all Yandex services under one roof for those who want to intern in bigtech
On June 27, 2024, Yandex held the Youn Con festival for those who want to find an internship at the company. More than 30 speakers, a CodeRun presentation, reports from leading Yandex engineers and managers, express interviews, and several thousand participants. I attended the event, and now I'm sharing my impressions.
Universe of Yandex services
Youn Con is a festival for young professionals who want to get an internship at Yandex. This is the first time the company has held an event of this scale and format. To describe it in general terms, it’s like ComicCon, only about technology, people and careers in IT.
The huge Live Arena in the Skolkovo area was chosen as the venue for the event. The festival areas occupied the main hall, all five floors of the common space, the street and even part of the underground parking lot. There were a lot of people, and everyone came for one thing – to get an internship and find their place in Yandex.
The company's services are divided into thematic worlds of one large universe:
World of inspiration: Kinopoisk, Muzyka, Plus;
World of Seekers: “Search”, “Alice”;
World source: “Store”, “Food”, “Market”;
World of comfort: “Rent”, “Avto.ru”, “Travel”;
World of Mana: “Pay”, “Split”, “Yandex ID”;
World of Robots: “Station”, rovers;
World of Wanderers: “Taxi”, “Delivery”;
World of Creators: YandexGPT, “Shedevroom”;
The world of guardians: Yandex Cloud, Yandex 360.
Some of the festival's stands
In each of the worlds, guests were met by speakers who work in the presented services and make them better every day. They talked about the achievements of their teams and the tasks they solve. For example, you could learn about how an algorithm calculates the price of a taxi, and how the company's data centers store and process important data.
At the beginning of Youn Con, Yandex HR Director Darya Zolotukhina spoke on the main stage. She said that the company pays great attention to new personnel. More than 2,000 people are taken on for internships per year, and a total of 9,000 specialists have completed the internship program. More than half of them end up staying on staff, and every eighth manager at Yandex is a former intern.
Then the head of Yandex E-com services, Roman Maresov, spoke. He himself joined the company as an intern many years ago, got used to it, and rose to the position of department head. He told what to do during an internship to stay on staff and not screw up. He believes that the secret is to do what you like the most. Roman himself studied at the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics at Moscow State University, but then realized that he did not want to write code and began to develop in the field of management.
Afterwards the guests had several hours of free time. It was possible to independently navigate the worlds of Yandex, listen to speakers’ reports, ask questions and participate in activities on the territory of the Live Arena.
I managed to attend the presentation by Stepan Derevyanchenko, who works in the ML team of Yandex Drive, from beginning to end. I learned how machine learning algorithms analyze the customer's driving style, evaluate the driver's rating, adjust prices depending on demand, and monitor a sufficient number of cars in all city districts. Interestingly, the Drive team uses a simulation of its own service to understand how it works and what it lacks. With the help of such a simulation, you can find out that it is time to update the car fleet.
“Route to the Future”
All day long, the “Route to the Future” took place on the street – express interviews in which anyone could try to audition for the desired team or receive a real invitation to the next stage on the spot.
We chose an unusual place for the interview—Yandex Drive carsharing cars. They were displayed in the parking lot and each was assigned a unique number. The cars moved the front row of seats back and turned on the air conditioning to make the people inside feel comfortable. The interviews took place in the back row of the car. There was a hum in the parking lot from the climate control systems working.
Outdoor activities
There were several educational platforms around the Live Arena, where one could learn more about the company’s services. For example, visit the inside of an unmanned taxi and see how lidars work. A car with so many sensors gives me more confidence than a Tesla.
A special track for the “Scooter School” was placed on another section. Those who wanted to could demonstrate their SIM control skills and knowledge of traffic rules.
The white wall in the parking lot attracted a lot of guests; by the way, it wasn’t white for long. You could leave any drawing or message on it. Guests wrote the names of their universities, drew small pictures and left nicknames on social networks. There was also a giant dart board, Jenga and chess.
A course with obstacles for rovers was also assembled in the parking lot. Those interested could take control of a robot courier and drive along the track without crashing into walls.
Activities in the hall
A separate stand presented CodeRun, a new simulator for solving programming and analytics problems. Tables with laptops were placed nearby so that everyone could try themselves in solving the problems, but there were many who wanted to, so many sat next to their own laptops. For solving the problems, you could get a set of thematic stickers.
“Yandex Museum” brought with it a huge number of retro computers. They were displayed in a single line and games were launched. Guests of the event could relax in this place and play good old PacMan or Mortal Kombat.
If you wanted, you could try your luck at the prize machine: pull out a sticker, badge or keychain. Not far from this place there was a full-fledged store where all this was sold, but there were many who wanted to pull out something for free.
On each floor there were food points from Yandex Lavka. Guests were fed using QR codes on badges, and several times. There was a choice of craft lemonades, burgers, hot dogs and signature chocolate bars.
End of the day
The evening was especially interesting for the guests: comedian Sergei Orlov took the main stage with a monologue about adult life, and the bands “Khleb” and The Hatters were invited as musicians.
