"I proposed a 50% salary discount". How former gymnast, now iOS developer, is seeking a job in IT.

During her 17-year career in artistic gymnastics, Maria Kotyak and her team won both the European and World Championships, competed in the Olympics, and took part in other international competitions. However, after suffering a serious shoulder injury, her sports career had to come to an end. At the age of 21, Maria had to find a new path and decided to pursue a career in IT, which she has successfully done. Today, the former athlete is coding in Swift, developing her own game, and eagerly awaiting her dream job offer. dev.by is telling her story.

«We performed at Minsk Arena… It was a huge venue and I was so small»

Masha is the first athlete in her family to go pro. Her parents made the decision to enroll her in artistic gymnastics when she was just four years old.

«I was always a very active child, and my parents wanted to channel my energy in a positive direction. No one imagined it would last for 17 years.»

At one point, Masha’s mother even suggested that she give up sports and focus solely on her studies. However, Masha’s passion for gymnastics was unwavering, and she decided to persist despite the challenge. Her determination paid off, and in 2011 she was selected to join the National team in the group exercise.

«That was my dream. The group exercise seemed more spectacular to me and I enjoyed working in a team. We won the European Championship in 2011. We performed then at the Minsk Arena… It was a huge hall, and I was so small (I was 14 then). The first Championship was the most emotional start for me.»

Within a year, Masha joined the adult team in 2013. She practically lived in the gym, spending more time there than at home. Her training schedule involved two daily workouts, each lasting 8-10 hours, six days a week. Along with her new teammates, Masha traveled to Kyiv for the World Championship, where they earned the coveted gold medal.

 

 

 

«It was the first gold medal in 15 years. Later we became winners of several World Championships and European Championships. My path in sports was difficult but interesting and successful. It really toughened my character. I know how much effort it takes to win.»

The last serious test was the 2016 Olympics. After that, the gymnast had to end her sports career.

«I performed with a broken shoulder. By that time, my shoulder had been hurting for a year. And I couldn’t go to the doctor. Or rather, I could, but I didn’t want to hear the diagnosis. If I had known earlier that it was serious, I wouldn’t have gone to the Games. So I gritted my teeth and went to my goal.»

Masha tried to recover from the injury. She underwent three surgeries. But she didn’t return to sports.

«The thought of ending my sports career was scary, but at the same time, I was excited about exploring new opportunities. It was the beginning of a new chapter in my life.»

«Continued studying, worked at the same time, and received her first IT salary of $250»

After finishing her sports career, Masha decided to enter the field of IT. Firstly, everyone was raving about it; secondly, she had many friends who worked in IT and could provide support; and thirdly, Masha has always been interested in technology, especially gadgets, particularly those released by Apple.

«I was advised to a company that offers testing courses with the possibility of employment — Solvd. They had courses on manual and automated testing. I didn’t dare to go for automated testing. It required a technical background that I completely lacked at that time. Therefore, I went straight to manual testing.»

The course was supposed to last for three months. But just two weeks after it began Masha got an offer and was brought onto the project. She continued studying, worked at the same time, and received her first IT salary of $250.

«It was my first experience in IT. I learned such concepts as Scrum, Kanban, sprints, and Agile basics. I indicated my first bugs and wrote my first test cases. I had a wonderful mentor who helped me to get into work. I’m thankful to Solvd for integrating me into IT.»

«I also felt like I was in an entirely new world after years of adhering to strict and disciplined gymnastics rules. I was surprised that I could be a little late for work, spend an entire hour at lunch, and enjoy unlimited tea, coffee, and biscuits in the office. There was even a game console. It felt like a parallel universe to me.»

Masha had been working at Solvd for a year and a half when she was contacted by an HR from Craft Machine, an American product company that had an office in Minsk at the time. After a successful interview with the HR representative, she was invited to a technical part. By that time, Masha was very enthusiastic about the position as she wanted to try working in a product company.

— During the interview, I had a feeling that it was going to be a failure. Why? I didn’t know… Maybe it was just nerves. But I really wanted to work there. At the end of our conversation, I don’t know what came over me, but I suddenly said, «I understand that the interview may not have gone well, but I really want to work with you. I’m ready to prove that I’m a worthy candidate, and you won’t regret hiring me.» I saw my interviewer’s demeanor soften a bit, and I was hopeful for an offer. To my delight, I was hired.

In Craft Machine, Masha learned automated tests, understood the specifics of a product company, and improved her technical skills.

«I took part in grooming and planning meetings, conducted demos, wrote my first automated tests using Ruby, made my first commit and code review, and learned about the basics of deployment.»

«I understood that I like coding much more than testing. It was magic: you write a few lines of code, then you just run tests–and it works automatically. I was so inspired! I couldn’t stop thinking that I can not only run tests but create my own applications. I decided to try software development. I started looking for courses but couldn’t find them–I saw a lot of negative reviews.»

Masha began to study on her own. During the day, she worked and in the evenings, she investigated software development. Then, Masha met Sergey, an iOS developer (and her future husband) who teaches people programming for free. He drew up a program and helped Masha during her studies.

 

 

 

«The first item on the program was an introductory course on Python, just to see if I found it interesting. After that, I read four books: the first one was about Java in general, while the others covered software development basics and programming patterns in Java. The final item on the program was a course from Stanford, which I found on YouTube. It was amazing.»

Masha studied for a year. She says it could have taken less time, but since she was working at the same time, she could only code after work and during weekends. That’s why Masha decided to quit her job even before finishing the Stanford course so that she could spend more time studying and searching for job openings for iOS developers.

«It was quite challenging to balance work and studies. I had to sacrifice some social events and prioritize completing the course as soon as possible. Although I enjoyed my job at the time, I made the decision to quit in order to fully focus on my studies.»

Masha began attending CocoaHeads meetings in Minsk to network with mobile developers and discuss job search strategies. However, the experiences of the participants were disappointing as juniors without experience were not in demand. This inspired Masha to create her own project.

«My expectations of a release were pretty high. I thought I rolled out an app–and became a millionaire. Nope» 

EverNever was conceived as a project for a portfolio. 

«The idea came to me quickly. I have a passion for board games and enjoy heartwarming gatherings with friends. I remember one day we gathered to play a new 'Never Have I Ever' game. However, we found that there weren’t many interesting questions, and there were also some repetitions. I wondered why this popular game didn’t have any high-quality variations.»

Masha started thinking about creating her own game. She chatted with her friends about the idea. They were totally on board and started tossing around ideas for the game’s content. That’s how the idea was born. And then came the development. 

«Although the Stanford course included creating a few minor games it was hard to understand where to start anyway. It was going to be something way bigger than just a project containing several modules. So I asked my friend and my husband for help. We gathered a team of a UI/UX designer, an illustrator, and other guys with a great sense of humor.»

It was my first own product, I was eager to create a beautiful and high-quality game that I wouldn’t be ashamed of. We were coming up with questions, giving them to review with each other,   

«This was my first product, and I wanted to create a beautiful and high-quality game that I wouldn’t be ashamed to showcase during an interview. It was crucial to me that the game had great content, so we brainstormed questions, exchanged them for evaluation, and calculated the average score for each question. This way, only the best and most interesting ones made it into the game.»

 

 

 

Masha also started studying competitors in the App Store, their main features, and the languages they supported. She made a plan for the MVP.

«After conducting a market analysis, I determined that the initial version of my game would include six languages: Russian, English, German, Spanish, Italian, and Romanian. I aimed for the translations to be natural and informal, rather than academic, ensuring the content would be engaging in all regions. To achieve this, I enlisted the help of native speakers and sought their feedback to eliminate any irrelevant content. At a certain point, I decided to monetize the game, so I researched the principles of in-app purchases in the App Store and implemented them. The entire development process took approximately five months, and we released the game in December 2022.»

«My expectations of a release were pretty high. I thought I rolled out an app–and became a millionaire. Nope. Bupkis. On the first day of release, there were about 30 active users at the same time, on the second day even less. I was very upset! And then after several weeks, there was a first purchase! But it turned out my husband did it…»

After the release, Masha actively began searching for a job. She created her CV, included the game in her portfolio, and updated her LinkedIn account (she even purchased a premium subscription to increase visibility). She sent numerous messages to recruiters, but received no response. It seemed like everyone was looking for seniors. However, Masha didn’t give up her search. Meanwhile, she continued working on the game, and now the third version has been released.

«Neither the lack of a job nor the low number of downloads stopped me, and I continued to develop the project. I added many cool features: weekly updates of free content with push notifications, a premium subscription, the ability to mark cards as favorites and start the game with favorite questions, the option to share cards, the ability to create custom packs and share them with friends. None of the competitors have such a feature.»

Now the app has crossed over 1000 downloads, with the majority of users coming from Europe and the United States.

«It feels like soon I’ll be able to put 'mid-level' on my resume. After all, I already have about a year of experience working on this project. I develop and also manage it. Meanwhile, I continue to learn. I read books, and watch videos. My YouTube channel has completely transformed; it used to feature interviews and gymnastics videos, but now it’s all about programming. I look at it and marvel at how much my life has changed…

But still, no offers. The girl even offered a 50% discount on the first salary, but no one responded. Since January, Masha hasn’t received a single interview invitation.

«Expectations for the position… Right now, it doesn’t matter to me whether it’s a product or outsourcing, or even in which country it will be. What’s important to me is to have a great team with a strong work spirit. A team of professionals that will give me the chance to excel as an iOS developer, contribute to product implementation, and enhance my skills.»

If you have a suitable position for Maria, please message her on LinkedIn. 

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