5 tips for entry-level developers: how to start your path in it in Kyrgyzstan

Developer is probably the most popular profession among the youth now. Only the lazy would not hear about IT specialists’ huge salaries, and social media intersperse with ads on a variety of courses.

What key skills should an ace-high IT specialist have? What salary is expectable in the very beginning? How to join a free Java Backend Developer course? We ask all this to Mr. Vladislav Romahov, the leader of the O! Mobile Operator developer staff.

1. First choose your niche and then the programming language

Development has a lot of areas. How to choose the best one and what to begin with?

- First of all, it would be great to find out whether the person is interested in making web-based projects or mobile apps. Some may find themselves in development of server solutions. Working out, trying to do something, even based on the info picked up online, is a way to understand what it would be. It is important to see the one’s deliverables and show them to friends: Look what I have done! Maybe not at one dash, but something must be achieved.

There are also other indicators worth attention. You can look through job ratings and salaries on local job websites, and you can see that a good salary depends not only the developer’s experience and niche but also on the programming language. As an example, here is the programming language rating by github.com.

The more popular the language the more jobs are offered and the tougher the competition. However, on may not follow the masses but rather choose to explore less popular languages and become a rare domain specialist, with a good salary too.

2. Key skills for IT

- Development is about continuous self-education. Of course, there can often be standard tasks resolved through Google, but on the other hand, the point is that there can be so much of information that one will find it hard to catch what is actually needed. What makes a person a good IT specialist is diligence and striving to get to the bottom and find the truth.

It is often not enough to find a working fragment in internet and insert it in the program to make it work. What is most important here is algorithmic thinking: if you know ho to build an algorithm, it doesn’t matter what solution and what language you use in development. Languages may differ in complexity, each one requiring different learning curve: it is rather more important to know how to break a big task into a set of small steps.

3. Myths and reality: about salaries

- The truth is that incomes of experienced developers are relatively high as currently there is a lack of specialists. Online startups first surged during the COVID epidemics, but then there were mass cuts in the Silicon Valley, for example, numerous projects were shut down in Europe. I know guys to whom stratospheric salaries were offered but the demand went out quite soon.

The IT market is growing year by year. Businesses are interested in automation, however, as soon as there will be 2-3-4 times more tech guys the situation will affect their salaries. Something like that happened to lawyers and economists some time ago. The market can get saturated even tomorrow because of new IT graduates, however, the developer profession is on its high now globally. Business is ready to pay, but for outstanding skills, for your brains. As for the entry level, I’m rather skeptical about the figures promised by some education resources. It’s understood they need to sell a course to you, but it is up to you if your job search is a success or not. So, in the beginning, 20-30 thousand KGS look more realistic.

4. Choose an internship program

- Among numerous course and internship plans in Kyrgyzstan, the Intern Labs program offered by the O! Mobile Operator is distinct for its non-paid basis. Furthermore, it is not just an internship but rather an employment program: its best graduates will remain employed by the company. Candidates literary have to catch their chance as such course are only delivered a couple of times over a year. We recently completed the selection process for the Tester course with only one in up to 10 candidates successful.

And right now, the competition is underway for Java Backend Developer internship program, one of the most popular area actually. While prospective testers could start training from scratch, this program requires knowledge of Java basics.

So:

• the duration of the Java Backend Developer program is 6 months, quite short on the average but enough to get prepared for real tasks and project work;

• you can advance into practical programming and have an insight of a large IT company business processes.

5. Go for it!

- Yes, you will need to pass a test to be admitted to the internship. Through such test, you will clearly see if your knowledge is sufficient and you are interested in the training. Although simple, the first test can show the way the person thinks, if the person capable of thinking logically, smart and motivated indeed. The second test is for basic programming language skills. You still have time, the deadline is September 20, 2023. Proceed to the first test here: internlabs.o.kg 

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