IT Specialist Earned €6000, Now Gets $500

— I am a programmer by education — I graduated from a technical university back in the mid-2000s, but only entered IT in 2020.

It turned out that the university program was weak — although there was a lot of practice, the focus was on Delphi, which was not particularly needed by 2007. And they didn't give us a deep understanding of programming patterns — even though they were invented back in the 1980s-90s.

No one in our group was particularly interested in studying. I did coursework for half of the students — for pizza.

Among those I keep in touch with, no one started earning money with code. And I myself, after getting my diploma, tried to get into IT — but nothing came of it. As a result, I went into sales — the income there was always above average.

Yes, from time to time I responded to vacancies from IT companies (but never reached the interview stage). And in 2010, I even studied at EPAM courses — for 3-4 months, I don't remember exactly anymore. Out of thirty people who enrolled in the courses, only five made it to the finish line — we were told that we were great, but no one was offered a job. Expectations were not met, unfortunately.

Yes, the guarantees were on the level of: "I give my word." But throughout our joint work, these guys never broke their agreements. The one responsible for the interviews turned out to be a very good programmer — at least, when I consulted with him, he offered good, working solutions. I should clarify that I also never let the guys down.

As a result, I immediately got three projects — for more than a year. They paid very well: in 2022, money was generally plentiful in IT, and there were significantly more projects than developers. One project brought me €2000 monthly, the second — €2100, and the third — €2500. It's a pity I can't add them to my portfolio: two projects are internal company software, and the third is a High-load B2C platform for trading very specific goods.

"I didn't work on weekends. If I had to — I would have burned out in a couple of months."

I wouldn't say I worked incredibly hard — the net working time was about 8 hours a day.

Every day looked like this: I woke up, checked my phone, had breakfast, did some household chores to fully wake up (for example, took out the trash or went to the store). And then I sat down at the computer — starting with a problem I hadn't solved the day before. Usually, after sleeping, you look at everything from a different angle and quickly figure it out.

If there were no unresolved tasks from the previous evening, I started a new one. I worked four hours without breaks. If I started getting stuck, I took a coffee break. Then I had lunch — without a phone or TV, just food and a casual conversation with family. And after that, another 4 hours in the same mode. I had no calls at all — only tasks.

I tried to distribute the work week among projects — allocating 1-2 days for each, so as not to switch from one context to another. In general, the projects were similar, there were no tasks that hadn't been solved a thousand times before (we weren't writing software for a Mars rover, after all). So the hardest part of the job was simply working without distractions.

By the way, I never worked on weekends. I think if I had to, I would have burned out in a couple of months.

Over 13 months of working on three projects, I turned into a decent developer: I can gather requirements and solve business problems in such a way that my solutions won't have to be redone later. And in CRM development, I'm just good.

You might ask: why then am I talking about all this in the past tense? Because two projects we completed (I was no longer needed at the support stage), and the third one was closed. The guys I worked with ceased their operations.

And it turned out that, even though I'm a decent programmer, it's not enough: now, job searching is a separate skill that I don't possess, and the market finds me uninteresting.

"The salary is small — $500. But there's experience and a record in my work book."

I looked for a job for about half a year. I can't say exactly how many applications I sent, but I'm sure it was over 1000.

Then I saw a vacancy at a state-owned enterprise and, out of desperation, decided to go for an interview. After the initial selection with the manager (there's no one there to conduct a technical interview), I was made a job offer.

Yes, my salary is quite small — $500, and now even a little less (why it decreased, I can't say: it doesn't depend on me, or my manager, or even the enterprise director).

Even during hiring, I immediately said: "I will work for you until I find another place." This arrangement suited them.

And yet there are positives: it's enough to get by, experience accumulates, and there's a record in my work book (during one of the initial screenings, I was directly told: "We do not consider candidates without a record in their work book"). And the feeling of being in demand — I'm the only programmer here, and my colleagues respect me a lot. They simply have a huge number of reports and papers that they spend a tremendous amount of working hours on, and I automate all this routine.

I like the work itself — I don't sit idle. In addition to everything I knew and could do, I also had to master DevOps and BA (business analysis), because there's no one else to do this — and no one wants to learn. DevOps skills look good on a resume.

Of course, I had to cut expenses (my family supports me a lot and hopes that the crisis is not forever). I gave up the car, as there's no money for its maintenance. But in previous years, I managed to earn enough for an apartment, so I completed the minimal task.

Yes, I still respond to all vacancies I see, but so far without success. It seems that only those who skillfully embellished their experience on their resume pass automatic filters, and I am honest, but lack such padding. Unfortunately, even when I apply for internships, I receive automatic rejections.

And yet I don't think moving into IT was a mistake: now in Belarus, there is no money in sales or IT, but at least programming is interesting to me.

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