Where does the job search begin? You should start by writing a CV, but that's different from the exact answer. First, you need to understand what job you are looking for and what position you are suitable for. So the first step is to carefully analyze the job market, available positions, and your own preferences.
You can begin by making a description of your ideal work day. Think about what kind of team you would enjoy working in, what bonuses in the form of corporate equipment or health insurance you would like to get, and whether you are willing to work weekends or stay at work beyond your scheduled time. Many graduates try to get any job they can just to get into the coveted IT sphere. Such an approach can frustrate you, and you will quickly lose interest in the profession you have learned.
Make a document called “My dream job”, where you carefully write down the desirable features of the company: salary, team composition, schedule, health insurance, career growth opportunities, corporate equipment, paid vacations, company mission – whatever you can think of. This will help you form a clear image of what you want.
After that, you can look through available vacancies and see if they meet your requirements. Naturally, it is unlikely that there will be a company that will fully meet your ambitious needs. However, a match of 6 out of 10 points is already a good start in your career.
Your curriculum vitae summarizes your career path and skills that you'll give to recruiters before your interview. It should be easy to write if you follow our advice.
The most common mistake is to send the same CV to every job you are interested in. Each CV sent should be different and relevant to the position you are applying for. To do this, thoroughly research the job description you like and build your CV based on the requirements listed there. You have to realize that dozens and hundreds of CVs go through headhunters and prefer the ones that best fit the employer.
It is best to organize your CV into blocks:
Even if you have just graduated and have no experience in your chosen field, don't be discouraged, there is still something for you to write! Describe how long it took you to learn a particular skill, mention the projects you worked on during your training, what responsibilities you had in group work, and what technologies you've learned.
Use the following words and phrases to make your summary look professional:
Remember that your CV should include truthful information because the employer will perceive any lie badly. Sometimes it is okay to embellish your accomplishments slightly if you are 100% sure you can handle the job. It is worthwhile to carefully study all aspects of the position in which you have yet to achieve excellence.
We are at the most exciting part: the first interview. It usually lasts 15 to 45 minutes and is just the initial step before you are hired, followed by a technical interview.
You will be talking to a recruiter or HR specialist who has already read your CV and is ready to learn more about you, your experience, your English level, and the technical skills you have acquired. Preparing and reading all possible information based on the requirements listed in the job description is crucial.
Usually starts with small talk, where the recruiter tests your communication skills and gets to know your personality and how you fit into the existing team. It is essential to show that you are open to communicating and can keep up the conversation.
The best phrases to start a conversation:
These “icebreakers” will help you connect personally and get to the central part of the interview.
A common mistake non-native speakers make is to answer “Nice to meet you!” with “Me too.” This sounds really weird to a native speaker, so use the phrase “You too”.
Also, the recruiter will ask you to ask them questions that interest you. It is vital to ask questions; this way, they will understand that you are interested in the company, the job, and the product. Show your genuine interest; HR will definitely notice and remember it, which can play in your favor when choosing a candidate.
Here are a few topics for questions:
Be sure to prepare a list of questions and keep it in front of you during the interview. We believe in your stress tolerance, but practice shows that even the toughest nuts forget everything they want to ask because of stress during the interview.
Many of our graduates are too embarrassed about their English level and miss out on jobs that require a higher level of English than they already have. This is a fatal mistake. Try your best, even if you feel you need to be more underachieving. Let the interviewer know that you recognize the importance of language skills and are in the process of learning; this will give the impression that you are aware of your weaknesses and are working on them. Perhaps after three months of probation, you will already have the necessary level of English.
Congratulations, you have passed the first interview, and now you are facing a technical interview designed to test your professional skills and learn how to solve certain tasks.
A team lead or senior developer usually conducts the technical interview and takes about 1.5 hours. The classic form of a technical interview is live coding, during which you show your screen and perform the task at hand. It's better to clarify in advance what format of the technical test you will be facing so that you have a chance to prepare.
During the test, there will be times when you can't cope with the task or don't know the answer to a question. Refrain from trying to make up answers. If you don't know something, say so. However, don't use the phrase “I don't know,” better say, “It's an interesting question; I haven't dealt with it before, and the first thing I'll do after the interview is to look into it and get the necessary information.” Try to speculate and suggest solutions. This will show that you're not afraid to say you don't know something and are willing to evolve.
In this section, we look at the most common questions that HR asks in job interviews. We are prepared to guarantee that most of the questions will be asked of you, so take the time to prepare your answers in advance. There is no need to memorize the responses, just write down your replies and keep them in front of you. This will help you understand the most important moment.
Tell me about yourself
The most popular question at job interviews confuses many people. The biggest mistake would be paying a lot of attention to your school years and past profession, which is unrelated to the IT sphere.
Talk about why you decided to pursue this profession and why you chose to take courses. Mention the projects you worked on and what you learned. Tell everything about your experience related to the company's activities, take time with your skills, and let the recruiter understand what skills you will work on. It's important to share what teams you've worked on, what you've gained from it, and what method of interaction works for you. This will help to understand your value to the team and whether you are a good fit for this particular company.
It is essential to mention commercial experience. If you've had commercial development experience, great, talk about that. If you still need to, emphasize that you will get that experience. That makes sense because you're applying for a job to make money!
What were your responsibilities at your last project?
This an important question to help you understand what role you are used to in group projects and how you interact within a team.
Talk about the tasks you encountered daily and how you handled them. Pay attention to the responsibilities you took, how you built relationships with your colleagues, and mention instances where you acted in a leadership role. Talk about your teamwork abilities, even if your previous experience was outside a technical specialty. Even teamwork experience in a Beetroot Academy course will do.
Why are you changing jobs?
The most obvious answer is money. But by no means answer like that; it needs to be more professional. Use the following reasons:
This will show your interest in development and learning. The best response would be something like this:
I’ve had a great time in “X”. However, there were no growth opportunities for me. I am interested in development and growth, and I really wish of being able to… I am looking for a position in which I can use my overall/new experience. I am really impressed with your company. My goal right now is to find a position at a company where I can grow and take on new challenges. I wanted a new challenge. There wasn’t room for growth with my previous employer. I am interested in development and growth, I really wish to be able to... This job seems like an excellent match for my experience and skills. Actually, I simply find what you’re doing/building/producing very important and would like to be its part.
Feel free to add from yourself and modify the suggested sample.
Do you have any experience in …?
If you're a senior developer with an excellent grasp of what you're being asked, great. But what if you don't?
Think of something like that, something you read about, learned, some experience that is very close, but not exactly. Ensure you are ready to learn and/or understand what is needed. Mention some other relevant experience: non-commercial experience, school/volunteering projects. Highlight what you know! What you are good at. End up with your willingness to learn and perform.
Don't be afraid to say you don't know something. The main thing is to show your desire to learn and develop. No one wants to hire a person who thinks they know everything in the world.
If you require a pause to think, do not be silent because the interviewer may not understand why you are quiet. You may not seem to have heard or understood the question, so try to reason out loud and explain your train of thought.
If you really need to focus and take a short pause to think, here are the appropriate phrases:
Phrases that are best used to continue the interview after a pause:
In general, try to avoid awkward silence; it will show your communication skills.
What project/job are you looking for right now?
This question is asked because headhunters usually look for the right people who will be with the company for a long time, be involved in the work processes, and not change jobs after a couple of months. So it's essential to show that you're interested in what the company offers.
There are two ways to answer this question:
1. Describe your dream job just in the way you see it. This allows the interviewer to see whether it matches the company
2. Read the JD and the company profile carefully and answer the question based on the info you found there – better match.
You should choose the second option if you have just completed a learning course.
Where do you see yourself in 3-5 years?
This is the most popular and confusing question. No one knows exactly how to answer it. Except for our readers, we will now tell you how to answer this question correctly.
As we've already seen, the worst answer is: “I don't know.” So what's the solution? You have to show your ambition and your willingness to grow. The second-worst answer is: “I'd become the CEO of this company.” Being overly ambitious can be even worse than being unambitious; you have to strike a balance.
Recruiters ask this common question to ensure you have a plan for your development and understand your prospects. The best answer is something like this:
Since I am now applying for a junior QA position, in 5 years, I will be switching to automation. I guess I will know the project needs, the management, and the teams well, so it would help me choose to learn java or python, and I'd be growing to senior, I suppose.
Don't worry that your plan won't become a reality. It's about how you make plans and what your intentions are. No one in five years will compare whether you have fulfilled your goals.
What are your strong and weak sides?
Every person has strong and weak qualities. It is our weaknesses that give us the most fantastic development opportunities. If you know where you want to develop, you know your weaknesses. If you know your weaknesses, you know where you want to improve. It works both ways.
To make a list of your strengths and weaknesses, start by describing your development history, focusing not only on the technical side of things but also taking into account the soft skills that are also vital. An example of such a story to build upon:
When I started working at YZX I realized that my responsibilities were much broader than I expected. So I decided to take up this challenge and grow. This shows me there are no boundaries: if you choose to grow, do whatever is needed and leap at the opportunity! But if you want a simple existence with no turbulence, you will never find a chance to grow and develop.
Let's figure out the weaknesses and strengths of this story.
You can see that even from a very modest history, you can find an impressive list of pluses. What about the weaknesses?
Everyone has weaknesses, but make sure you have enough strengths to overcome your weaknesses. Questions like these are designed to reveal our emotional intelligence, maturity, ability to adequately assess our achievements and self-awareness.
Describe any communication breakdown at work. How did you manage it?
You can't say that you haven't had such problems because that would indicate that either you are a liar or lack soft skills and self-awareness. Assuming that you really haven't had communication problems, you can't just say “no.” You have to describe the situation. Let's put it this way:
Well, it has never happened to me; my colleagues were very communicative people, so nothing like that happened. However, I believe that communication and being a responsible person matter here. If you do not hear something, ask again, find someone who can help, or ask a mentor or teammate. It’s your task to get it, as you are responsible for your work.
However, it's better to step up and think back to the times when team communications didn't go well. Here's an example of how to say it:
It might happen, of course, as someone might have misunderstood or not heard something. It may also happen because of personal issues at home or any other reason. I remember the communicative breakdown that happened last year with my colleague… But after additional discussion, we understood what went wrong.
Such an answer shows your maturity and willingness to compromise. Everyone likes a team player; no one likes a bully.
The most widespread problem of all people in today's world is stress. Do you know the feeling before an interview when your heart is about to jump out of your chest, your palms are sweating, and your breathing is more like Darth Vader's? Luckily – it's our body's natural reaction, which means we can affect it!
First, accept your stress and don't blame yourself for it. The unknown frightens us and causes a ton of adrenaline to be released into our bloodstream, which is why the body reacts this way.
The first way to deal with stress – eat!
Seriously, no one can ever be nervous and eat simultaneously. Have a cup of tea and a cookie before your interview, and you'll notice you're much less worried. It can be tea or any other drink except coffee because coffee increases heart rate and anxiety, which is exactly what we want to avoid.
The second way – practice!
Interviews in English can be intimidating because we are not used to hearing ourselves speak a language that is not our native tongue. Practice in front of a mirror, a teacher, or an English-speaking club.
The third way – watch your breathing!
The most effective method of combating stress is inherited from the Eastern yogis and Tibetan monks. Watch your breathing, and you can reduce your anxiety significantly. All you need to do is to find four points in front of you at the corners of an imaginary square (use your laptop screen), and start breathing by shifting your gaze from one point to another while counting to four in your head. Do the same on the exhalation. After 5-6 such circles, you will notice that you are less anxious, and your breathing is even and calm.
It is better to do this before the interview rather than during it; otherwise, you risk looking awkward.
We have described as much as possible all the subtleties of writing a CV and having a job interview in English. Go back to our article again and again if there is anything you need help understanding. You can always ask our teachers at Beetroot Academy as well.
The main thing to remember is that you will probably go through more than 20 interviews before you get a job. So don't get frustrated if you don't get hired after your first interview.
Have patience, and good luck!
Not quite unusual for computer fonts, Times New Roman has been around since before computers became a thing. The British newspaper The Times commissioned it in 1931 as a retro update from a regular 19th-century font to something more solid with a strong 18th-century vibe. Old broom sure knows the corners (or so the saying goes), but you can see how the font may feel outdated in the 2020s.
It would not be a stretch to say Times New Roman looks ancient, as we already know it was designed this way. Even Roman in the name is a nod to the Italian school of printing from (15th century!). Seeing old-fashioned characters on a groundbreaking visual device, CRT screen, was weird enough. Now that we have modern LCD screens with much higher resolution and fidelity, a font capturing aesthetics from 300 years ago feels crystal odd.
Fonts classification is usually much more objective than old-fashioned or modern. One reason why Times New Roman may give an archaic vibe is that it is a serif font. All letters (or other characters) come with decorative lines, which range from very subtle to indeed something you would see in an 18th-century newspaper. Note how you can’t see any tails on the letters in this article—or almost any website created in the last 10 years.
Serif and Sans serif versions of Inria font from Black[Foundry]
Times New Roman, much like a lot of newspaper fonts, is rather narrow. It is a mostly business decision: you gotta fit in as much text on a page as possible—even during the times (ha-ha!) when the ratio of ads to stories was much lower. At the end of the day, all publications did that and it’s not like many people would’ve changed morning newspapers just because one is a bit easier to read than the rest.
Computers, however, do not have the same limitation. You don’t pay more for publishing an article or sending a document with much more reasonable line spacing and kerning than the average Victorian newspaper. If it’s the intermediary audience (e.g. client that commissioned an article) that needs to save costs, they can always change character size or pick a narrow font themselves.
Furthermore, the mobile boom is not helping narrow fonts like Times New Roman. Most devices connected to the internet now have a vertical layout. Trying to squeeze in extra characters on screens with little horizontal space will bring nothing but frustration for the reader. Interestingly, The Times had to adapt similarly in print: they had to create yet another Times New Roman-inspired typeface after moving from broadsheet to tabloid in 2004. These days, a narrow font is a compromise on usability that you don’t actually have to make—and people would appreciate it if you didn’t.
One could argue that a document in Times New Roman screams laziness or indifference. If the sender didn’t change the default option to something more balanced, it communicates that they either did not want to make your experience better or did not bother to do that. That kind of attitude does not help to secure a job or scholarship.
On the other hand, certain institutions would have you use nothing but Times New Roman. Some universities strongly encourage if not outright mandate the use of Times new Roman for papers, and so do scientific journals. Older government forms coming as templates to be filled out in Word would not play nice if you try to change the font. That being said, such restrictions are getting scarcer, especially with the rise of Mac. The OS and default office-like apps there have a default font different from Times New Roman (and a new one every few years at that).
The current default font on MacOS
Summing up, the cardinal sin of Times New Roman is defaulting to it without consideration. The font is a must in very few scenarios, but you see it much more often than that. Even Microsoft agrees something has to change: the default font for Word has been Calibri since 2007.
The above-mentioned Calibri is a spiritual successor to Times New Roman. It is now the default font for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. It is a sans serif font (no decorative lines) that looks perfectly fine on both screens and paper.
If you want to ditch the default and stay sleek, Georgia is a great option. It is a serif font but letter strokes are much more subtle than what you see with Times New Roman. Georgia does not look outdated and works better for vertical screens, as it is not too tight on the horizontal space.
Should you feel like going barebones, Helvetica is the right font. It is a sans serif font looking as bland as it gets—in a good way. Helvetica lacks elements that would make it look too modern, but it also has no archaic elements that would make the font too classic. I think we can trust Apple on that: they used a spin on Helvetica, Helvetica Neue, as the MacOS system font for two years.
Somehow, I felt a big future for tech when the Internet connection was provided in my dormitory
I'm from Kramatorsk, Donetsk region. I studied in Kharkiv and was supposed to become a radio-electronic engineer, but in 2001 I understood exactly what I wanted to do. It was the time when the Internet “appeared” in our dormitory. I liked what was happening there and felt a future was behind it. So I switched to web development. I bought some books, and for the next two years, I had the luxury of free time to study without having to work. 2003 I graduated from the university, and within one month, I found my first work as a PHP developer. I was the happiest junior developer who was paid for the work he liked. I remember my first salary — $250 transferred via Western Union from the USA — was like a fortune. Back then, there were no web developers among my friends. Compared to nowadays, it wasn't that hype. But for me, it was evident that this was a future. I told my friends that all the companies I knew would need a website or should be represented online somehow. And I wanted to be a part of this evolution.
Pink Floyd, my lifetime project, and three kids
I was always a fan of the music of the 70s, and Pink Floyd was my favorite band. But there was no website dedicated to Pink Floyd in Russian or Ukrainian. So I decided to do that on my own. I reached out to the person who did the official newsletters about Pink Floyd to help me with that, and long story short — I made a website, and it turned18 recently. This fan website is the most extended project in my life, but I switched it off because I didn’t want to contribute to the Russian-speaking community anymore. The most crucial thing is the following. Remember I mentioned that person who worked on the official newsletters about Pink Floyd? She is currently my wife, and we are bringing up two kids. We used to make jokes that we actually had three kids — our first one was the Pink Floyd website.
From a web developer to a start-up founder
After two years of work in Moscow, I was back in Kyiv. I didn't like living in Russia, so moving back to Ukraine was obvious. At this time, I stepped out of web development, and in 2007 I started my own business. All went well, but the political regime of Yanukovych reminded me of Russia, so we decided to move to Poland and work remotely. Since 2014, when the war started, it has been impossible to run my business in Ukraine.
And after a 7-year break in web development, a dozen hours of upskilling, and 60 interviews, I have found a new job in Berlin as a senior back-end developer. Now in 2022, I'm a co-founder of the tech startup countX, and all my engineering team is from Ukraine.
How I met Beetroot Academy
It was a coincidence and proof that networking rules. One of my colleagues, Alex, also works as a teacher at Beetroot Academy, so I've heard a lot about this online school. When Alex introduced me to Dmytro, CEO of Beetroot Academy, I was ready to start our partnership. He told me about the fundraising campaign on a mission to help Ukrainian people affected by the war start a new career in tech. So I couldn't stay away from it and donated for scholarships — the less I could do in these challenging times. Now seven women from Donetsk and Luhansk regions are studying at Beetroot Academy, and I’m happy to be their mentor.
Why I support tech education for Ukrainians
Ukrainians, especially men who are out of the country, live with the feeling of guilt. My life is safe, but my three classmates are now fighting against Russia, risking their lives. People try to find their own way to help Ukrainians win this war, overcome the consequences and rebuild the country. So do I.
I already had an idea of investing in tech education. That is where I can contribute as a professional and entrepreneur, so I chose to support the future of Ukraine this way. Many Ukrainians affected by war want to enter the tech industry and need an opportunity to do that. Tech education is one of the most impactful and cost-effective ways to help Ukrainians restore their lives and fight poverty after the war ends. I believe our country will be the next tech cluster after Silicon Valley in the USA and Bengaluru in India. Moreover, I want many Ukrainians to be a part of that success story. I contribute to it by donating for scholarships and would like to encourage others to support Beetroots Academy’s mission.
Imagine a house. To have it running steadily, there should be a good foundation, building blocks, proper infrastructure, good furniture, designs, and usability functions. In web development, the front-end developer is somewhere in between the processes as he takes the ideas from the UI\UX team to turn them into clickable websites that work. Back-end developers, PMs, and QAs take care of the other vital parts, such as proper foundation, team and project management, and testing.
So there's actually a front-end and back-end. We won't say which one is easier. Let's just leave one picture here for your understanding.
To light up a room, you have to click the button. Ensuring it is clickable is a job for a front-end developer; ensuring there is a light is a task for a back-end developer. Front-end web development is the art of using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and a set of other tools for a website/app for a user to see and interact with them.
Basic front-end development glossary
In front-end web development, there are vital terms you should know. We bet you've heard most of them, so let's just keep them handy in the list below.
Programming languages or codes
For example, HTML
In development, you need to speak a language everyone understands — your machine, your code compiler, your user, and your project manager. Below are just a couple of languages we use in the front-end. They look different to everyone, but mean the same and help achieve the result — have the webpage ready and running.
HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is the code developers use to structure a webpage. Remember seeing a webpage made up of blocks, paragraphs, or tables? HTML helps with that. It originates from a code developed by WHATWG some 30 years ago, in 1993.
JavaScript, conveniently referred to as JS, is a programming language considered one of the cores for front-end development. Designed over 26 years ago, it is now used in almost every webpage you see. Even on the Beetroot Academy website, too :) JS is used to create animation, control multimedia, and generally work with dynamically updating content, buttons, banners, etc.
Here, you can also look at some Javascript libraries — jQuery, React.js, and more here on Kinsta, for example.
Front-end development tools
Git, Google Fonts, W3C, and more
Compilers, linkers, code editors are essential for every front-end developer. These are basic tools that you will use in your daily routine — as home technicians use multitools for repairing the leakage, for example.
To name a few, there are Google Fonts to help you work with fonts, W3C Markup Validation Service to validate your code, and many more.
Version control tools are also part of the list here, used for monitoring changes to your code. We guess you strive to make your code better and better each time. Hence, version controls will help manage the evolution of your code as it becomes clearer and more effective. Git is the most popular, and it's open and free of charge.
Design principles in front-end
In front-end development, we use responsive design to ensure our content fits every (or almost every) gadget and looks good on it. Recall how you open a webpage on your iPhone, reopen it on your laptop, and send it to granny's email — and it still looks good on your grandparents' old-fashioned computer? That's responsive design in action.
Design automatically adapts to given dimensions, so all users feel comfortable interacting with the content. The feeling is the key here — because the front-end is mostly about what the user feels while using your web piece.
CSS, closely connected to HTML, is a code used actually to style an HTML doc. It has everything to do with the colors, styles, and other properties.
Looks quite interesting, huh? Now that you're familiar with the basic front-end development glossary, it's high time to learn the front-end. We hope you find this glossary helpful, no matter which tech direction you will choose. Keep it in your saved links to come back once in a while.
Join our next group in May and start learning with tech industry experts to gain knowledge you need to work as a junior front-end developer.
While such languages as Python and PHP have existed for quite a long time, C# is regarded as a young programming language. Danish software engineer Anders Hejlsberg developed it in the year 2000. Today, he still works for Microsoft as the lead architect of C#. Anders Hejlsberg is also known for being the chief architect of Delphi and the original author of Turbo Pascal.
C# was originally named COOL, whereby the acronym stood for “C-like object-oriented language”. Alas, Microsoft could not hang onto this “cool name” because of trademark law.
C# is pronounced, “see sharp”. The name was taken from the musical notation, whereby a sharp symbol points that the written note should be played a semitone higher. The “sharp” suffix has been used by several other .NET languages that are editions of present languages, including J#, A#, and the functional programming language F#.
The base syntax of the C# is similar to C-style languages such as C, C++, and Java. This programming language most directly represents the underlying Common Language Infrastructure (CLI).
If you plan to create apps for the Microsoft platform, you should definitely learn C#. The developers favor this language for being easy to use and well-designed. Also, it is often recommended programming language to use when creating games through the Unity Game engine.
C# used for:
A list of programs and applications written in C# includes Microsoft Visual Studio, Paint.NET, Windows Installer XML, Open Dental, FlashDevelop, KeePass, NMath, Pinta, Banshee, OpenRA.
Here are a few reasons to work with this particular programming language:
The future looks bright for C# because of its popularity, versatility, and existing creations. If you want to have a solid foundation to become a master developer, you should learn this “cool” programming language.
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