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Hello everyone. In this video, we'll break down how I got hired as a programmer at 18. Later, at 19, I quit, moved alone to another country, went broke, and got back into programming again. Let's start with where I began.
A personal journey of becoming a programmer at 18, facing failures, learning strategies, and overcoming challenges to land a job.
Key Takeaways
- Choosing a programming language should be based on market demand, not just popularity.
- Consistent, disciplined study with a clear roadmap is crucial for progress.
- Hands-on project work is more effective than passive learning through tutorials.
- Mentorship and community support significantly improve learning outcomes.
- Practical job skills and interview preparation matter more than deep theoretical knowledge initially.
What the video covers
- Started programming journey at 17 with no clear plan, initially choosing Python based on popularity and blogger recommendations.
- Faced difficulty finding Python jobs locally and struggled with inconsistent study habits and lack of mentorship.
- Spent a year self-studying without clear direction, applying to many jobs but receiving no responses.
- Switched to learning Java due to better job prospects and created a structured learning roadmap.
- Experienced a second low point due to lack of understanding and fear of asking for help.
- Adopted a focused, project-based learning approach using ChatGPT and real job requirements to study efficiently.
- Realized the importance of studying relevant technologies for interviews rather than unnecessary theoretical knowledge.
- Received a job offer but declined due to financial and relocation challenges.
- Worked part-time jobs to support himself while continuing to pursue programming.
- Emphasized the importance of market research before choosing a programming language and the value of mentorship.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Early Beginnings
- 01:41Choosing Python and Early Struggles
- 03:29Learning Challenges and Lack of Progress
- 05:14Switching to Java and Structured Learning
- 06:58Second Rock Bottom and Overcoming Fear
- 08:34Job Search and Interview Experiences
- 15:26Financial Struggles and Part-Time Work
- 23:57Key Lessons and Advice for Aspiring Programmers
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
It was 2022. I was 17, and behind me were nine grades of school and a college I barely attended. My whole childhood, I played soccer and Counter-Strike. Later, when the quarantine started, it was Minecraft and anime; I was basically having a fun
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and exciting time until my father told me, "Either you work as a loader with me and I’ll kill you there, or you study and become someone." And at that moment, my happy childhood came to an end. Then, for some reason, I chose IT
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quite quickly. By that time, I had heard a lot about IT, that it was super promising and cool, because at the time there were a billion ads for courses from Skillbox, SkillFactory, and so on.
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But mostly, I watched bloggers talking about their jobs in IT, and I realized they get paid a lot, have to work little, and can grow to $10,000 a month quite quickly. And that was it.
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Overall, I immediately decided that that was it, I was going into IT and growing to $10,000. We’ll see what happens next. And one more important point. I was in my second year of college back then. In two years, I
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would be graduating. And I was kind of facing the military, let's put it that way. So I only had two years. I had to sort out the questions of income, prospects, the military, and all of that stuff. And that's when I started
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self-studying, searching for something on the internet, looking for information. And that was a year that I successfully wasted down to zero. Let's break down what I did and how I did it.
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First off, I chose the Python programming language completely at random, just hearing from bloggers that it was promising, cool, popular, and that it topped all those programming language rankings, making it incredibly popular. Then, as it turned out, in
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Almaty, exactly when I was looking, there were very few Python job openings. I applied to around thirty vacancies in a day and got nothing from them.
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Yeah. Well, basically, my career as a Python developer was over. Also, I was studying 2 hours a day with constant interruptions. It really depended on my mood, but it's best and most effective to study 5 hours every day so you don't
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forget anything, even in a compact plan like that. The information you learned about a month ago, you won't forget, and you'll progress quickly. But I could study for a week, quit for a week, then return again, dealing with
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various issues. I played games back then, in general, I was absolutely not disciplined. It was very difficult for me to build a daily routine so I could do what I needed to every day instead of playing games. And I also studied
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everything for free indiscriminately because I had no money and no understanding that I didn't need all this information. What you need is one clear program, one roadmap that you will follow to achieve results, rather than me just taking four roadmaps from
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random people, trying to combine and cross-breed them, and inventing something of my own. As a result, I spent a whole year studying a lot, but I didn't get anywhere. I also thought, yeah, all the information is on the
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internet, I'll figure it all out myself. But the most effective option in professions or fields you don't understand—the most important, most effective thing—is to talk to people who have been in the field for a long time, find communities, or a mentor
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interested in getting you to a result. And I also watched those guides and tutorials where someone writes an app, watched for four hours, and thought: "Well, that's enough for today, I'll continue watching tomorrow." But, in reality, you just need to write a
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project and that's it. I mean, there's nothing genius about it; you just need to code with your hands and memorize.
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And that's it. In total, I sent out 50 applications. I received zero responses. Some were for Python QA, Python, or something else. Out of those, there were, I don't know, maybe 30 Python backend vacancies. The other 20 were
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completely unrelated. But nevertheless, I didn't achieve anything. And now I was 18, with one year left until college graduation. I had studied for a year, didn't achieve anything, and my morale was at an all-time low. But at the same time, I didn't give up. I made
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the decision that, okay, I'm going to learn a different programming language. So, the fourth point. It says "the bottom," but in reality, that's not quite right. I started learning Java because I also saw that it was super popular. And in Almaty at the time,
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there were more job openings for it, and all the banks were built on Java and still are. Next, I went on to learn Java just like Python, but in a faster format, because I understood how to learn quickly now, whereas before I
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never had. So I immediately found some bloggers and specific courses, drew up a roadmap for myself, and started learning from it. Then, while reading chats in Conscious Mercantilism, I stumbled upon Sergey Zhukov’s roadmap, wrote the first project in a couple
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of hours, it was super easy, started writing the second one, and that’s when I stalled. I couldn't do anything at all. I didn't understand what to write, how to write, what to do, or how to learn. I didn't know a damn thing.
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And I was also afraid to ask anyone for help or ask questions. I don't know. It was just completely unclear to me. And at that moment, yes, I hit my second rock bottom. I didn't go any further; I
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just copied someone else's code. But again, I didn't understand a single thing in it. And right then and there, I thought it wouldn't work out. I'd get drafted into the army and I'd die. My mom supported me by saying, "Go work as
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a waiter, what's with this nonsense you're doing?" Actually, I agree with her. Back then, I was doing some absolute nonsense instead of taking the key target actions that lead to a job offer as a programmer or developer. And
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the original plan was to write all these projects in 2 months and that's it, then just get hired. But even at that second failure, that second rock bottom, I didn't give up; I came up with my own, like, speedrun plan, how I
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would study hard every day for 5 hours, and what it actually consisted of. I looked at the vacancies available for entry-level roles, wrote down all the technologies required, and added them all into one project. This was in the
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fall of 2023. And around that time, a trend among programmers to use ChatGPT had just begun. With usage, it was absolutely terrible. It could give out completely fake info on what seemed like basic information. But nevertheless, it helped me a lot back
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then. With it, I wrote down all the necessary technologies. I decided that I would study all these technologies within the scope of a single project.
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I’d just connect it to my project, see what it does, and move on. For instance, connect a database, see how the records move in the database, and that's it. Move on. Wrote an ORM, moved on. Committed something to Git,
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something worked out, moved on. Built a Docker container, wrote some tests, and that was it. I moved fast, as fast as possible. I studied hard every day because I realized that a year and a half had already passed since I turned
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seventeen, and I still had no job, no military ID, nothing at all, so I needed to move at a faster pace. And that was one of the best decisions, because I only studied exactly what they would ask at interviews or what is
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needed for work, instead of doing useless stuff like writing algorithms or learning that, what’s it called, I even forgot. There’s this thing, basically, called computer science. I still don't understand what that is. Ah, but it’s some kind of foundation
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that every programmer is supposedly supposed to know. In reality, you don't need to know it. My initial goal wasn't to become some kind of genius programmer. I just wanted to make at least some money and figu
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avoid the army, not get killed by my father, or have my mother disown me.
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And so, in that way, I learned very quickly. It still took a certain amount of time—I don't remember exactly— but I spent about two months learning at that pace. And I clearly remember the moment when I, as a Python
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developer, went to my first interview. I realized that if they asked me anything at all about Python or related topics, I wouldn't have a single answer . I hadn't prepared for the interview separately. I didn't even understand what an interview was. So, after
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finishing that huge project using all those technologies, I went to prepare for interviews specifically, to learn what they actually are, how to get one, how to pass, what types exist, how to analyze mistakes, and what to study or
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skip. And a million other little questions that had to be resolved to move forward. I looked for answers on YouTube, on various forums, constantly asked GPT things, and read articles about technology in English, as those are the best ones. Some things came
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back from practice, things that were actually truly useful. And I could generally understand how a technology worked, even without studying the theory, simply because I had figured it out through practice. But still, all of that had to be polished with theory. I
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communicated and chatted a lot. Well, maybe not a lot, but certainly much more than the seventeen-year-old me, who was shy and ended up with nothing.
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I realized then that no, there was no turning back; I had to give it my all to achieve at least something. And so, I realized that interviewing is a separate skill in itself. I just started learning the top 200 most
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popular questions that Java developers might be asked. And so on. I’m telling you about my first interview.
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Let me remind you that I was based in, lived in, and grew up in Almaty. Job portals don't really work in Almaty, but I made a resume saying I live in Russia, in Moscow, and am looking for a
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job there, just to get some practice interviews. I knew for sure that I wouldn't move to Russia, to Moscow, because I didn't understand anything about it, and I had no money or anything. Basically, it was just a practice interview to get at least some
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experience. And after that, I went to the local market, the Kazakhstan market . In my resume, I put down two years of experience, which, of course, I didn't have. I just made up my experience through, again, sitting for hours with
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ChatGPT, just making up so much stuff —everything down to addresses and names, a ton of things. I basically wrote a whole movie script just so it would be impossible to catch me. I even memorized how I traveled from home to
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the office, which buses I took, and what transfers—anyway, never mind, it’s not important. So, the first interview comes, I’m telling my legend, and the interviewers start digging deeper. And I realize now that they didn't dig very deep, but they dug
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a little. And that was it, I started getting lost, making things up on the fly, totally flustered. At some point, they realized, fine, fine, let’s just move on to technical questions. And I’m already panicking, thinking, " That's it, I failed, I'm an idiot." My
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mind went completely blank. I answered some basic questions, like what an object in Java is. But how the JVM works, how memory works, and basically slightly more complex questions—I completely folded, I couldn't remember a thing. Well, during that interview, I
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experienced more stress than I had in my entire life. My stomach was in knots . I laid down on the floor and fell asleep right there, thinking that was it, I would never be able to get hired anywhere with my interview skills. It
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was absolute horror. But nevertheless, the most important thing that helped me was that I didn't give up. I kept applying, kept talking to HR, setting up interviews, and kept interviewing.
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Basically, those were my mock interviews. I didn't know back then about mock interviews, those practice sessions, that I didn't have to interview at actual companies. And I came up with my own plan: interview in Russia first, then return to the
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Kazakhstani market. Yes, words got jumbled, my tongue tripped, but each time it got better. Sber was an absolute disaster. I don't remember where I interviewed for the second one, either. I was so confused there and didn't pass. Moving on, my third
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interview. I got an offer from a Russian company, T1, but sadly I declined it because I just couldn't move. I didn't have the funds and didn't know if I'd survive moving there with absolutely nothing. Moving on. I didn't include this on the slides, but
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I'll tell you separately. After I got that offer in Russia, I started interviewing in Kazakhstan and got offers from every single company I applied to. The first offer I got was from Alfior for the Prosper Pay project at 650,000 tenge a month, fully remote,
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as a middle Java developer. I remember showing it to my mom back then. She asked, "Are they scammers or what?" I said, "No, I don't think so." That was the absolute peak of dopamine, confidence, and testosterone. After so
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many failures, so much work, to finally get this. You know, I hadn't even started the job yet, but just seeing the results of all that hard work— it's just the best feeling. And here's another funny moment. I was told that I
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was reading my answers during interviews. This was early 2024. It was at Kaspi. The problem was that I had a weak laptop back then with a bad mic and camera, honestly, just don't even ask. I used my Xiaomi phone. Where is
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it? There it is. It's still with me to this day. I used it as a microphone.
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I’d plug it in with a wire, hold it like this, and talk. I couldn't use a camera either, so when they asked if I had one, I just said I didn't. That kind of backfired because I had been
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memorizing answers, those ChatGPT-style responses, so intensely. I had basically turned into an encyclopedia, and without a microphone too. And oh, without a camera as well. Overall, it makes sense that the interviewer told me, "I think you're reading your
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answers." And after that, the HR person says, "Sei, let's continue in the office, can you come in tomorrow?" I said, "I can't." I'll be able to come in a week. I frantically start preparing for this interview. Although I knew everything and was somewhat
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confident, it was my first offline interview, for which I was absolutely unprepared, because you have to lie to people's faces, not just to a laptop screen. And that was much more stressful. Nevertheless, a week later I dragged myself to that office in winter
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, answered all the questions, solved a LeetCode problem, and got my fourth offer. Yes, and I accepted it, but more on that a little later. And another important point, I was preparing using the Russian market handbook. And, as it
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turned out, for Kazakhstan that was, well, overkill, let's say. That’s how I got five offers out of five. That was the end. Wait, no, that was the beginning of 2024. I was still 18 and living in Almaty at the time. That very
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same Halyk Bank offer, I got it for about 350,000 tenge. ForteBank made a super cool offer at that time. It was full remote, with great equipment, and overall everything was on a completely different level compared to other companies. But still, I chose Kaspi,
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because it's our local Google, and it looks stronger on a resume than some Nurbank. Back then, the salary was 550,000 tenge. At the time, that was around 1,250 dollars or 120,000 rubles.
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That was double my father's salary back then. Mom started supporting me. And I didn't go to the army. It would seem like a happy ending, everything is great, everything worked out. I achieved my goal after a year and a
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half. Everything is cool. I have a diploma. I was finishing college at that time. I have a good job, just live and enjoy it. But from this moment, the most interesting part begins. Actually no, I still need to tell you how I got
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hired. There was a legendary email exchange with HR, where she asked me to confirm my two-and-a-half years of experience. I told her I didn't have the papers. I had worked through, or rather, got the job through, my older
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cousin's friend. But somehow they hired me anyway. It was incredibly stupid and awkward, but it worked. Next was the probation period, and you also have to understand that I landed, well, more or less a high-level position, not an
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internship, and my knowledge clearly wasn't enough to pull off the tasks they gave me. So I had to absorb information as quickly as possible on the fly, constantly reading articles on the bus related to the technologies in our project, and constantly chatting
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with ChatGPT in the bathroom so my colleagues wouldn't catch on that I didn't know what something was. I didn't understand what those IT phrases meant back then, for example, what an endpoint is, or what it even means to "
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hit an endpoint." And I talked to my colleagues a lot; they really helped me figure out the project. A big thank you to them for that. There were also these super stressful moments when a colleague who worked at the same
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company I listed on my resume would ask me how some guy was doing there, or how things were going for him. I’d be like, "Yeah, yeah, I worked with him, he's doing great," even though I had no idea who they were talking about, but
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I'd say, "I worked with him and everything is fine, trust me." Then they'd start asking, "And who was my manager? Or something else?" I just kept spinning this made-up story, and of course, they didn't remember anyone either. I just tried not to run into
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them at all so those kinds of dialogues wouldn't happen. Furthermore, the team lead asked me twice in two weeks, "Did you actually work there at all?" So I was like, "Yes, yes, definitely. I am a completely experienced Java developer."
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I remember when he asked that the second time, I was already heading in with the realization that I wouldn't pass the probation period, I'd get fired, and I'd have to look for a job again. But nevertheless, I passed it,
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everything was fine, and I worked there for nine months. So, finally, the most interesting part begins, where I quit everything. It was the autumn of 2024.
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Let me first explain to you how I was thinking back then. I saw on the internet that someone was earning those 120,000 rubles——my monthly salary —in just one hour. And that’s when I started thinking about whether I was
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doing the right thing in life, because I work for a month—okay, 20 days plus some weekends—but regardless, I dedicate most of the month to work and get 120,000 rubles. He works for an hour and gets 120. I mean, that’s
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when my world started to break, my perception, that rosy feeling that everything was fine—nothing was fine; I work a whole month just to get 120,000. It...well, that’s when I started thinking about what I’m even worth if a person can earn in an hour
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what I earn in a month. And that was it . The logic then was that it absolutely didn't matter whether I closed that sprint task I was given at work or didn't close it. Whether I pass code review, whether I get a raise, or
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whether my colleagues will like me? Actually, it absolutely doesn't matter, because I will still be working for a month to earn what some person makes in an hour. And from that moment on, I started thinking about how to become
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that same kind of guy who earns, well okay, at least 120,000 rubles. per day.
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Like, what's the problem? I was looking at her then and started studying this whole thing even more about how to earn more. and realized, let me rephrase.
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The classic: every second of work for 120,000 rubles. is a missed second of building something to earn those 120,000 rubles. at least in a day. And at that moment, it was completely logical, correct, and rational for me to quit that job entirely, move to
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Moscow, where I couldn't move exactly a year ago when I was 18, and I had no idea how it was done. And at 19, I still had no idea, but I knew I needed to go there. I had to somehow
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understand and figure out how to become that dude who makes 10 million rubles. a month. I had to take a different path , because I understood that in programming, you can very easily reach a million rubles. a month. You don't
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need to be some kind of genius for that . You just change jobs, change jobs, find another job, and there you have your million rubles. a month. But the problem is, you can't get 20 of those jobs. And there's your 10. No, that's
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not how it works, unfortunately. We have a limited amount of time in a day, and we need to invest our time differently. And that's it, I dove into studying this entrepreneurship thing, how money works in general. And let's
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keep it super brief, how it was: I went to a luxury real estate agency to level up my sales skills, because back then I absolutely couldn't talk, couldn't communicate with people, and was just this nobody who couldn't string two
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words together. And I worked there for a month and a half, zero sales. I became destitute. I had 250,000 rubles.
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in savings. And I, of course, all of that spent. I spent it all. Next, I worked at Yandex Lavka, packing orders.
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Then I also tried working as a sales manager for 2,000 rubles. a day. But in Moscow, that's like one dinner, not real money. In the end, I got into terrible debt. No, okay, not terrible.
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I think I made it sound too scary. Let's keep it short. I got into debt. I had that depression, apathy, no energy.
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Nothing was working out for me again at all. I worked as a waiter. And then a friend suggested: "Let's become producers for IT." I was in debt, deep in the hole, but I said: "Yeah, let's do it, let's go." We worked hard for 2
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weeks and then quit. And that was it. When I was at my absolute lowest, I made a second attempt at programming and IT. In May 2025, I decided that no, I was tired of eating damn buckwheat every day and needed to change my life,
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because this couldn't go on. And this time, the situation was already different. I was already in another country, without a job, and in debt. I had almost forgotten how to code, and again, no money. The first thing I did
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was find a mentor. Then, to pay for him , I got a job as a waiter with a 4/3 schedule and lived on 18,000 rubles. a month in Moscow. For the record, I had twelve-hour shifts, and on my days off,
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I just lay there and stared at the ceiling. I didn't want to move at all.
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And I thought: how do I solve this problem, how, where do I get the energy to start doing anything at all? because , well, the plan is there, the mentor is there. I just basically have to work and follow the steps he says—and
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that's it, I'll reach the result. That's how it's supposed to work. And I came up with a plan. First, I had to find a girlfriend. Then my brain would see that I'm a bum. I have no money, no
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decent apartment. And I was bald back then too. So I needed to urgently change the situation. And as a third step, my brain would provide the energy to change that situation. As a result, it all worked, and I started studying
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consistently for 2 hours a day. But the problem was that it wasn't enough; all my energy went into that side job, and I didn't know how to balance it to get hired quickly. So, naturally, I took a risk; I was used to it by now. I just
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went for it. I quit the restaurant, and in a month and a half, I earned 100,000 rubles. And on July 11th, my training began for 4-7 hours a day. And all of this was just interview prep, because I
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realized I didn't even need to be great at coding. Basically, yes, you just need to pass the interview and learn on the go, figure things out quickly. With that focus on interviews, I prepared and studied. And around the end of
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August, in September, I had about 11 interviews. And out of them, I received four offers, one for 200,000 rubles. I declined it myself, because I wanted at least 250. For the 240,000 ruble offer.
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I was rejected due to citizenship, because I have Kazakh citizenship, and they required Russian citizenship. For the 270 offer, they also rejected me due to citizenship. And at that point, I started wondering if I would even succeed, because my meager savings of
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100,000 rubles. were running out. I realized that I would have to go back to a part-time job, waste time, try to interview somehow, and wonder if I’d make it. And by then, I was super exhausted from all this cramming,
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studying, constant rote learning, and repeating answers to the same questions . That went on for, well, three months, just non-stop. And, well, there was one more interview. I passed it, they made me an offer, and I got hired. And I
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still work at this company. And this whole journey, the second attempt at getting into IT, took me 3 and a half months. It says "easy" here, but it wasn't easy at all. I had to work really hard. So, it turns out that
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right here I decide that I will become a programmer. Then I waste money on Python training, then I come up with this speedrun plan of mine. Next, I have an interview at Sber, then I get offers, and at 18, I get hired at Kaspi
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. Then I quit everything and end up in debt. Zero sales, I get a job as a waiter and break into IT again, so my whole path here is like a rollercoaster of constant falls, then some highs and
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falls again, then at 20, I fell again. This was a real problem. The problem wasn't financial, it was spiritual and psychological; some kind of depression started. But I managed to get out of that too, in a way. And the most
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important thing I did was not give up. Okay, last slide. What did I learn?
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This is a summary of 3-4 years of experience. And there is actually a separate guide for the four tips on the channel. You can take a look at how to break in and what to do here in general
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. Let's break it down briefly. First, start with the market, not the language . If the most popular ones are Golang, Python, Java. Just choose one and go for it. Currently, in the Russian market, all three are at a decent level
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, but I recommend Java, of course. Learn what's in the job descriptions; if ChatGPT tells you that you absolutely must learn something, but it's not in the job postings, screw that, you only need to know what's required in the job listings. And even
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then, not everything—70 percent is enough. Focus everything, all your effort, all your attention on job interviews and practice where it doesn’t hurt to fail. Find some mock interviews, or create a fake name and surname, make a fake resume with fake
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experience, everything fake. But all this is just to get into a real interview and gain that experience of interviewing, of passing screenings, because that experience is the most valuable and essential part of job hunting. For the most part, you don’t
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even need to know how to code. The most important thing is knowing how to pass an interview. And after that, you’ll learn somehow. If you’ve already passed the interview, it means you’re very likely to pass the probation period. So, put all your focus on
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interviews. With the fourth point, I proved to myself that you can just memorize these answers to questions and get hired. The method still works, whether it’s 2023, 2025, or now.
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It’s a working mechanic. Alright, that’s it, I’ve said it all. Thank you all very much for your attention.
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By the way, I offer mentorship. Come join me to learn. Bye everyone.
Topics:programming careerself-studyPythonJavajob searchmentorshipprogrammer journeylearning strategiescareer challengesIT industry
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