I built up experience and didn't make it
It's pretty hard to get a job in IT these days if you're a newbie. It's no secret anymore. There are many stories where people spend years looking for their first job, responding to thousands of vacancies and don't even have a chance to get an interview.
The option of cheating experience is becoming increasingly popular. At least there is a chance to show yourself, pass an interview and get the coveted offer. Of course, it would not be so popular if there were other, fairly simple options without cheating. Not everyone is ready to spend many years on training and building up some more or less relevant experience through free projects for friends and acquaintances. As a result, quite a lot of people decide to take the easy way out. And not everyone thinks about the consequences.
In this article, I will not condemn the manipulation of experience and people who decided to do it. I just want to tell one real story that I saw with my own eyes, and then analyze what happened and draw conclusions.
The story of one cheater
I will say right away that I will not use real names in this story. But for the sake of a coherent narrative, I will still take a random name.
I met Maxim when I was working as a frontend development mentor at a well-known online school. Maxim was already in the final stage of his studies and was doing a term paper using React. He took personal consultations from me on the project, and after completing his studies we continued to communicate.
Until he was 30, Maxim worked in a field that had nothing to do with IT. Like many others, he decided that he needed to change something in his life. He bought courses on front-end development and completely immersed himself in studying. Even this step was quite difficult, since he has a family and no opportunity to switch off from real life for a long period of time. Therefore, he studied almost all his free time, and his family supported him in this. As a result, he mastered CSS/HTML layout, basic knowledge of JavaScript and made several projects on React. The training was quite difficult, and he even had thoughts of dropping the courses without finishing. But he still graduated with average results – not in the top 10% and not among the last 50% who “entered the wrong door”.
It came to the point of actually getting a job. He didn't even try to respond with his absolutely zero experience and two typical projects from courses. There really would be no point in doing so, since with such a resume there is no chance. But at the same time, he was already tired of studying – he wanted to finally integrate into a real context and start gaining experience. He added 2 years of experience to his resume, indicated fake companies and attributed his achievements to the middle level.
Even with such a resume, it was quite difficult to find a job. But at least there were some chances. He started responding, and on average received several responses per 100 responses. The first time he was invited to an interview at a state company – unsuccessfully. Thoughts began to appear that everything was in vain and that it was impossible to get into IT. But he continued responding and waiting for that very vacancy.
Finally, one of the interviews works. The vacancy is a middle frontend developer; the project is a WordPress website; the salary is 100,000 rubles. It seems pretty good for a start. The interview was easy because it was conducted by one of the managers of this company. Of course, he wanted a fresh project on React, but Maxim is happy with this.
First day at work. The project is a large WordPress site that has acquired a bunch of plugins over the years. It has everything from SEO to a payment system. A developer worked on the project, who left before Maxim arrived. According to the agreement, he was supposed to consult Maxim on the project, but in fact, he hardly ever gets in touch. Maxim is also given another junior developer to help him, who knows even less.
Maxim starts to figure out what tasks need to be done. He is talking to a manager who is not from the IT world at all and does not understand anything about it. After deciphering the messages, Maxim understands what problems exist and what he needs to do.
The site freezes, pages take a long time to load.
Bugs related to online payment.
Incorrect orders are received by email.
And also various complaints from users.
Maxim begins to understand how the site works and what WordPress is. At the same time, he tries to figure out where he needs to start. He begins to understand the long loading time and partially solves this problem – he optimizes huge images on static pages.
While he is doing all this, the next task arrives:
Maxim, provide us with a plan for when you can fix the problems on the site. And also describe what you will do, and what the second junior developer, whom we gave you to help, will do.
Maxim starts making a plan in Google Sheets, decomposing the work. He immediately warned that he had not worked with WordPress and he needed to get acquainted with this engine. He is allowed to add time for training to his plan. He also collects a list of all the bugs and adds them to the document. For several days, he gets access to the project, makes a plan and tries to somehow figure out how this whole thing works. In parallel with this, he tries to contact the developer who left to find out details about the project. Maxim is completely immersed in work from morning to night, forgetting about his personal life. At this time, the manager writes to him:
Maxim, you need to fix the payment on the site, customers are complaining. Have you already looked at what the problem is?
They dump all the work on Maxim, forgetting what he is doing now. They demand everything at once. They ping him for deadlines. Maxim opens every message from management with fear. He is afraid that there will be something like: “Maxim, we realized that you are a fake specialist. We need to part ways.”
Maxim could say: “Guys, I'm just a junior, I need a mentor, I don't know this and that, give me time to learn everything.” But he has to keep the bar high and pretend that everything is under control, and he's about to sort everything out and start showing results. How else, because he supposedly has been working for several years and “knows the ropes.”
Maxim simply can't stand it. He can't figure out the project, doesn't understand what they want from him. He reads every message in a panic. He works from morning till night without any progress. The result is that he leaves after three weeks of working in this company. Maxim becomes disappointed in himself and in IT in general. He takes a break and gives up on this idea for an indefinite period.
It's a pity, of course, for this good man. But what can we do?
The story is sad. I do not blame Maxim, as I said at the beginning of the article. On the one hand, he himself is to blame when he hyped up the experience and decided to deceive everyone. As a result, he got a traumatic first experience. On the other hand, there would not even be such an experience if he had not hyped it up.
Yes, of course, this company is an absolute galley, which you wouldn’t wish on your enemy. But are there many options for beginners? Not all companies offer cookies and capsules for daytime sleep. This is a given, and this is also work, as it is. Most likely, a person with experience could adapt to the rules of the game of this galley and stay there for some time.
When I worked at a bank, I interviewed and hired interns. They didn't need to inflate their experience. They had a completely legal resume with 0 years of experience and simply listed knowledge and pet projects at best. Even they, when they went to work, were terribly stressed and afraid of seeming stupid. They were worried that they hadn't worked with some library, worried that they were taking a long time to figure out the task. This is terrible stress even in such a seemingly comfortable situation, where you are OK, you are waiting. Everyone knows that you are working for the first time in your life.
Now let's add another one to this bouquet of experiences, which arises from winding up experience. Yes, you wind up experience and at the same time consciously limit yourself in many things:
you forbid yourself to feel like a newbie;
you forbid asking unnecessary questions;
You forbid me from complaining about things being hard for you.
Add to this the never-ending impostor syndrome and the fear that you will be found out at any moment. These boundaries start to drive you crazy. Not everyone can cope with it.
Future developers, wind up your experience if you want, but consider the consequences. You probably won't be found out, but you will destroy yourself morally faster. Listen less to those who promote this approach, but hardly talk about the consequences.
Therefore, experience boosting is not suitable for everyone. I am sure that there is a type of people who feel like a fish in water in a new environment. They may not feel remorse for deception, they are confident in themselves. They can be boosted for at least 5 years. In addition, such people will also please their managers, and most importantly, they themselves will be pleased with themselves. Now decide for yourself what kind of person you are.
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