2024-07-14 23:12:14
The girl used to work in sales, interacted a lot with people in various forms – stores, telemarketing, logistics, but five years ago she made a decision to radically change her field of work and decided to enroll in programming courses.
“Today I thought that I’ve been in Kaunas for 10 years and half of that time was spent in sales, and the other was on the programming path,” Viktoria began the conversation with a calculation.
– How did you start your programming career? Was it difficult?
– I was looking for something to do. At first I studied on my own, and then I went to retraining courses through one of the Employment Service programs.
I studied there for a month, I went to work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It was a bad time because I graduated in December and finding an internship was very difficult. Such a long way to start, but hooked.
During those courses and the thesis, I did something less standard – I was creating a website for a game developed by a friend who was already a senior programmer. It was a job for which I set myself a high bar.
– What happened after the course, was it easy to find a job?
– It was a difficult time when I finished the course. I didn’t know how to start going to job interviews, but it happened that I did an internship with a mentor. I honestly went there for half a year for practice, without much pay.
Later, more and more projects appeared, they got bigger and bigger. I worked for him for about a year on all kinds of jobs.
When I felt strong enough, I thought I needed to do something further. That’s how I had a project with Luminor, I got a job in Vilnius, because there was only a service department in Kaunas. I passed by from Kaunas more than a year ago. It was a very interesting experience.
Then I moved to Eneba, I stayed there for two years and we said goodbye this January. There was a different experience, a completely different structure, completely different jobs.
Now there is Orbio, this company is mostly known for marketing, but there is a large information technology (IT) department to cover what marketing comes up with.
Everything happened for five years, many different experiences, but I did not sit in one place.
– Does marketing, design knowledge in programming help?
– Maybe sometimes I raise some questions about the design, I manage to pay attention to the details. The visual side is related to arts as well as colors – how they affect the user, what he wants to do on the created page.
But the jobs I get usually already come with a design.
– When did handicrafts, the creative side, appear?
– Quarantine really helped a lot (laughing). Probably during this period, many people discovered new things or activities to occupy their time.
I’ve always been interested in various jobs, but as with jobs, you try, it’s interesting at the same time, you put it aside and move on. Everything came from real situations and need. As well as wallets – an acquaintance saw them, she says, I wanted one, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. This is how I made the wallet.
Later, while monitoring social networks during quarantine, I saw epoxy resin and found it interesting. I went to a session with one girl because I had specific questions.
And with dotting, mandalas, I don’t know how it turned out, because I never had much patience. Maybe I saw it somewhere too, it turned out nice and it seemed like there were not many of them. I tried it and liked it.
– Mandalas were like meditation? Cultivated patience?
– That geometry was interesting. You have to measure, use a protractor, a ruler, calculate so that the final result is beautiful. I tried to do it at home again, it didn’t come out with paint and I went to the class again, I really liked it, I got a lot of information, I refined the basics.
Later you gain knowledge through practice, but in the beginning it is very useful to learn from others. Before there were more paintings, and then you get infected and look, take a cup and see what you can draw.
Everything becomes a creative basis, it does not settle, you always find new surfaces, new ideas.
– What works have you remembered the most so far, what did you enjoy making the most?
– All are very different, from sewing – purses. I give materials a second chance, I have a box of all kinds of unworn clothes that I use for various jobs.
I like pendants from epoxy the most. I like to do it, I like to get a lot of different patterns. I tried to make a ring, it looked beautiful. Could be combined with jewelry if a second Victoria appeared to help (laughing).
And of the mandalas, in addition to the small products that I give and buy, there is one stuck that hangs at my house. This is a big picture. It has a mandala, and raised edges are made using the 3D technique. It took me about 2 weeks to make.
It was not for nothing that he stayed at home because it was an improvised production. I didn’t have modeling paste, so I looked for how to make it, I found the materials I have at home and then in the evenings I sat with a teaspoon and did (laughing).
I have a very strong desire to have my own space, where I could make a table on a larger scale. I have such a vision.
– Can you now combine programming and creativity to create your own website?
– I wanted to do the page back in January, when I had a gap between works, but, traditionally, I wanted to do something else as well.
There are a lot of decisions that need to be made to make the website user-friendly for making payments. I think it worked out well, now it remains to finish taking pictures and finally let go.
I feel like a one man army (one man army – aut. note). I come up with an idea, I look for ways to implement it. If I need to do Reels, I watch training videos, edit. It happens that the phone freezes and two hours of work disappears. I’m also learning patience here (laughing).
Although I have experience in sales, I find my work very difficult to sell. Perfectionism also helps a lot (laughing).
At one point I thought “oh, there’s nothing to lift, I won’t do it”. Then a girl from work said that she was going to make a newsletter where she wanted to share things not related to work with her colleagues, and suggested that she share about work. Then you called me for an interview and I thought: if it wasn’t for such kicks in the ass, I don’t know what it takes to understand that everything is fine and I can do what I do without being overwhelmed.
– Would you advise others to choose this path?
– One night I was tormented by insomnia and the idea arose that both programming and works appeared through self-searching. It helped me a lot to not be afraid to go where I knew I might not like, because you don’t necessarily have to find what you like. First of all, you can cash out what you really won’t like.
Someone would have told me that you first find out what you don’t like… It’s really important to know what you don’t want to do in order to find your way.
My parents must have been blindsided by my search, because there was a point where I had a stable job offer and the next option was programming courses, which I didn’t know if I would like. In the beginning, the parents were very afraid, but now they are supportive, even though they hardly understand how that programming is going on there (laughing).
– You can see in the eyes that when you talk about work, you don’t look at it as work. Aren’t you tired?
– Yes, it happens that you see that you need to create a business, digitize it, do it to make sales. So it is with a website. It seems like climbing higher. Because until now I have been selling or giving away something that I have already made without orders.
I wouldn’t want to cross the line so that future orders become ones that force you to do rather than feel.
Of course, I really like it when, for example, a woman who collects tabs from Klaipėda applied. It was fun making that order. But everything happens – stress, work, no inspiration.
A friend asked me to make mugs, I’ve been making them for probably two years.
– Aren’t you afraid that after launching the website, bigger orders may start and then you will exceed that limit?
– That release does not come empty handed. There is a base that I made that I can upload so that people can see what I can do if they want to buy something already made. According to the needs, I will see what needs to be produced more and what less.
I don’t know what lies ahead, but for now I’m looking very bright. I think that from all the experiences and jobs I have had, I will be able to control everything. I am boldly going to this stage.
2024-07-14 23:12:14