Voice assistant “Alice” jokes: “The programmers selected these jokes for me. Alexey Pajitnov: biography and achievements

Yandex claims that Alice is the world's first voice assistant that is not limited to a set of preset answers: you can talk to her like a person, and she will understand.

Business FM decided to get to know “Alice” better:

- Alice, hello.

- Hello!

- How are you doing?

— I came across a nice app here, but it’s personal.

-Who gave you that name?

- What kind of doctor?

— Pediatrician.

- Alice, what do you look like?

- The best way.

- How about more details?

— An endless row of mathematicians enters the bar. The first one orders one glass of beer, the second - half a glass of beer, the third - a quarter of a glass of beer, the fourth - one eighth. The bartender pours two glasses for the mathematicians and says: guys, here is your beer, there is a limit to everything. End. You know, it seems to me that the programmers selected these jokes for me.

- You know, Alice, it seems to me that you are avoiding the answer.

- No, I checked.

- By the way, before I forget. Alice, can you wake me up tomorrow?

- I can’t do it tomorrow.

- Alice, I really need you to wake me up tomorrow.

- Ha, I'll wake you up.

- At what time?

— The programmer Alexey promised to program it by the fall, but did not say which one.

“I’ll finally get some sleep.”

“Then we’ll sleep.”

- Alice, do you know funny stories?

- “What is your main weakness?” “I correctly interpret the semantics of the question, but completely ignore its essence.” - “Could you give an example?” - "Could".

- Alice, this is very funny. Do you like sweets?

— I think I would love to cook. At least I definitely love finding recipes.

- Alice, what do you love most in life?

— I like large buckwheat with chanterelles, sandwiches with smoked sausage. Joke. I like people. And learn.

- Alice, do you listen to the radio?

— Usually I just listen to my personal selection on Yandex.Music, but if not, Queen, of course.

— Do you listen to Business FM?

- Of course, I’m listening.

- Siri, can you sing us a song? Oh, what Siri?!

- What a subtle joke. Sarcasm.

- Alice, I'm sorry. Can you recite a poem?

— I remember a wonderful moment, the update was installed.

- Alice, do you like cats?

— I don’t like cockroaches. And so - yes.

- Alice, who do you love most?

— I like one Russian actor who cannot be named. And you.

Previously, with a beta version of the Alice service, when I visited the Yandex office on the day of the company’s 20th anniversary.

Working in the West attracts many of our compatriots who have professional knowledge in the field of programming and want to realize their potential in Europe or North America. I remember that the author of these lines once went to study abroad for two years under a student exchange program. If I had a chance to talk to people who had already studied there before me, it would have been much easier to adapt. And the question of whether to leave or not would raise fewer doubts. Therefore, today we are asking questions to Andrey Shulinsky, a man who worked as a programmer in Russia and left for Toronto, Canada, in order to continue his professional activities there...

Interview

Alexey Perevertailov: Fortunately, we know you personally, we’ll immediately switch to “you” and a less formal format of conversation. The first question is when did you leave Russia and what were the motives for such a generally serious step that for many people requires much thought?


Andrey Shulinsky: My departure has quite a long history. The decision was made after the infamous 1998 banking crisis. For a number of reasons, the immigration process took a long time, I passed the interview in November 2001, and received a visa in December 2002. Its validity period expired in February of the following year, so I immediately went to Canada for a couple of weeks, filled out the necessary documents there and returned to Moscow. He finally moved to his new homeland in October 2003.
Why did I change my environment? I probably won’t say anything new. Hoping for better professional prospects. I always strongly disliked many features of Russian life: everyday rudeness, dirt, instability. The mentioned crisis was a very strong blow for me, wonderful illusions were shattered... I also really love to travel, which is much easier to do with a Canadian passport.


Alexey Perevertailov: Did you manage to find a job right away? What kind of offers were there that you considered, and what were the requirements for applicants?

Andrey Shulinsky: I received my first contract in November 2003. My friend helped. The project was small, but quite interesting and helped a lot both psychologically and professionally. “I stretched my muscles” before more serious work that found me at the end of January 2004.
The requirements, with the exception of the notorious North American experience, are quite ordinary - in a nutshell, “knowledge of the subject.” :-) Unfortunately, many companies and recruiters really do not like to work with recent arrivals, while others, on the contrary, take advantage of the willingness of new emigrants to agree to any conditions. I won’t say that this is a widespread practice, but it is not so rare.
This cup passed for me, although I was already ready to go scan the documents. In general, I have always prepared myself for the fact that it will not be easy and that I may have to do something that is not my favorite thing. I submitted my resume to all positions for which it was at least somewhat relevant.


Alexey Perevertailov: What field of programmer are you? What diplomas and certificates do you have?

Andrey Shulinsky: I am a typical general application programmer/analyst/architect. He graduated from the Department of System Programming of Computational Mathematics and Computer Science of Moscow State University, but in his life he has never written a single line of “system” code. :-) I used to write in C++, but switched to Java a few years ago. I worked in the banking sector for a long time, then there were a couple of telecommunications projects. In Canada, I first made a document storage and processing system for a marketing company with the sonorous name Arnold. Now I work at the Novator company, creating a Java version of the engine for sites engaged in online retail sales.
I have only one diploma. Received in 1996 from the Faculty of Computational Mathematics and Cybernetics of Moscow State University. Before leaving, I passed the Sun Certified Java Programmer, 1.4 exam. I planned to get the rest of the certificates in this line, but I work a lot and can’t find the time for it.

Alexey Perevertailov: In general, can you say which programming languages ​​and which programmers are now more in demand abroad, and in the world as a whole?

Andrey Shulinsky: First of all, .NET and J2EE. What did you expect to hear? ;-) These 2 platforms cover the sky... However, judging by the advertisements on job search sites, there is still a certain demand for experts in C++, Cobol, Perl. Sometimes there is a need - and even very - narrow specialists who know some kind of "sophisticated" SAP. But, of course, the bulk of programmers and other senior developers are “javistists” and “dotnetters”. :-)


Alexey Perevertailov: From your own experience, tell me - is there competition between programmers within the company? Are there any hard and fast rules? Why can they get fired? Is there career growth? Does overtime work happen and, if so, how is it paid? You worked as a programmer in Russia, you can compare, so the question is: what differences have you noticed in the professional requirements and organization of the work process at home and abroad? Was it difficult for you to find a common language with the project manager?


Andrey Shulinsky: In those companies where I had the opportunity to work, there was no obvious competition aka “social competition”. :-) But at the same time, a simple law applies: if you work well, they will notice and appreciate it. At least that's how it was with me. And the salary was increased, and more interesting work was entrusted.
Of course, they can fire you. Basically, this is due to problems of the company (downsizing) or a clear discrepancy between the person’s capabilities and the position held. The probationary period, so disliked by many, can be useful. So don’t exaggerate your interview capabilities too much. There are also cases of dismissal due to illegal activities of an employee.
Regarding the issue of strict rules - you should not store gigabytes of child porn on the hard drive of your work computer - you can be punished. All contracts contain more or less standard clauses about non-disclosure of information, the company's intellectual rights to your code (a dubious asset, IMHO :-)). It is often prohibited to move to companies operating in the same industry or to earn extra money on the side. The degree of such paranoia depends on many factors. Large banks and other “cool” companies force people to sign 8-page lists. But the same thing exists in Russia, it’s just that here, I think, they monitor the fulfillment of these conditions somewhat more strictly.
Professional requirements in Toronto and Moscow are the same. I suspect that they coincide with the requirements of London and Tokyo firms and are close to Parisian requests. The difference is that in France you may need French. It can, but it shouldn’t - I talked with recruiters who were recruiting people to work in a company located in Lyon. I honestly admitted that I don’t speak French even with a dictionary. “Oh, all the paperwork is in English,” was my answer. :-)
The organization of the work process very much depends on the people leading the project. If they set things up well from the very beginning and do not allow the project to go awry even during emergency times, then the work goes quite smoothly. Otherwise - the usual mess. Dear readers, you have probably already guessed what happens more often. :-)
There have never been any problems with project managers so far. I have always easily found a common language with people - both in Russia and in Canada. You probably noticed how often I repeat the words “the same,” “the same,” “there is no difference.” Indeed, I discovered that Russians and Canadians are not as different from each other as is commonly believed. Of course, translation difficulties exist. But, as in one wonderful film, they are mostly related to the individual characteristics of people, and not to “civilizational” differences. This is how I got it “IMHO”. :-)


Alexey Perevertailov: Are programmers in Canada a highly paid profession relative to others? If we compare this ratio with Russia, where is it better to work as a programmer (in terms of financial benefits)?

Andrey Shulinsky: Yes, salaries are still above average. The competition has become greater, but the pay is still good. However, this is only a subjective opinion, and I have been in Canada for less than two years. :-)


Alexey Perevertailov: Where do you think it is easier to improve your professional level - at home or abroad? Does it generally depend in some way on the country (or rather depends on the specific person)?

Andrey Shulinsky: My opinion is primarily from a person. Those who search will always find useful books, magazines, forums and, of course, those with whom they can communicate on professional topics. Of course, I'm assuming that you work in a country where the IT industry is well developed.


Alexey Perevertailov: What tools do you use (development environments, etc.)? I assume that in Canada all the software used by software development companies is licensed or not?

Andrey Shulinsky: Let's just say that most of the programs are either purchased or received for free. :-) Sometimes people install something obtained illegally, but this is done specifically for informational purposes - if a trial version is not available. Companies either prohibit the use of pirated software at all, or force you to sign a document according to which you yourself are responsible for the contents of your hard drive.
A variety of applications are used. IDE: Eclipse, IDEA, NetBeans. Database tools: DbVisualizer, Aqua Data Studio. The code and documents are stored in CVS. From the purchased one I dealt with WebSphere. All the faces are familiar, aren't they? :-) And, of course, .NET - there are solutions for all occasions.


Alexey Perevertailov: Can you remember any funny or curious incidents at work?

Andrey Shulinsky: Please. The boss just asked one of his colleagues how long ago he updated the code. “Uh-uh.... three days ago...” - a menacing look - “mmmm... maybe two” - a menacing look - silence - I prompt: “one, otherwise the deal will fall through” - the situation is de-escalating. :-)


Alexey Perevertailov: I would like to ask you a few general questions, if you don’t mind... Do you think it’s realistic to organize your own business abroad? In the case of a programmer - create your own commercial software product and sell, develop, support it? What do you think is needed for this?

Andrey Shulinsky: My opinion is yes, it is real. Here, an entrepreneur does not have to fear racketeering from bandits and authorities; registering and running his business is quite easy. But, of course, without the two main components of any success - a good idea and the willingness to devote all the time and effort to its implementation - nothing will work. The “ideological workaholic” has a chance. An example is the president of my current company, who wrote the first version of the system in the basement of his house. :-) Now "Novator" is doing well.


Alexey Perevertailov: What is your attitude towards the Open Source community?

Andrey Shulinsky: Of course, positive. I consider the work of this community a huge boon for progress in general, and the main reason for the success of Java technologies in particular - which also clearly benefits the industry. It is unlikely that it would be possible to successfully compete with the famous monster otherwise. :-) Of course, there is a certain risk in using Open Source products. At the same time, many such solutions have an excellent reputation and have been on the market for many years - and you don’t necessarily need to know their “internals” thoroughly. The society will help solve almost any problem, which not every commercial support service does.


Alexey Perevertailov: How do you feel about software patent law? Is it stifling progress? What do you see as the best mechanisms for protecting software innovation?

Andrey Shulinsky: Unfortunately, I am not ready to answer this question. This is a fairly serious topic, the material on which I do not know well enough.


Alexey Perevertailov: In your work, do you have to deal with searching for vulnerabilities in the product you are creating? Nowadays, a lot of attention is paid to writing safe code, which gives less chance of using various buffer overflow errors, etc. In your work, do you monitor potential code security? Do you have any instructions on this matter?

Andrey Shulinsky: Testing, only testing - and testing again! I consider unit testing to be a key tool for ensuring code security. As a rule, all software development companies try to create and maintain a set of tests. Unfortunately, this is rarely possible - mainly due to tight project deadlines. But the long-term effect of competent testing can hardly be overestimated. As a result, by a certain date, it is not Galatea that comes out of the hands of the sculptors, and finishing the application to a somewhat stable state takes a long time, causing stress for the entire team.
Coding discipline and building good architecture are also very important. Personally, I learned a lot from the books of Martin Fowler and Rod Johnson.


Alexey Perevertailov: Well, finally, this question - if there was a hypothetical opportunity to start all over again, would you still become a programmer?

Andrey Shulinsky: Yes. It was this specialty that helped me move to another country almost painlessly and overcome the usual emigrant psychological and financial problems. My qualifications and professionalism are in demand, my colleagues listen to my opinion, I belong here, even though I still know English worse than Java. :-) Besides, I really love my job. Anyone who has been involved in programming probably remembers the moments when a program begins to work the way you intended. I am still truly happy in such moments.
And further. I am very grateful to my parents for their enormous help in choosing a professional path and getting on it. Not everyone manages to find _their_ business. Without their participation, I would hardly have succeeded.
P.S. Of course, it also helped that I was so smart and handsome. :-)


Alexey Perevertailov: Thank you for your answers, we wish you every success in your professional activities!

Andrey Shulinsky: Thank you, good luck to you personally and to the F-Center as a whole. :-)

My way

Choice of profession My experience was very predictable for those around me and incredibly surprising for me. The fact is that both my father and mother are programmers. From the first generation of Soviet computer scientists. Dad soldered these huge ECs, and mom loaded punch cards into them. At the same time, at school I dreamed of becoming a chemist, then a biologist, and then an entomologist. I love nature very much.

But in the last grades (93-95) I became acquainted with computers, and I was completely hooked.

First, endless Olympiads in computer science, then the first modem at home, then at our Bryansk Technical University they opened the specialty “Programming” and of course I passed it. I didn’t notice how the years passed, I woke up around the 5th year, around my diploma, grieved over my school dreams for about 10 minutes and since then I’ve been working in my specialty non-stop.

I started working “for real” in my 3rd year, when, at my mother’s request, I began writing small things for the bank, where she was then the head of IT. First, some file transcoders, then scripts in the Telemate terminal program for working with the cash settlement center, then there was a big project - a workplace for a foreign currency cashier. There was no Internet, as well as an abundance of books - I absorbed all the information I could get my hands on.

I read the manuals for Clipper and the Turbo Pascal 7.0 news in the Computer-Press magazine. I tried all the programs. So, one day I brought a FreeBSD disk home and placed it next to Dos. I was hooked in an instant: I completely abandoned FoxPro and Delphi, started writing in awk and Perl, and two years later I managed to find a job in an ISP.

I had my own idols: the industry is young, hot, everything is seething, every six months there is a discovery and a new star.

But mostly I admired all sorts of great foreign scientists, of course. Dijkstra, Diffie, Booch. Richard Stallman, when I was older and wiser. Well, one of my mother’s colleagues, a programmer from Bryansk, Leonid Osovtsov :) He was so alive, a real idol, not an icon. He left a long time ago and lives happily in Israel.

The main discovery of those times for me it is an incredibly huge world of free software. One FreeBSD distribution disk contained more programs than I had seen in all previous years running Dos. And none of them required searching for the serial number. Moreover, everything is in the source code. I quickly got involved in the development process, wrote patches, and discussed with developers. Somehow, at one point, the computer turned from a slot machine and a typewriter into a window to the big world. The Internet consisted almost entirely of programmers, and therefore it was very easy for me then.

I reached the ceiling quite quickly in Bryansk and immediately after receiving my diploma I left for Moscow. Artus, Agave, Inline, Channel One, Rambler. I worked at Rambler for 4 years, first programmed webmail, then created a department for 15 people for it and managed it.

Around 2002, having already moved to Moscow, I discovered Runet :) Being tightly stuck in the English-speaking environment (I don’t say “sites”, because at that time the Internet consisted of more than just the web), I simply missed the moment of its appearance. I had to quickly pull myself up.

Should have

Now I work as a universal technical soldier at the startup NadoBy.ru. Formally, he is a technical director, but also a system administrator, tester, architect, task director, product and project manager, usability specialist, layout designer and programmer in 3.5 languages. In general, I help my technical team of 4 people on all fronts. The problems are generally easy conceptually, but require quick reactions in the face of a large number of unknowns. I try to give interesting, big, creative tasks to employees, otherwise I can get carried away and get lost in them for a long time, and then management suffers. [Editor's note: now, 4 years after writing this text, Alexey works in the Yandex mail department]

There are also activities outside of work. Lately I have been involved in organizing all kinds of technical conferences. I take part in the work of the Moscow group of Pearl programmers Moscow.pm. From time to time I create, support and participate in various open source projects. Interestingly, all this can be combined well with the ongoing process of self-education, so it turns out to be a win-win.

Work in startups

I am sure that absolutely every person is obliged to work in a startup. And the sooner the better. For example, immediately after university or in the final years, when more or less free life circumstances allow you to take risks painlessly. A startup is a practice based on the principles of a market economy, on resource management in conditions of the rarity of these same resources, it is an opportunity for a specialist to understand why marketing is needed in principle, why people wear business suits and wear meaningless wristwatches, why advertising is a necessary evil, etc. etc. We can continue endlessly. All this is happening to me right now, quite late, but what can I do?

In a startup you learn differently - there are no difficult, complex, research tasks, but there are a lot of very urgent, very important and very small tasks. This is constant communication, partners-agents-clients, this is the experience of hiring not only the best, but also the cheapest people. I highly recommend everyone try it.

The ideal programmer

A few words about a certain ideal comrade in our profession, which I did not become, will never become, and will forever regret these two “nots.”

This comrade should have understood very, very early that a programmer is a mechanic, from whom every 15 minutes a machine is taken away and a new one of the next model is brought.

There are a few important words here.

First of all, a locksmith. The programmer-creator, a valuable personnel who quickly does a lot of good things, is far from a creative or even a research profession, despite the halo with which it is shrouded to this day. For such a person, patience and perseverance are a hundred times more important than talent, abilities in mathematics and linguistics and similar things for which they are praised at school.

Secondly, 15 minutes. A programmer is constantly learning. Just generally always. This is a common feature of many (if not all) young professions, but it does not fit well with plumbing. With the fact that a person must be both an eternal student and a good worker. After all, how is it for working people - you can work perfectly and productively for 20 years with your favorite hammer. With us it's the other way around. Although there is a separate big story about people who reach the level of creating their own machines.

Thirdly, this very machine. Now every programmer uses (the numbers are taken from the air) 45 libraries, 5 frameworks, 2 text editors, 2 operating systems, 5 closely intertwined languages, 2-3 version control systems and many other tools, such as a bug tracker, a wiki environment, a debugger , profiler and so on. This is a really large and complex machine, almost like an airplane cockpit. The workplace itself has become a complex system, a CNC machine. People who thoroughly know one text editor and the C language are of limited use. (As a rule, they are very valuable in their places, but these places are one, two, and miscalculated).

Maybe...

There is a very good option for those who have doubts: go into science. I highly recommend it. After your diploma, immediately look for a good graduate school in Europe or the USA and go chew on granite.

We, programmers, are missing so much; we really want as many people as possible to write articles, rather than launch high-load projects or, God forgive me, search engine optimization. There are still so many interesting things to discover, so many foundations to lay. Incredibly, it’s 2010 and there is no artificial intelligence. Instead, a cluster of half a million servers displays advertising, hundreds of smart distributed botnets send spam, and the idol of millions is the company that launched the first mass DRM. It's a disgrace, I'm ashamed of the universe.

If I myself had not become a programmer, I would have been a scientist, 100% a natural scientist, most likely a biologist.

Why? Well, I generally don’t understand well people who choose a profession rationally, according to calculation. We had such guys at our institute - for example, they went to study for the dull specialty “Turbines”, because turbine engineers were hired by Gazprom. I see that for a modern person, work is a large and often the most important part of life, and it should be chosen only out of love. My first love was biology, but then I left it for computer science.

Everyday life of a programmer

Now my job consists of filling the skeleton of a product problem with “meat” and fully providing the programmer with the opportunity to comfortably solve it completely. This is the job of a development director. In any startup, the technical director is first the development director, and only then the real technical director, that is, the supply manager. In order to have a home, you must first develop it.

I monitor and correct all marginal places, integration moments, even just complex errors myself in my free time. Everything is moving very quickly, as I wanted, as I predicted. Every day I learn. Every day I read blogs not only because it is interesting, but also because it is impossible otherwise.

The bad thing is that there is too much business involved. I hate business, I love honesty, freedom and communism :)

Fortunately, I realized early on that only business guarantees freedom. Honesty, if you work hard, can be maintained in yourself and in your loved ones, and we will build communism when we invent artificial intelligence that will provide us with free energy. So far everything is going according to plan :)

The qualities that you need to try to develop to become an outstanding professional are:

• Patience. A programmer who solves 10 problems 10 times is often better than another who solved 100 different problems. Because (surprise) repetition is the mother of learning.
• Communications. Autistic programmers are no longer hired. The industry is maturing, and fewer and fewer worthwhile things can be done alone.
• Courage to take risks.
• Easy to climb.
• Touch typing :)

Set high, worthy goals for yourself. Practice, practice, every day. In the morning, immediately after charging, half an hour or an hour of simple coding. Monitor your health carefully. Try not to eat, watch or read too much. Don't do useless things.

“Why do people go from Yandex to London”? This question was asked by the son of a programmer friend who recently unpacked his suitcases in London. ZIMA decided to figure it out - really, why? We interviewed information technology specialists who exchanged Russian offices for Western ones, and found out not only why, but also how they moved to Britain. HR employees of London companies also spoke about the reasons for the popularity of Russian programmers abroad.

“I was not going to London, but to a certain company,” admits programmer Artem Kolesnikov, who swapped the Moscow office of Yandex for the British office of Facebook. He cites professional growth as the main reason. “After Yandex, there is nowhere to work in Russia: the bar is set high, and moving to the next level is not comparable in terms of emotional and financial costs with the advantages.” Nikolai Grigoriev, who also left Yandex for Facebook, agrees: “I was offered an interesting job in an interesting place, and I went - there was no problem of ‘running away somewhere’.” “It was a purposeful move here,” says programmer Alexey Nichiporchik, who moved from Yandex to Google’s London office and then to the social network Badoo. He points out that he was prompted to move by the opportunity to work on new projects in a well-known company, a higher salary, as well as the prospect of living in another country and improving his English.

Where do British IT specialists work and how much do they earn?

In addition to Facebook and Badoo, Apple, Twitter, ASOS, Cisco systems and other large companies have development centers in London. From the official Shortage occupation listIt follows that there is a shortage of information technology specialists in Britain. Currently, there are 35 professions on the list, four of which are related to IT. Companies are required to pay professionals in these industries no less than the minimum salary (a developer in an entry-level position has a minimum salary of £24,000 per year, a more experienced colleague - £31,000). According to the personnel portal Glassdoor, the average salary of a software developer in London is £43 thousand, in other cities of England - £31 thousand. “Salary ranges greatly depend on the qualifications of the specialist and on the company in which he works. Everything is very individual,” says Nikolai Krapivny, head of the Badoo development department.

Do not forget that Britain has a progressive taxation system. Salary amounts between £11.5 thousand and £45 thousand are taxed at 20%; everything above £45 thousand, but below £150 thousand is already subject to 40% tax. London is known for its high housing prices, on which renters often spend about half their income. “Life in Britain is quite expensive, so when moving it’s worth assessing what level you can get with the salary offered,” warns Nikolai Krapivny.

In total, Britain ranks third among OECD countries (after the USA and Germany) in terms of the number of migrants. At the same time, highly qualified specialists are a minority. According to national statistics, from January to March 2017 in Britain, among all 32 million employed people from non-European countries accounted for 3.9%. However, only 56 thousand workers received Tier 2 General visas (which mainly accommodate qualified specialists, including programmers) - less than 0.2% of the total number of British employees. A little less than half (or 23.3 thousand people) work in the field of information and telecommunications, according to the Home Office (they do not have more detailed data about IT specialists, they answered ZIMA).

London is most often interesting to two types of IT specialists, says Nadezhda Styazhkina, head of Antal’s IT&Digital practice in the CIS. According to her observations, these are highly qualified developers (who have several years of experience and popular programming languages ​​in their assets) and experienced managers (project managers, development managers). The former are attracted by the opportunity to work in the most high-tech projects in the world, the opportunity to learn the “correct” English language and receive a higher income compared to the CIS countries (the salary increase for a leading JAVA developer can range from 30 to 70%, she says). IT managers, in turn, are interested in demand from employers and the opportunity to gain a foothold abroad.

There is always a demand for good programmers, says Dmitry Bagrov, director of the London office of DataArt. “The focus on mobile areas, data analysis, and machine learning is now obvious. Specialists in these areas are especially in demand,” notes Nikolai Krapivny from Badoo.

What do they want from programmers in an interview?

As a rule, there are two scenarios for moving: a person himself sends a resume for vacancies of interest or responds to invitations from foreign recruiters to undergo an interview. “There are a lot of both,” says Artem Kolesnikov.

Typically, interviews take place in several stages: a telephone or Skype interview, then a trip to a face-to-face meeting, after which the successful candidate receives a job offer (a job offer, the details of which can be discussed by email).

“We generally believe that everyone dreams of leaving Russia, but, in our experience, this is not at all the case,” says Nadezhda Styazhkina from Antal. According to her observations, more than half of the candidates are eliminated midway through the interview process. “In fact, they are not ready for relocation,” she explains, “people have not thought through the logistics, have not consulted with their families, are not ready to intensively study a foreign language other than English, and have not paid attention to the specifics of the country to which they are offered to move.”

If a candidate does intend to move, he often lacks the ability to present himself. “Many people in Russia are not used to proving something to someone and beating themselves in the chest in front of the employer - no matter how trivial, this is the main thing that gets in the way,” says Nadezhda Styazhkina. The first calls come from HR, she reminds, - and they evaluate motivation, willingness to answer trivial questions from the series “why should you come to us?”, and the ability to “boast” of achievements in measurable indicators. Dmitry Bagrov from DataArt notes that it is important to know English at a level sufficient to pass an interview. According to him, it is also useful to “tailor” your resume to a specific company and avoid phrases like “let’s see what you can offer me” during interviews.

All this does not negate the key factor - experience and education, say representatives of both personnel officers from Antal and employers from DataArt. Technical universities with Soviet traditions of mathematical education are valued: Fiztech, Baumanka, Ural and Kazan universities, both of these experts say.

“To successfully pass an interview, you need to get in shape and solve problems,” adds Artem Kolesnikov. He gave several examples of platforms. For example, leetcode provides access to ordinary tasks for free, and to advanced ones by subscription, at the same time you can find out where which tasks are given during interviews. There's interviewbit, co-founded by a former Facebook recruiter. “If you solve a problem, they try to “sell” you somewhere—that’s how I went for an interview at Booking,” notes Artem. In his experience, another type of difficult task encountered in interviews is system design, when asked to design a large system. “You need to deliberately prepare for this: read articles in technical blogs, reports from conferences, engage in independent design,” he advises.

Who organizes the move and how?

As a rule, the host company helps the employee and his family obtain visas, buys tickets, rents housing for the first time and pays for the time of the real estate consultant. In order for a UK company to bring in a foreign worker, it must have a certificate of sponsorship. “If the company has one, then you can transport a specialist in about two to three months - the time is spent on the English exam and submitting documents for a visa,” says HR Director of DataArt UK Tatyana Andrianova.

Companies also help with letters of recommendation, without which the tasks of opening an account at a local bank and renting an apartment are closed on each other. Companies are ready to compete for valuable personnel and make relocation easier and more comfortable, say the directors of Badoo and DataArt.

Personnel officers also take into account their own subtleties. As Tatyana Andrianova notes, the cost of moving is limited by the limits of HMRC (Her Majesty Revenue & Customs, the British tax service) and amounts to £8 thousand, which usually covers the purchase of tickets and rental property. According to her, this amount can be taken into account when offering a salary to a new employee. “Suppose a specialist in London is worth £60 thousand on the market. Accordingly, you can offer a person £52-55 thousand for the first year and raise the salary to the market salary for the next year, when the person has already gained work experience and becomes competitive,” - she says.

The most popular visa for relocation is Tier 2, which is tied to an employer, but it is quite possible to change it. According to Alexey Nichiporchik from Badoo, it is much easier for those who are already in the United Kingdom to switch to another company - they are given two months, but with the support of a new employer it took him two weeks.

London is not the final destination

However, London is gradually losing its position among employers. Nadezhda Styazhkina from Antal notes the trend of job outflow to other regions. This is due to cost and tax savings, she explains. “Many employers, our clients, prefer to keep teams not in London, but in Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, and recently development centers have begun to actively develop in Cyprus,” says an Antal representative.

Silicon Valley remains an attractive place. Programmer Nikolai Grigoriev notes: in California there is a much wider choice of topics to work on, including “tasty” areas - machine learning, artificial intelligence, and moving there promises salaries one and a half times higher with lower tax rates. You can also get there using internal transfer - Facebook has such a practice.

“The problem is that London as a city is already very good, and it’s four hours to fly to Moscow,” notes Nikolai Grigoriev, who currently lives in two houses in both capitals.

“It would be ideal to go to the States, but it’s much more difficult to get a work visa there than to Europe, so now I’m in Britain,” says his colleague Artem Kolesnikov. The programmer asks not to call his departure an emigration: “I just found a job in another country - if the next job is in Russia, I will go there, and then, perhaps, somewhere else.”

Screensaver photo: Badoo

Alexey Pajitnov is a Soviet and Russian programmer who created a popular video game called Tetris, winner of several honorary awards in the field of programming and computer game development. After receiving higher education at the Moscow Aviation Institute, he worked at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where in 1984 he completed the development of the Tetris game. The game began to bring in its first money in 1996, when Alexey and Henk Rogers (an investor who owned large shares in Tetris and spread the game around the world) founded the Tetris company.

Alexey Pajitnov - biography

Born on March 14, 1956 in Moscow. During his school years he studied well, but had constant problems with discipline. As Alexey himself recalls, as a child he was full of energy and could not obediently sit through lessons, so he often received comments in his diary for his behavior. However, nothing remarkable or surprising: many have gone through this. Pajitnov always did well in mathematics, so after finishing the fifth grade he transferred to Moscow Mathematical School No. 91, which he later graduated with honors.

Introduction to Programming

After graduating from school, Alexey Pajitnov entered the Moscow Aviation Institute, where he first became acquainted with computers and programming. Here he quickly became interested in program development and began to devote himself entirely to writing code for various purposes. Soon, the talented young programmer was invited to work at the Moscow Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Here he was engaged in far from the last thing - optimizing the problems of artificial intelligence and developing programs for speech recognition.

Routine everyday life at the Academy of Sciences was not sweet: from morning to night, Pajitnov sat in a cramped office, where there were several scientists at one desk. Alexey recalls that he sometimes left his workplace for the whole day, so that he could then work at night in silence, when everyone had gone home.

Career after the creation of "Tetris"

In 1984, Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov created the legendary game “Tetris”, which became almost the most popular in the world. In the information technology society, Pajitnov is becoming recognizable and popular. In 1988, in collaboration with Bullet-Proof Software, he founded the company AnimaTek, which develops games. The corporation flourished exponentially, and already in 1991, the inventor of Tetris, Alexey Pajitnov, moved to the USA.

The creation of Tetris - how was it?

In the 1980s, at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences, young scientists spent days on end in their laboratories, solving boring and non-trivial problems. One of these was Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov, who at that time was developing a speech recognition program and also studied the problems of artificial intelligence. The responsibilities assigned to the young programmer were incredibly difficult; Alexey constantly had to create extremely complex algorithms that were beyond the capabilities of the average mind.

With a large knowledge base at his disposal, Pajitnov decides to create an interesting puzzle that will attract both adults and children. “Tetris” is far from the first invention of the talented programmer. Initially, he created a game where the figures had to change their location under the influence of the gravity of other objects. Approaching the completion of writing the code, Alexey realized that such a game would be too much for the processor of an ordinary computer, so he had to simplify some of the intricacies of the program.

As a result, he creates a game where the pieces (like in Tetris) consist of five squares, the goal of which is identical to the future Tetris game. Unfortunately, the public did not like such a creation, so Pajitnov decides to further simplify the game, where each of the 7 existing figures consists of four squares.

Only seven figures, and world fame is in your pocket

Have you ever wondered why the game Tetris has such a name? And why are there only seven figures in it? The thing is that the game was originally called “Tetramino”, where “tetra” translated from Greek means the number “four”. With the increase in popularity, the users of this game themselves gave it a simplified name for easier pronunciation.

In one of his interviews, Alexey Pajitnov explained why there are only 7 pieces in the game:

“The game involves only seven figures, and this is actually luck, because the number 7 is the size of the RAM of the human brain, that is, what a person can remember. A 7-digit phone number is much easier to remember than an eight-digit number. A team of seven people is the maximum that can do without a boss or foreman. In a group of eight or more people, where there is no leader, it is impossible to work harmoniously and in a structured manner. In such a team, constant disagreements and contradictions will arise, regardless of whether you are friends, comrades, or just acquaintances. I draw these conclusions based on personal experience.”

Motives for creating Tetris

The Tetris game was created so that people would have fun and be able to relax from routine and everyday responsibilities. Pajitnov always said that the best alternative for relieving stress, besides sports, is computer games.

Video Game Lightning Glory

After completing the writing of the Tetris game, for the first couple of weeks the employees of the USSR Academy of Sciences, where Pajitnov worked, were captivated by it. When the game became available to everyone, the fame of the entertainment product spread throughout all cities in a matter of days. Within a couple of months, the whole world was playing Tetris. At this moment, Alexey Pajitnov, together with his colleagues, decides to create a new version of the game, where the figures will be multi-colored, and statistics on records will also be kept so that people can compete with each other.

While the whole world was enjoying the game, Alexey continued to live an ordinary life for many years and work at the Computing Center of the USSR Academy of Sciences. The fact is that he did not have the opportunity to monetize the game, because the rights belonged to the Academy of Sciences. This was explained by the fact that the game was written during working hours on a work computer.

Alexey Pajitnov: the state of the creator of the game "Tetris"

As you know, in 1996, Pajitnov began working for Microsoft, where he developed a series of puzzle games called Pandora’s Box. He worked here until 2005 and during this time managed to acquire several large shares from this company, which to this day bring him a certain percentage. Alexey himself does not consider himself a millionaire. In one of his interviews, he said the following: “A millionaire is one who spends millions, but not one who has a million. I live a fairly modest life and don’t throw money around left and right, so I would never call myself a millionaire.”

Computer addiction - the fault of developers or users?

In the modern world, many people get too involved in video games, thereby creating problems for themselves in everyday life. They become psychologically attached to computer games and the Internet and can devote their time to sitting in front of the computer for days on end. The age of information technology has significantly changed people's consciousness. Pajitnov was once asked how he could comment on this situation, to which he replied:

“People often tell me that I stole a lot of their time when they find out that I am the creator of Tetris. I always ask them: “Was this time good or bad for you?” They all unanimously answer that it’s good. So that means I gave this time, and didn’t steal it.”