29.02.2016

IT Career Fair at the National Mining University

"Build a successful career in IT» - under such motto on February 23rd took place the event for students of Electrical Engineering and Information Technologies Faculties of the National Mining University with the biggest Ukrainian employer in the IT sector – SoftServe company.

The event was held with support of Women Techmakers Ukraine and Google Developers Group Dnipropetrovsk communities and active participation of Kseniia Shumelchyk (Women Techmakers Ukraine coordinator, Google Anita Borg Scholar 2015), Kseniia Benkler (HR/Marketing Specialist at SoftServe), Roman Herasymenko (Google Developer Expert, GDG Dnipropetrovsk co-organiser) and Dmitry Petin (curator of SoftServe IT Academy).

Let us also note that the meeting in National Mining University was devoted to the birthday of famous American computer scientist Doctor Anita Borg and was the part of a global event series around the world named Anita Borg Celebrations and supported by Google company. The main goal of event series - engage students interested in the IT industry, inspire them do creative stuff and increase the visibility of female leaders working in computer science area.

The agenda this year has been focused not only on software engineering roles but also covered such professions as quality assurance engineer, project manager, product owner, business analyst and designer.

Students of National Mining University listened to Kseniia Shumelchyk's presentation with great interest, where she shared information about trends in IT sphere for the current year. Kseniia told about the peculiarities of software engineering, technologies that are popular and gaining momentum in commercial projects. Essential component of her presentation was the information about international programs for students in the computer science field such as the Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship, Google Summer of Code and GNOME Outreach Program that allow working on open-source projects during summertime, Google Conference and Travel Grants, internship opportunities in giant corporations, such as Google, Facebook and Microsoft.

We emphasize that every interested student learned how to prepare and submit an application to listed above programs, as well as learned how to improve their technical and soft skills to comply with IT market requirements.

What are the prospects awaiting those students who choose SoftServe company after graduating? This question was answered by Kseniia Benkler and Dmitry Petin. In particular, they told about the possibilities of building an own career within huge IT company, because SoftServe is one of the biggest IT employer in Ukraine and recognized as the best company in 2015 year, according to the DOU edition (http://dou.ua/lenta/articles/ratings-2015 -summary/).

Kseniia Benkler presented various opportunities for employees such as business trips to U.S. or Europe, attending the international conferences, the ability to choose projects inside a company and always create great stuff that matters. Dmitry Petin as a curator of SoftServe IT Academy told how to pass through the selection at free IT - courses and in further receive the first job. He clearly underlined advantages of teamwork, the difference between the different directions and technologies in the software development.

Also, all event participants were able to get gifts from the partners - SoftServe and Google companies and Women Techmakers Ukraine, GDG Dnipropetrovsk communities.

The meeting ended with the announcement of contest winners and awarding them. After final part, everyone got acquainted with modern devices - smart watches Moto 360 and virtual reality Google Cardboard.

In the opinion of students of National Mining University, the organizers did not let anyone get bored, because the presentations, contest, and gadget-time was totally engaging. The participants were fully involved in interactive discussions and gadget demonstrations, so in the result, the event turned out incredibly informative and inspiring!

Julia Grin, student of KNit-12, Bogdan Fedorov and George Krivoguzenko students of KNit-S-14-2, NMU