IT career

It’s Never Too Late: My Start into DevOps

Summary

Learn about the challenges, growth, and lessons gained — from juggling work, studies, and a pet project to achieving a dream.

Portfolio is one of the most important things a UX designer should have - it plays a defining role during the job application process. In professional circles it is even called a designer’s “calling card”. Portfolio is not just a collection of your work - it’s your way to present yourself, your problem-solving skills and your talent. No matter whether you’re a freelance designer who posts their portfolio online to attract clients, or if you prepare a portfolio for the HR team at a job interview, you should try to make it look both serious and interesting, while not overloading it with too much information. In this article we’ve collected a list of components that a good portfolio should contain and mistakes that should be avoided when compiling it - let’s discuss them.

Hi, I’m Nastya, the Product Owner of EXANTE’s desktop and web trading terminals. I began working at the company nearly five years ago as a Junior QA Engineer. Since then, I’ve advanced to QA Lead and ultimately to Product Owner. In this article, I’d like to share my growth journey within the company and the steps that helped me progress. I hope that my story will be helpful to those seeking to advance their careers but are unsure where to start.

Title:

After sale IT support for American and Western Companies 

Let’s have a case study. 

A Russian IT company sells software to a western country like say America. And you are working as an application developer on the support side. 

One day, there is a problem with the program, and the program has stopped working. 

You must contact the company now to inform them that the program is off-line. 

THE NEXT STEP YOU TAKE IS VERY IMPORTANT. 

The way, the two cultures operate in a situation like this are very different and it will have everything to do with how easy your job goes for you.

…………

Russia : “we have a problem”

“What is wrong?”

“I don’t know”

“When can it be fixed?”

“I don’t know”

……………

USA: “i’m just giving you a real quick call to let you know that there is a problem with the program. 

I’ve already put my team on it and we will have it up and running shortly. 

I will let you know more by 3 o’clock today what is going on”

It’s not important how long you think it will take you, but I will always tell them a few hours from the time that you informed them of a problem.

I understand that you have no idea how deep the bug is and also whether it will affect any other systems.

But it is important to set a time window very close to when you inform them that you will bring them more information. 

This also works very well if you don’t know something that they ask you.

Question:

“What can we do to fix this problem?”

Answer: 

“I understand what you’re saying. I will look into it and get back to you in two hours.  By 1 PM today.”

in this case, it’s important that you: 

1. Take responsibility for yourself and your team.

   2. Communicate that you understand this responsibility.

   3. Gives strict timelines. (if it’s not possible, you can always say that there is a problem, but do it before the deadline.) 

    4. Use certain key language.

“ I understand you”

“ I understand what you were saying”

“ I wanted to inform you”

“ we are working on it right now”

This is one of the most important articles I’ve written. 

In this article, I’m going to dive deep into one of the largest differences between Russia and America pertaining to sales and marketing. 

1. You must use your name. 

2. You must have a personal approach. 

3. You must show that you are involved. 

4. You must show that you care about the needs and desires of the client. 

Recently, I was faced with an interesting problem. I was asked to call clients without making it personal. 

So let’s go back to when I was in America, living and working as a sales person. The company I work for, was very large, and had multiple branches around the Washington DC area. They had offices in three states. 

They put me through a sales training course. 

The biggest “take away” from the course….. 

You’re not selling the product/ 

you’re selling yourself. 

It's important to use your charisma and your genuine caring for the customer to win them over. Once they understand that you're actually trying to help them, then they will seriously consider the item you are telling them about. 

I also want to say, very clearly, that it's not a prideful approach. It should be a professional approach. You're responsible to tell the customer/ the client all the benefits of the item and how this item will help their business.

Everything above pertains to sales in America. So if you are approaching America as a sales manager this is how you should craft your approach. 

Now I've spoken to my colleague,

Kristina Pashnina and we have agreed upon some stark differences to the Russian sales climate. Here she will begin to tell you how the Russians see sales. 

My last article stirred up some definite comments and even questions about different things in business. I’m going to keep giving you as much information as I can so that you can continue to do business as IT professionals outside of Russia with other countries. 

How do you design a website that will be viewed in the west and appreciated by the people there?

What are the most important elements

for, America and other western markets?

Information shared below is exactly how I work with my IT professionals who are going to be participating in pre-sales to America. I tell them exactly this, and it helps prepare them to successfully sell the the United States companies.

As developers and IT companies, we must sell our software.

What can give you an edge in this very competitive market place?

Please, if you would allow me to let me explain why this is important and how this can make your company more successful. There’s a certain type of thinking that is conducive to working as a software developer. This is a very practical mindset, but it goes beyond that. If you have the mindset of direct thinking.

Here are examples:

I see the target a target and I don’t see obstacles

Вижу цель, не вижу препятствий

This is an example of the practical mindset, how is approaches the problem of development. It makes people who have this mindset, the best developers in the world.

Example of mindset:

Problem……………… find a solution………… No problem.

Notice how this looks exactly like a line of code?

This is well-known around the world in places where you would like to sell your software, the United States, Germany, Belgium, and the Middle East.

Countries where people have this mindset have the best developers.

now let’s talk about your competition:

Americans: during the center process, “find a solution” Americans are overly concerned about responsibility. This slows them down in the decision making process.

i’m writing this series articles to spearhead the new marketing campaign for into the American market. I will be covering a wide range of topics that will allow us to position the company in the proper way so that is excepted as a provider of High-quality software in America.

The key to converting an American CEO or CFO is the trigger point for the American business culture. The trigger point for America is responsibility.   This means in business you must be responsible. You also look for business partners that are responsible.  

But let’s take this into the newest more powerful view that we need to have now.  

The scene from the point of you of the CFO sitting at the head of the financial controls of a large hospital conglomerate. Put yourself in the mind of the CFO. What are they concerned about?  

As an American CFO they will be very concerned about whether they are being responsible in their job and responsible to the hospital, staff, shareholders, patients and the management above them. 

And this is how we get our foot in the door in this American niche market. If we present ourselves as offering something that “May” give an answer to specific problems that they know that they have, they must give us a chance to present a Presale. The reason is because they are responsible, and if there is a solution as an American Director you must explore that solution.

It would be irresponsible to not explore a potential solution.

Then it’s a simple case to actually give value in the presale meeting and convince them that we can deliver some thing that will benefit their business and profits.

In our last article we covered the anatomy of a presale meeting gone wrong. In that article we posed some questions for everyone to think about. What exactly does an American company wanting to hire a Russian custom software development company, feel about this Russian company? What are they afraid of? What are their concerns?

In the end we came up with five concerns.

1. Is the company a fly by night company, is the company a one-day company?

2. Will they be professional in supporting or developing the software that they've sold to us?

3. Will they have proper data security?

And now the two new ones that are because of the mess the world is in now...

4. Will they be able to complete the project on time? This includes proper internet access an infrastructure to support IT.

5. Where is your team located? Are you still located in Russia?

Now we're going to look at the last 2, number four and five.
However let's look at number 5 first.

Many IT companies today if they want to work with the United States or even Europe they must not have their developers located inside of Russia. Matter of fact it goes so far that if a developer is located in Russia and they're using a VPN and somehow the VPN is breached the credentials are canceled for that developer to work on the project.

It's for this reason that Russian IT companies are opening offices around the world. Let's look at Armenia as an example.

Wait a minute I have to go back for a second...... We must discuss how countries look to America Canada and Western Europe. I basically give them a score based on questions that are brought up in the mind of the American company or European company.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I just started to learn Game Development, and decided to run write my personal blog about it. So there you can find information(resources, blogs, courses, books) that i've gathered and my personal problems with learning)

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.

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.

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.

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!”

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.