive, and I can communicate with it in its own sublime and subtle language.

Have you ever realised that all these electronic devices are monsters, Frankenstein's monsters? Some pieces of dead matter were put together, and then, with some electricity involved, it suddenly awoke. “It's alive!”. Had Frankenstein any idea why it turned alive? Of course not, or why he was so surprised? Every developer experiences this feeling almost every day. “It's working!”

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Total votes 7: ↑4 and ↓3 +1
Comments 1

Introduction to Engineering

Reading time 16 min
Views 1.7K

This is a set of chapters for young engineers. We give practical advice and discuss goals, challenges and approaches used in modern software engineering.

Along with classical foundations this article contains original ideas of conceptualizing engineer's work with emphasis on bringing order to the situation and finding an insight. Engineering is approached as work in uncertainty with other people which requires special skills. Non-obvious complications regarding modern production in big companies are discussed.

This article is based on 15 years of experience in engineering and management in high-tech industries.

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Rating 0
Comments 3

Software testers — an endangered species?

Reading time 4 min
Views 1.5K

Nothing and nobody will escape oblivion. Whatever you may say, the history of mankind is a history of automation and the subsequent evolution of workers. This happened both during the first industrial revolution and during the second. The same thing happened with digital revolution. Now machine learning and artificial intelligence are being implemented everywhere. What is the future of software testing?

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Total votes 1: ↑1 and ↓0 +1
Comments 0

10+ Biggest Remote Tech Jobs Aggregators Comparison

Reading time 7 min
Views 3.6K

There is a myriad of articles about where to find remote jobs, particularly in tech. Some of them are outdated and most of them don't provide detailed reviews. So that's why I decided to do my own research. I did a basic search by "React" skill (where possible) and expected to see mostly "Frontend Developer" vacancies.

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Total votes 3: ↑3 and ↓0 +3
Comments 0

What is one of the most common mistakes beginner developers make

Reading time 2 min
Views 1.3K

It may seem that when you are a beginner, you'll do simple things only. No need to learn data structures and algorithms. No need to understand Big O notation, complexity and stuff like that. 

This couldn't be further away from the truth!

In 2008, when I just started learning to program, I spent a lot of time reading books on PHP and MySQL. Months later, when I felt confident, I took my first freelance project. It was a real estate website. A simple one. I used a custom-made ORM and everything worked just fine!

When I released it, the search feature quickly became sluggish and made the website unusable. 

I was wondering what the heck had happened. I figured out that database queries became very slow when there were over 200 real estate objects added to it. 

This is it. What worked fine during testing did not work in real life.

I was a self-taught developer. I did not know how to measure if my project scaled well. I didn't even know that I had to do it.

I thought algorithms mattered only for launching a spaceship.

If I had some basic understanding of algorithms, I would have known that the more the input, the longer it takes. 

I am not saying I would have come up with a robust solution as a junior, but I would have looked for a solution because I knew there would be a problem. 

Please, don't make the same mistake!

Of course, data structures and algorithms are much more than that and they apply differently depending on what you work on.

But a basic understanding of data structures and algorithms is a must for every software developer. 

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Total votes 1: ↑0 and ↓1 -1
Comments 1

Finding Neo

Reading time 6 min
Views 864
Translation
Continuing the previous part, let's talk about junior programmer candidates searching and their integration into your team. In this part I'd like to share my experience of forming a vacancy, more precisely its format. I'll try to tell you how to create the most attractive, honest and, not less important, informative vacancy card.

Like in the previous part, I'd like to remind you, that I'm just sharing my own experience and expressing the personal opinion. No more than that.

Making a vacancy card


image

One of the most important criteria of your search success is the right choice of HR platform. Since we are working with IT segment, I'd like to recommend the Habr Career.

For an extra traffic source you can use Head Hunter, LinkedIn (blocked in RF) and various telegram channels. For example: a good channel to find java developers, this will help to find mobile developers, or you can use your personal sources, if you have them.
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Total votes 1: ↑0 and ↓1 -1
Comments 0

Applying for that overseas job: a checklist of CV things to worry about

Reading time 9 min
Views 3.7K


The IT job market is going global, no doubt about it. Working remote for foreign companies or using an occupation overseas as a springboard for relocating is becoming common career trajectories among tech people, and that’s pretty great. However, while we’re rejoicing about the new opportunities, let’s not forget about the growing pains that go hand in hand. One of the most glaring issues international teams run into is that wildly different backgrounds give people wildly different expectations about what employment process, teamwork and professional relationships should look like.

These issues often come up right from the start of job seeking process. When employer and candidate have a cultural divide between them, the communication becomes hindered. And given that initial communication happens in the rigid, standardized form of e-mailed CVs, this can seriously impact the outcome.
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Total votes 7: ↑6 and ↓1 +5
Comments 1

Working with light: Starting your career at ITMO University

Reading time 4 min
Views 1.4K
One of our previous articles featured an overview of our photonics department students’ work lives. Today we’re going to expand on this topic by looking at four related MA programs: “Light Guide Photonics and Programmable Electronics”, “LED technologies and optoelectronics”, “Photonic materials” and “Laser technologies”. We sat down with some of the folks currently enrolled in these programs, as well as recent graduates, to talk about the role ITMO University played in kickstarting their careers.

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Total votes 5: ↑5 and ↓0 +5
Comments 0

Top IT Consulting Companies In India and USA For Tech Professionals

Reading time 8 min
Views 2.2K


The race to become the best IT consulting firm has been at its peak for the last few years. Each and every business requires a top technology consulting company for implementing its IT and development strategy. However, they find it tedious and perplexing to pick one according to their needs, budget, time, and so on; because it can determine the future of their business. And because of an outbreak like COVID-19 existing business continuity plans aren't capable of handling the unknown variables of business. 
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Total votes 1: ↑0 and ↓1 -1
Comments 0

How Deep the Rabbit Hole Goes, or C++ Job Interviews at PVS-Studio

Reading time 4 min
Views 1.7K

Job Interviews at PVS-Studio

Authors: Andrey Karpov, khandeliants Phillip Khandeliants.
Here's an interesting story about how one of the questions we ask at job interviews turned out to reach even deeper than intended by its author. You've always got to watch your step with C++ and C++ compilers – there's never a risk of getting bored.
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