Review
Studying began 25 days before the full-scale war. Before the war, I was a private children's institution network director. I also participated in opening a sizeable private gymnasium, where children from the first to the seventh-grade study. I am a German and English philologist by education. I loved my job very much and, unfortunately, I could have been more mobile. I had to work 24/7, almost without weekends and holidays. The work was very energy-consuming, and in the end, I exhausted my internal resource. I wanted a change and chose to study UI/UX design. I wanted to be able to work remotely, travel and be financially independent. The IT profession would help me achieve my goals. I was advised to join the Beetroot Academy by a friend who had already graduated and successfully worked for over two years in one of the best IT companies in Ukraine. As I mentioned earlier, the studying coincided with the full-scale invasion of Russia. Like millions of other Ukrainians, I was forced to leave the city where I used to live. Studying helped me come through it for six months. What struck me the most was that even though my classmates and I were from completely different cities and parts of Ukraine, we were on the same wavelength. There was a lot of support from all sides. It was a tremendous support, I received a lot of friendly advice, and I had incredible people by my side; I am very grateful for all this. Of course, I also got the knowledge I needed, so I achieved my goal. Three weeks after graduating from Beetroot Academy, I received a freelance project. Employers found me on LinkedIn thanks to my graduation project, which many people liked and commented on. The reach of my post was almost 8 thousand users. When I started working, many moments were for the first time for me. I wrote to my teacher, got some support from her, and started working. I worked on this project for two months. The company that communicated with me liked my work, so after another two months, they offered me a full-time position. This company is called E-cents, their main office is located in Dubai, but I work with their office based in Germany.
Review
Before the courses at the academy, I worked as a Customer Support Team Lead in a product company. At that time, I had a master's degree in philology, specialising in oriental languages. Since I had no professional development, I understood that this was different from what I wanted to do in the future. But everything changed thanks to studying at Beetroot Academy. I read a lot of specialised literature and searched for information about the Project Manager profession. But I understood that I would not be able to structurally and qualitatively master the basics of this profession on my own. I was choosing among several schools, but on the website of the Beetroot Academy, I found information about the course, which immediately caught my attention. Before studying, I expected we would be taught a lot of theoretical material. But the excellent teacher Oleksiy Kravchenko told us a lot about how everything works in practice and always motivated and helped us. I am very grateful to him for that. I have been working as a project manager at University for about 1.5 years, so studying helped me a lot. I had been looking for a job for about six months; sometimes, I stopped the search for a while, and sometimes I turned down several companies because the conditions of cooperation did not suit me. The most challenging thing for me in this process was the need for more professional experience. I was repeatedly told at interviews that the employer liked me and I had the necessary knowledge, but it would be better if I had at least six months of experience. It helped me; I always honestly said I don't know everything or have practice, but I'm a fast learner and ready to invest time in my development.
Review
Before studying at the academy, I had not worked anywhere; I only studied at the university, majoring in Computer Science, where I had time to try a little bit of everything related to IT except for UI/UX design. For me, IT has always been something about development, innovation, comfort and prospects. I tried myself as a programmer, tester and manager during my years of study at the university. However, none of the professions listed above caused me the passion and desire to continue. All was different with UI/UX. After watching videos on YouTube and the first attempts to create an interface, I decided to continue and started looking for relevant courses. I searched and compared many courses, but Beetroot Academy hooked me with its approach to learning. I really liked the course selection process and the conditions offered to me, so I started my journey with Beetroot Academy. My studying experience was excellent. Our group was quite lucky with our mentor Pavlo Hladkov. He gave 200% during the course, worked overtime, gave great feedback and advice, and did his best to provide us with a solid foundation to start a career in UI/UX. This experience helped me find a job immediately after graduating from the academy because one of the company's representatives was interested in me during the presentation of my graduation thesis. I want to note the mentor's dedication, professionalism, and love for what he does. Pavlo was accommodating and gave us all the necessary knowledge. So, I found a job right after graduating from the academy. After my thesis presentation, our mentor forwarded my CV and link to my graduation thesis to an interested company representative. After that, I passed the interview and received a job offer. We graduated from the academy at the end of June, and at the beginning of August, I already had a job. Now I continue to work at the 1648 factory. I started working as an Intern UX/UI Designer, but now hold a Junior level position.