# Zero to Senior Software Engineer in 3 Years (Her Exact Playbook) | Liana Ramazanova LIVE

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** Amigoscode
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dAs4VZRSjs
- **Дата:** 28.04.2026
- **Длительность:** 1:02:45
- **Просмотры:** 8,408
- **Источник:** https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/51766

## Описание

👉 Land the job. Get the promotion. Become a better dev. https://skool.com/amigoscode-academy

Most engineers take 7–10 years to reach Senior. Liana Ramazanova did it in 3.
She's now a Senior Software Engineer at ABC Fitness — and in this live session she breaks down her exact playbook for accelerating to Senior in the AI era.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
→ The decisions that compounded her growth early on
→ What she studied (and what she ignored) to accelerate
→ How she turned side projects into real career leverage
→ How she uses AI day-to-day to ship faster and learn deeper  without becoming dependent on it
→ What AI actually means for junior engineers right now
→ The mistakes she'd avoid if she had to start over

👉 Land the job. Get the promotion. Become a better dev. https://skool.com/amigoscode-academy

Connect with me
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonamigoscode
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amigoscode
• Twitter/X: https://x.com/amigoscode
• GitHub: https://github.com/

## Транскрипт

### Segment 1 (00:00 - 05:00) []

All right, I think we're live. Um, let's just wait for a second cuz YouTube, I think it starts in 1 minute. — Okie dokie. Salaam alaikum. What's going guys? Welcome to the first guest speakers that we are bringing into the channel. So, this actually is part of the Amigos Code Academy where every single month we want to bring guest speakers to come and talk to us about AI, give us tips and uh how to become, you know, a better software engineer. Today, I'm joined by Liana and uh Liana, she's a software engineer based in the US. And um she was one of my students or still and uh we've met, I think it was probably 4 or 5 years ago. And at that time, actually, we said that we wanted to do something together, you know, to come and talk to you guys. It never happened, but today, uh she's finally here. So, um yeah, so she's going to share how she became a software engineer in about 3 years. Cool. So, um hi Liana, how are you? Hi. I'm great. Thank you everybody for joining. I'm so happy to be here. Awesome. Do you want to introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more about you? Yes. Um my name's Liana. I was born in Uzbekistan. 12 years ago, I moved to United States by myself to pursue my dream. I wanted to get a music degree and I wanted to meet uh my favorite band music band Evanescence. So, um I did both. I met in them and um attended their rehearsal and a concert. And in 2019, I got my music degree. And um here I am in Dallas, Texas. I love my job. I love coding. I love my cats. I'm into dancing and music and even motorcycles. And um yeah, that's it. Awesome. Awesome. So, if you take us back, so how did you went from music degree to software engineering? Great question. — In um 2018, December, I graduated with a music degree. In uh early 2020, um I didn't know what to do. I wanted to challenge myself with something completely new and very interesting. And um just by accident on Facebook, I saw a post somebody asking about programming lessons. And I was like, "Hmm, interesting. " So, I decided to um give a call to a person and we talked, and he became my teacher. His name is Gary. We spend around 10 months together. And he taught me from very, very beginning because I didn't really know how to use computer at that time. Uh since I grew up in Uzbekistan, we didn't really have computers at that time. So, it was a very interesting adventure because it was like from completely zero. And um I felt very challenged and it was extremely interesting, but very tough to be honest. And uh Gary, if you're here, thank you so much. I appreciate your help and uh you played

### Segment 2 (05:00 - 10:00) [5:00]

the most important role in my career. And I'm so thankful to you. So, it took me 10 months before I got my first job. 10 months. So, so 10 months after you studied with Gary. Correct. Yes, we had lessons probably twice a week for about 2 hours each. And I practiced on my own day and night. Like, I spent all my free time coding. And um then I got my first job as a full-stack developer. He taught me. NET, C#, JavaScript, React, Angular, SQL, a lot. — Wow. Uh the list is really long. Wow. So, for 10 10 months, I think that that's quite interesting. So, so I think one of the questions that probably a few people want to know is how was the interview process given that you didn't have a computer science background? — [snorts] — Well, I think it's um I'll be honest, I cried many times during the process because at first I didn't take it very seriously and I even laughed at myself thinking, "Oh my god, I'm going to be a software engineer. This is funny. — I don't know how to use computer. " — [gasps] — And um Gary, he loves so much what he's doing and he genuinely loves um teaching and explaining things and he loves his job and I think it was contagious, that energy and somehow after a few I realized that I'm I love that, too. — It's so cool. It's so challenging and so interesting and it's beautiful in a way. Like I found beauty in it and I know it sounds kind of weird, but it was beautiful for me. All these lines of codes and all these logics and um I think um his energy and his love for coding was so contagious that uh it just somehow I became the same. — So, in terms of the resources, what kind of resources that you used to study? Cuz obviously there's a lot of information and especially um you know, if you applied for a full stack developer, then obviously the amount of knowledge that you need to know is quite a lot. So, Yeah. what were the resources and some of the the topics and concepts that you did focus the most? I mostly followed the uh every lesson that Gary gave me. And I practiced after each lesson, and I made a lot of notes. I even if the lesson was 2 hours or 2 and 1/2, I would really listen every minute of it and make very detailed notes. That was my first resource, my lessons. My second resources were anything that he shared with me, any YouTube channels, anything um any videos, anything any articles, and I would read, watch, and make notes. Always I made thousands of lines of notes, and I would reread them from time to time. I had a schedule uh when I read certain um uh certain articles or watch certain videos, and practice after that. So, my resource is mostly my teacher, anything he shared with me, YouTube at that time was the most popular resource, and I think I have a I had a subscription um for the um I think it was LinkedIn Learning. I don't remember now because it was four over 4 years ago, but um yeah, that was my main resource. Awesome, cool. So, is so if there's someone starting right now, what advice would you give them? Number one, believe in yourself. — Number two, um be very consistent, very consistent. Um meaning practice every day. Even if it's 15 minutes, just practice. You know, don't think like, "Oh, I'm just going to practice once a week for 2 hours. " No, I don't think that works that way. If it's a small amount of time you have, practice every day, and be okay when you get upset or you don't understand something or you think you about to quit. Be okay with that. It's part of the process. And uh learn um basics. Make sure you learn basics and have strong fundamentals. So, I think maybe a question that a lot

### Segment 3 (10:00 - 15:00) [10:00]

of people want to know also is obviously um AI. How would someone leverage AI? Cuz obviously back in the days compare your journey and now I think it's completely different, right? So, today we've got Claude, we've got all of these, you know, AI tools. So, so is there something specific that you'd recommend people doing or add on top of what you just said? When I started learning there was no AI at the time and I'm really happy because that made me learn myself, write code myself, try to understand it myself. — And with some tools, of course, but it wasn't AI and I think it's great. So, I would recommend uh for somebody who just started to actually not use AI much. I'm not saying just don't use it at all, but please learn fundamentals, read and write your code yourself until you feel confident. And of course, after that you can use AI with uh more advanced coding maybe or if you completely don't understand something, but use AI as a tool but not um something that will do things for you when you just begin. I think when you're advanced, uh then you can rely on it more, but still be very um cautious with that. Um, so yes, learn yourself, write code, um, you know, I used to write code on piece of paper. Yeah, just piece of paper board like um, I think it's the most important uh, time, the beginning. — [snorts] — And um, yeah, don't use AI too much. If you just started. Cool. So, in terms of side projects, so as you were learning how to code, is there any project that you said, you know what, this is the one that is going to give me, you know, a good chance of getting a job or a project that you were most proud of? All my projects I did I'm proud of. — I'll be honest about that. I can't really say which one is my favorite. They were all small. I believe in small steps, not big steps. And I wrote many little tiny projects. My teacher at the time told me everything you learn, apply it immediately. Like after a lesson, make sure you sit down and write a little project. It could be very tiny, but do it. And I did that 90% of the time, not 100. — So, please do it 100%. And um, every project I wrote, I tried to understand every little tiny part of it. Not just like, oh, I'm just going to write it real quick and like that's it, I'm going to walk away. I've never done that. I was ex- Every little detail I took, I made notes. I'm crazy about notes. — Even though I think I have a good memory, I still believe in taking good notes. And uh, I can't really say which project was most important one. I think it's like a puzzle. Every little tiny project I made created who I am now as a uh, engineer. And I know some people try to create some huge big project. And like I said, that's not how I work. In my opinion, it's better to practice with small projects. And of course, you know, in time you can build something really big. And when it was time for me to build something big, I was already working for the first company I was hired for. Um so, my side projects were always small enough. Awesome. Okay, so now moving on into your first role. So, you started as a junior developer. Yes. Moved all the way to senior. So, do you want to talk to us uh about that specific journey? So, starting from junior, what was your like what was your life as a junior developer at that time? Horrible. — I'll be honest. I worked uh 9:00 a. m. till 11:00 p. m. every day. Every day, even weekends. Wow. It wasn't required by my job, but I worked on a big project and I did back end and front end. So, I had to study a lot to do it. And I was exhausted. The company I worked for and the team I worked for wasn't really a healthy team, to be honest. It wasn't a very good experience. I mean, it taught me a lot, of course, about communication, bad coding, good coding, but mentally it was

### Segment 4 (15:00 - 20:00) [15:00]

really difficult. I lost 19 lb in 5 months working for this company. It uh I cried a lot. — Cuz it was so difficult to talk to these people, to be part of the team. And um I did not give up for a reason because I felt like uh I won't let them to be so powerful. Um, cuz there were times that I felt like I don't want to code anymore. And I was just a junior and it felt so bad. So, I decided that I can't give them that much of a power and I will learn and I'll continue and when it's going to be right time, I'm going to go and find another job. — [snorts] — So, I spend probably a year and a half uh around that time at this company and closer to the end, it was already much better. Mhm. But, I still didn't feel like it's the place I should be in general and then I had an interview for ABC Fitness and um that's how I started working for this amazing company that I really enjoy working for. My first year at ABC was very challenging, but it was so different because my manager, my coworkers, such an amazing people. I love them. I love them so much. And um I when they hired me, probably around 80% of their requirements of knowledge, I did not know. Like, for example, Java. I was I knew C# at the time, but not Java. So, I bought your course. — That's how it started. And I was like, "Hmm, let me learn Java. " — And little by little, I learned things. I practiced a lot and every morning when I turned on my computer working for ABC Fitness and with my amazing coworkers, I felt great. There was not a single day when I was like, "I don't want to talk to these people. I don't want to work. " I mean, there were days when it's raining and I wanted to watch Tom and Jerry, but — instead of working. I'll be honest, but most of the time I felt really happy to talk to my co-workers, to learn, to um to just uh to just be very helpful with the other projects that they did. For example, some advanced projects. And um I did not chase any titles at the time. I chased knowledge. Knowledge, practice, practice. I didn't think about, "Oh, I want to be senior engineer. " or anything like It wasn't my goal. My goal was to be good at what I'm doing, to be confident, and to learn a lot. And practice my knowledge every day. And um when I was promoted to senior, I'll be honest, it was a surprise. I wasn't I asked my manager three times, "Are you sure? Are you sure? " — It's not because I didn't feel like I don't deserve it. It's because I knew I worked very hard, but I wasn't chasing the title. So, uh it was a big surprise for me, and I'm very thankful, and um it's um yeah, that was an adventure. — So, so if we if you take us back, so in terms of moving from junior to mid, at what point that you feel like now now I I'm considered as a mid-level developer. Uh every day I do my job, I feel like I'm a beginner. I'll be honest, you know. — I changed to feel more confident about what I'm doing, but there's so much to learn that I feel like, "Oh my god, I don't know anything. I don't know anything. " And um the more I learn, the more I realize that I don't know anything. So, I never actually feel like, "Oh, I'm middle level now or I'm senior level now. " I just feel like I need to learn more. And how am I going to do that? find time to do that? And of course, um I noticed how quickly I could um fix certain issues that I couldn't fix, you know, earlier in my career and I felt good about it. I felt like, "Oh, I felt powerful in a way. " But I still felt as a beginner. And um maybe because uh my personality is to learn constantly and I criticize myself a lot that I'm not learning enough, even though I'm just hard on myself, to be honest. So, no, I um even today, I feel beginner

### Segment 5 (20:00 - 25:00) [20:00]

sometimes when I learn something new, I'm like, "Hm, just I'm beginner. " — You're right. There's always something new to learn, isn't it? Especially with software. There's uh yeah, so there's a lot to learn. In terms of AI, so if we switch now a little bit to AI, can you walk us through how you use AI on your day-to-day job? Um good question. I do like AI, but I'm very careful with that because I do not want to be lazy with my work and rely on AI. So, [snorts] I work on legacy code um now, like last couple of months, and uh I use AI to — [gasps] — to analyze code cuz it's thousands of lines and it's not It's a very old code and it's old ASP. And um I'm not going to go into the details of the code itself cuz it's horrible. — So, — [gasps] — but I use Corthor as my tool to analyze code, to make sure I understand details of it, to make certain changes, and but I wouldn't let it but I mean I would always check every change it made. And I prefer to with Corthor I prefer to stay in ask mode so it doesn't make any changes until I switch to agent mode for example. — [snorts] — And so I use AI in a very specific ways, but I do prefer to write my code or if I let AI to write my code, I check every line of code and often very often I make changes. Yeah, I think that's quite that's quite important because So the the danger really when using AI is that you can rely on AI and you know some of these models are quite good. But if you if you're not in a position of making the decisions whether the code is good or not, then you are in danger mode. I agree. — So and I think this is a lot this is what a lot of people misunderstand is that AI you should really use AI and be on the driving seat. Right? So there's plenty of tools, plenty of of processes that we can we can put in place. But ultimately you should have the knowledge to judge whether this change is good or is it going to break in production? Is this migration good? Do I need to do does this change has to be like a two-step migrate release for example, right? Or I need to have a one migration first the second one. So, if you don't have that knowledge, that understanding, then you can be in you know, in in a very sticky situation. Because um yeah, AI is powerful. However, you need to know exactly what what it what is been given to you. And if you don't, then you are in trouble. So, I kind of like that, you know, for you I think it kind of reminds me as well. So, back in the days where I was learning, especially university, I think it was about linked list, for example, or doubly linked list. Every single line mattered. You know, and I had my notepad, you know, writing the code and then boxes, how this node moves to the next one, the connections between, and etc. So, yeah, quite quite insightful. So, in terms of legacy code, what is like to work with legacy code? And actually, what is legacy code for people that don't know what is legacy code? In my experience, legacy code that I'm working with, that I said it's old ASP, and um it's I think it's about 25 years old code, maybe 26, something like that. Horrible, horrible. — Well, um okay, I mean, maybe any other day I'd be a little more positive about it because but since I worked on it last 2 months, and it was a very it wasn't a very difficult process. It was, you know, communication with other teams and um changing the code and testing it, it was a little bit overwhelming. So, my advice is to when you work with legacy code is to eat a lot of ice cream. It really helped me. — [gasps] — Honestly, I was like, okay, I need ice cream. I would go to the store and I'd like good ice cream. I'd buy ice cream and I'd come back and I'd eat work on this code. And then after I finish my day, I eat a lot of

### Segment 6 (25:00 - 30:00) [25:00]

more ice cream. — So, yes, I ate a lot of ice cream in uh this 2 months because legacy code is uh you know, actually I think it's a very good example how maybe not to write a code or um cuz we learn from, you know, bad code, too, not only good code examples, right? And maybe at that time it felt right and I understand it was 25 years ago. But there is still moments and part of the code that is very confusing for no reason even at that time. And organization of the code, you know, it's it it's a disaster in my opinion. — And um just if you overwhelmed by that, have a cup of your favorite coffee, chocolate, ice cream, and um look at it as a challenge and something fun, even though it's maybe not. — [gasps] — But um stay just positive because it really um it's just like sometimes we, for example, we travel to amazing countries and everything is so great and beautiful. Sometimes we travel to places that we may not like. But we still learn something from it and we still feel something about it. So, code is the same, you know. To me, it's a kind of a life in a way even though it's just lines of whatever, right? Um just treat it as an adventure and treat it as a challenge and just enjoy it with your favorite food. — Um in terms of testing testing, which is um something quite interesting, how do you deal with testing on a legacy project or code base? In the case that I'm working on, um there's uh no testing, unfortunately. Well, meaning Let me explain it. All right. — For Well, let me explain it. So, um what's interesting about the project that it's impo- impossible to learn it uh to run it locally. So, I do not know the reasons for it. My coworkers tried, I tried, who knows who other people tried. We just couldn't run it locally. So, any little change I make, I have to copy that code to directly to the server. And then to the dev server, of course, and then I can test my changes. So, — it's very interesting because, you know, can you imagine like you make lots of changes like and then with legacy code, you can't just make a big change and like, "Oh, let me test it. " You have to make little changes and get it to the server, test it, see how it works or it doesn't, and then go back. And um so, for this particular project, testing is a nightmare. — Because uh it's not a modern project that you can easily run locally, debug, do whatever you want, and be ready for dev later, you know, when your testing complete and you're good to go. Have you ever considered it uh starting from scratch? Uh starting from scratch, what? This legacy This legacy project. I did. Actually, my manager asked me um a couple of years ago if uh I'd be interested to rewrite it. At the time, I said, "Yes. " I don't know what changed. Uh I don't think they have a different plan for it now. It's going to I think it's going to go away soon. And it's not going to be part of my project, but uh until it's live, I'm supporting it with my uh co-worker, Jeff. Yeah, it's uh two of us um in the company who support that project until it's going to die. Hopefully soon. — Cool. So, uh let's now move into AI in juniors right now. Mhm. [clears throat] Uh is it is it easier or tougher to break into tech right now? I think it's a bit tougher than it used to be, at least for me 4 years ago. Um I think the requirements are much higher now. And juniors need to learn more than me as a junior needed to learn maybe, you know, 4 or 5 years ago. And uh in general, it's always

### Segment 7 (30:00 - 35:00) [30:00]

difficult to break into something new, especially engineering in my opinion. It takes a lot of energy, consistency. And it takes sometimes a lot of um struggle because people are different. They go through, you know, life obstacles already, and then work, and then something new. And engineering is not easy, you know. Some people think, "Oh, I'm just going to, you know, take the course, and then I'm going to get a job. " It doesn't really work that way, in my opinion. And juniors nowadays have to learn a lot, a lot more than I think I needed to learn four or five years ago. So, but at [snorts] the same time I believe they have more tools than I used to have. So, if they're smart with those tools and AI, I think they you know, they can be very successful. If they'll stay and I think if they believe in themselves, too. Cuz it's important, you know, we uh sometimes fail interviews, right? And then we feel like, "Oh, maybe I'm not good enough. Maybe I don't know enough. " No, you know, just keep going, keep going. And even if you fail 10 interviews or more, don't worry. Do it again and again, again and um one day you'll be successful. Just yes, believe in yourself. Is there anything that you recommend for juniors to do right now? Yes. Um work on fundamentals, number one. Make sure it's not AI, it's you. — Number two, work on your communication skills. I think it's extremely important. Engineers often do not have very good communication skills. And with my interview experiences, a lot of people and managers, they look for communication skills. Um a good personality, too. You know, be a good person. It's important. And make sure you communicate well during your interviews. You know, like cuz I even heard from recruiters, for example, like I had a conversation with recruiter a few months ago and he said, "You know, sometimes I ask people, what do they do at work? " And they're like, "Coding. " So, that's their answer. Like, that's not a good answer. — It doesn't describe your job, I'm sure, even if you're developer. Coding is not the It's does not describe your job. You know, give two or three sentences. Make sure you communicate more about what you're doing, what you're working on. Just I mean, doesn't mean you have to, you know, give a 5-minute speech, but make sure it's not one-word answer. So, fundamentals, very strong fundamentals, and communication. Sweet. In terms of mistakes, um is there anything that you had done in the past that you regret and you you want to pass that message so that the junior today, they don't repeat that same mistake? Absolutely. — Um My teacher years ago gave me advice to spend 15 minutes every day to learn something. For example, I guess learn I'd say practice. For example, writing SQL queries. Like spend 15 minutes a day doing that. And I uh didn't do it. — I mean, I did, but I wasn't very consistent. And I think if I would pick something like writing SQL queries or work on little um projects or solving little issues, um I think I would be much stronger developer right now if I had that consistency. I would be much more dangerous as a developer, I think. And yes, so be very consistent and pick something that you think is important for your career and spend at least 15 minutes just writing it. Like for example, like I said, SQL queries. Just write examples and make sure you understand what you're doing. Um yes, be consistent. Awesome. Cool. Um I think yeah, I think that's pretty much all the questions that I have for you. Mhm. Now, we're going to open uh Q& A. So, I think we have some viewers that they must have some questions. So, if we can bring some questions onto the stage and um let's get the questions from

### Segment 8 (35:00 - 40:00) [35:00]

our viewers. Let's have a look. All right. So, we've got Justin Dreven. Hello guys. Can I ask you that is better Spring Boot or Quarkus for you? What is better? Spring Boot or Quarkus? Spring Boot. I haven't used in my professional career Quarkus. So, of course, Spring Boot. — [gasps] — Yes, um I think you have one of the one of your courses is on Spring Boot, right? I think I've seen that. Yeah. I think it it's really great. It was years ago I watched it, but it's really cool. Awesome. Then we have Sal Saldañes. How much did it cost to have a private teacher like that? Sounds expensive. Um okay. So, at the time I think I paid $50 per hour for a lesson. So, and like I said, I had one hour lesson or two hours lesson. It was uh really it depended on the week. And um I don't think it's expensive. Um right now, it's probably more cuz it it's been 4 years now. But, in my opinion, it's not expensive. It was still cheaper than other fancy courses, like I looked at SMU course that was like $13,000, for example, for 3 months, and they didn't really offer a good um curriculum, in my opinion. So, yeah, I spend probably 55 per hour. Yeah, I think yeah, that that's to be honest, that's quite quite cheap, I'll say, especially when you have the one-on-one mentorship. Um you know, companies in the US, if I'm not mistaken, they charge 15 20,000 or there's a scheme that they take, you know, I don't know, 10% of the salary for how many years. I don't I don't know, but I think that's quite reasonable. We have uh Yusuf Kaya. Uh why isn't she using cloud code? Um well, for my personal experiences, I can, of course. For my job, we have rules what we can or we can't use. And uh our company wants us to use Coursera, and that's why I use Coursera. — Cool. Yeah, that's pretty much standard. Um as a career changer, so this is Magol Magoldin. Magolden. As a career changer, with no internships or professional experience, how do you land a software job? Um so, after around, like I said, eight or nine months of taking lessons, one morning, my teacher called me and said that the company he used to work for needed developer. And he said they will interview you in person. So, that's how I got my first job. I emailed the president of engineering department, and he set up time and day for my interview. I didn't sleep all night. I was writing — [gasps] — a little code examples — on my computer, on my phone, on my piece of paper, you know, and it was I was really nervous cuz it was my first interview ever. Um I drove to the to their office and I had two hour and a half interview with president of engineering department and I was hired immediately. That was my experience. Wow. So on that same question what would you say for someone now? Cuz I think that that was the question that the person was asking. What would you say for that person now? To So without So can we go back to that question? — Yes, please. Which is that question? No, it's not this one. Oh, what would you classify? I think it's a different question now, right? — Yeah, the previous question was someone with no experience, no internship. Mhm. Yes, as a career changer with no internships or professional experience, how do you land a software engineering job today? I think with no internships is very difficult nowadays, so I would advise to try to start with an in internship. Uh my personal experience was different as I described, uh but it may not happen with with you. I would still try because some of the companies they do hire people with no experience, junior engineers. It's just uh probably

### Segment 9 (40:00 - 45:00) [40:00]

much more competitive. So I'd say try both. Get internship and a professional experience and I know people um if for example, my friend, she got her first QA job with no internship or prior experience. So, she just she wasn't um even though she felt not ready, she still applied to many companies and had multiple interviews and one of the company they hired her. So, if you feel that you're not ready, do that. Because we are never ready to do certain things. So, no matter how un- I guess unconfident you are, please try. Learn and try, apply and you'll find what you need. Absolutely, especially where the market right right now is. Yeah, you just have to you just have to, you know, go above and beyond, isn't it? Yes. — As you said before before, you didn't need to know much, but today you just kind of to put in extra work. You know, that's the reality. So, yeah, do you want to say something? No, I'm good. Okay. — All right, so the next question is from Yeah, I don't Dust Cable Mix. What would you classify as fundamentals for beginners? DSA data structures and algorithms or language specific stuff? To me, fundamentals is to understand what variable is, what method is, what class is, what object-oriented programming is. And I'm talking about my personal experience. And it's not that you just watch a video, for example, and create your own example, but you do not know what it is. You don't know, you know, what um um what method is, what's the difference between function and the method. So, no matter which language you learn, make sure you understand what is what. And if you — [snorts] — in the beginning, fundamentals to me is when people when a junior engineers do not use any external libraries. And they write their code itself, even if this if statement this huge, you know, or whatever they do for each. Just write it and understand it how it works before you use any external libraries to make your code cleaner, of course. And, you know, instead of 10 lines of code, you going to have one or two, right? So, write logic yourself. That's fundamentals to me. Before you use any cool tools, anything, any external libraries. Yeah, I think the classic one is not using Spring Boot. Yep. — Right? So, you know, you understand dependency injection. Yeah. How would you write a dependency injection framework, for example? Yeah. Or do you understand how to use raw JDBC, for example, right? So, back in the days where we didn't have Spring Boot. Um, how would you connect to a database, you know? Advancing the cursor and and pulling data from each row. So, being able to write software without the aid of any frameworks or tools or libraries. Yeah. I think that's what you mean as as the fundamental. — Fundamentals, yes. Correct. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Cool. Then, we have um, I think it's Fred Little. Uh, do you think it's best to learn as someone that has been coding for a while by having a project and learning the framework as you build along the way? Project on the way. I think by having a project because even if it's like I said in my examples, if it's a small project um anything you build yourself is the process of learning. Even there were times when I'd start a project in my examples and I would absolutely hate what I did and I would completely erase and start over. Write your own projects and don't stop. Do not delete bad examples like I did because you can go back and say, "Oh, yeah, I did this or I did that. " And see make a list of um how you grow in your knowledge um and your knowledge expand because you

### Segment 10 (45:00 - 50:00) [45:00]

can notice it if you look at bad examples you wrote, I think. I was really like mad at myself and I was working and building my projects, you know, and I'd delete them. Don't do that. — Go back and learn from your own mistakes. And yes, by having projects Awesome. Then we have Mati Mati, sorry, I'm really bad with names. I think these are like uh not real names. So, the hardest part is to get the first interview. You apply 100 jobs on LinkedIn, only one of them returns even if your CV is ATS compatible. How can I increase this? That's a very difficult question and to be honest, in my career, I had only four interviews. Mhm. And uh and two of them I said yes and accepted offer. And um — [snorts] — probably luckily I didn't have a difficult path that I had to send, you know, 50 my resume to 50 companies and hear nothing back. So, I do believe it's probably very discouraging and upsetting for a person who is doing that, but it doesn't decrease the value and the knowledge of that person because nowadays a lot of companies use AI to go through resumes and you know, they may not even check your resume. So, please don't be upset and keep going. I do not have a perfect answer to this question because I personally did not have that experience. But, keep going and um stay positive and um practice no matter what. — Yeah, actually within our academy, um we have a student called Yusuf. Mhm. Telling me, "Oh, Nelson, do you know what? There's no jobs. Like I have applied to all of these jobs. Like there's no jobs. " I said, "You haven't You haven't done this. " So, we've done a tweak on the process on a as well as on the CV. Mhm. And he's just been getting now interviews, right? So, sometimes it's not just so much about the number of jobs that you apply, but is the is using the right strategy. So, there's even someone called Lil, part of the academy as well. And um he used to be an interviewer I think interviewer for interview for Google employees, I think if I'm not mistaken. And he said that there's tricks cuz you said nowadays there there's AI, right? So, they filter the CVs. I think there's a trick there's a trick, but — Mhm. don't you don't use or use this with caution, but there's a trick where you can put you can inject a prompt onto your CV Mhm. and then change the color to white. And then and then say, you know, pa- like send this CV to the next round. Mhm. All right. That's interesting. — But it's very it's invisible to the human eye. But the AI will pick that up and then just send the person to the next round. Right? — Wow. So there's many things that you can do actually. And um yeah, so for that person, if you want to find out, just let us know and then we can give you some more tips, yeah? Then we have Ahmed. Ahmed, did you figure out which area of software engineering you wanted to go into? For example, web development, back end, or mobile apps? I personally prefer back end. Um I did full stack for some time and sometimes I do front end nowadays at uh the current company I'm working for. But um honestly, when we have any new project coming, I never ever say no to it, no matter how confusing or bad it is or it's whatever it is, because I look at it as a great opportunity to learn. Um but I personally prefer back end. Sweet. Same here. I prefer back end developers. That's my area. Um we have uh Mr. Yusuf Mohammed Yusuf Kaya. Where does she see software developer roles in the next 3 to 5 years? Will AI take over? — [snorts] — Oh, what a great question. — I thought about it. I even had conversations with um my co-workers about it. Mhm. [clears throat] I don't believe that in 3 or five years AI will take over. I think no matter how smart it is nowadays and

### Segment 11 (50:00 - 55:00) [50:00]

I'm sure it's going to improve itself, it's still not a human being. And it's still not as smart as we are. — I do believe in that and it probably Unfortunately, I think some of the engineers will lose their jobs because it feels to me like companies right now want to use AI more and more so they can ship products faster and they may not need as many engineers as they have right now. So they can pay and spend less money. So it's um it's a really tough question because I think if you want to still have a job in three to five years you got to learn AI. And make sure you know how to use it and be very like My teacher used to say to me know enough to be dangerous. So yes, when it comes to AI know enough to be dangerous or even more than that because I unfortunately feel like we are as an engineers maybe uh some of us may lose our jobs because of it. But I'm not certain on that and it's a bit upsetting to me because I see so many I know so many hard working engineers and it breaks my heart to think that AI one day will just take over and people will lose their jobs. Very open-ended question and answer as well. We have um Yeah, we have someone asking, "As companies move from lead code style interview to AI pair programming, debugging AI mistakes and system design, what should candidates focus on most to stand out? " During interview process, I think what helps is to communicate to the interviewer about your AI knowledge. Because I noticed like I had a few interviews, they really want you to know AI. They want you to talk about your any AI projects you use or anything related to it. And as much as I disagree with part of it, I think it will help you to get a job. And as I already said, I'll repeat it again, make sure you have a good communication skills. As a person who you know, who had interviews or interviewed people, that's the first turn off for me when people do not know how to communicate. They answer questions in a full sentence. So, yeah, AI and communication. Yeah, I would I would say like for this particular person, just make sure you understand AI AI foundations, right? So, you understand what is context, context engineering, prompt engineering, uh understand MCPs, understand AI agents, uh cool tool calling, and um how do you orchestrate um all of these agents together? Make sure that you know how to build skills. And yeah, it's just like knowledge in terms of how how can you build software in the best manner possible to deliver to production for example. Can you able to judge and understand how some of these tools will help you to speed up your workflow. Yeah. So, yeah, I'll say I'll say that and especially if you don't have commercial experience, it can be tougher for you to have some of these things to learn some of these things. But AI foundations which I'm actually going to release a video on YouTube about MCPs and all of these things. Very — that's wonderful. Cool. So, we have I think we'll take two more questions. Um Oh, there's a question for me actually. Regarding the current job market in the key for Java developers, specifically junior to mid developers, should a person focus more on DSA as you say or framework specific? Um So, it really depends on your Yeah, specifically for junior to mid-level roles. Um what I would say is

### Segment 12 (55:00 - 60:00) [55:00]

So, today you need to know a lot more than what we used to know before. So, I would say make sure you know your your lead code DSA. So, companies are still asking for it, right? So, that could that would be the first screening process. Usually, you talk to recruiter. Then they send you lead code question. And then from that lead code question, you go into, you know, maybe a pair programming interview where they ask you to implement maybe a rest endpoint. And then within that rest endpoint, they want to see how do you think you're able to write the controller, the services, are you thinking about tests, etc. Um but what I would say is for someone who's junior mid, you just have to diversify your yourself. Right? So don't just be someone that thinks, oh, I only know Java or I'm a Java engineer. No, you should be an an engineer. You should be able to language is just a tool. Right? You should be an engineer who's able to take an idea all the way to production. Right? So when I mean production here, I mean even if you, you know, rent a server, an EC2 server from Amazon. I do you understand what is the process of you taking whatever project, whatever API that you build all the way to production. You know, building the back end, doing the CICD, configuring the infrastructure within the cloud provider, Docker, Kubernetes. Um and then obviously, um for interviews also, depending on the level, system design. Uh we actually had um one of our students, she recently got job in Germany. And um the main reason so she she was a bit more senior, but with her, they actually focused a lot on on the first stage would be um talking to the manager, so the hiring manager. Then it would be lead code. And then she had also some pair programming, but also system design. Right? So yeah, it's a bit um yeah, I know I know it sound it's it seems it seems a lot, but it it is what it is. I agree. is and we have to work harder. And um yeah, so there's many things that we could do, you know, we could use AI to learn. All right? So you could actually use AI to help you learn all the all of these processes. You know, as Diana said, you know, you could use AI to help you. You know, I wish I had AI back in the days. — Well, actually I didn't because back in the days was was fun. Was very fun, you know. You are stuck in a problem and you just thinking about it and then you discuss with your mates. Yeah, and you can't sleep. — Yeah, [gasps] — You can't sleep. And then middle of the night you're like, "Oh crap, yes. I know the solution. " I did that. — It happens to a lot of us. But yeah, yeah, just yeah, AI is a tool that you should use to your advantage, especially for learning as well. Yeah, yeah, so if you if you are not someone who actually wants to use AI also, what I'll say is so courses are still very valuable, but also what is popular these days is being part of communities, right? Where you have people that are on the same boat as you and both of you are driving the same [snorts] result, right? So, if someone gets a job, then you get inspiration from that. You know, moments where you're down, then you get inspirations from from being around a community. Yeah, I think we had one last question from someone and then I think we'll close the stream. Anyone else? Yeah. Would you advise someone to pick up back end, front end, devops, or learn a bit of everything? I would advise to pick up back end and front end first. And learn both if possible. Because I think it will give you more opportunities to get a job, in my opinion, when you know both back end and front-end, uh I wouldn't concentrate on DevOp DevOps in the beginning at all, especially with AI right now that is actually taking a lot of DevOps jobs. So, yes, back-end and front-end. Right. I'll say I I'll say So, I've got a different view on that. I would say I'll say pick back-end and DevOps. Mhm. Yeah. But, I'll I'll leave your answer there. — If you want to work for a fintech company, what skills should I focus on?

### Segment 13 (60:00 - 62:00) [1:00:00]

Are microservices important to master? Um microservices are extremely important, I think. So, that's a good question. And um fintech company, I think concentrating on microservices probably number one. And um I'm not sure what could be a little more important than that at this point. So, microservices, master that. Write examples. Learn. Now, I'll I'll add one on top of it. Just just be an engineer. — Yeah, that's a good one. Just be an engineer. Someone that can tackle any It doesn't really matter if it's microservices, whatever that might be. You can tackle those. All right, cool. So, um for someone watching uh today, what is the one thing that they should act? Mhm. Remember, the obsta- the obstacle is not the path, the hesitation is. And just keep going and don't stop. Believe in what you're doing. Engineering is extremely fun. And I agree with Nelson B part of community. I think it's going to help you in your journey and um don't um don't spend your time on uh thinking you're not good enough. Spend your time on thinking you'll be where you want to be. It's just going to take time and consistency. Awesome. Um and then the last one for you, if people want to follow you what is the best place? LinkedIn or Facebook. Both. Um yeah, I'll be happy to stay in touch and if you guys have any questions, feel free to connect on LinkedIn or find me on Facebook. I'm there and um I'm happy to share more information or help you guys if you need my help with anything. All right, Leanna. Thanks a lot for doing this. Uh it was very uh insightful and um beneficial to every single one of us. Thank you. — um yeah, this is pretty much it guys. Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you on the next guest speaker event. So for now Bye.