I started the program in February of 2021 and finished my studies in March of 2022. Then I landed my first developer job in May.

It all started with a facebook group, where inexperienced moms, like me, ask other moms for advice. I was on maternity leave and as I opened Facebook out of boredom

I came across a message from one of the group members about a Java programming school. Before coming to Korea I had thought about studying programming, but back then, after looking at a number of programs and schools, I never ended up doing it.

Firstly, I did not have much free time. Secondly, I didn't like the reviews I found on the Internet. There were no employment guarantees, so I didn't see the reason to pay for information that would be useless later. Thirdly, those courses were rather expensive, so they would hit my finances rather noticeably. In addition, many advised against working, only to study.

Perhaps not everyone will understand, and some mothers will judge me for saying this, but during the maternity leave I began to degrade mentally. My memory became worse and, in general, intelligence too. The financial situation was not getting any better either, as in Korea, as you might know, if you are not earning money, you need to save on everything, and therefore many newly mothers go back to their country for 2-3 years after childbirth.

When I saw Habsida's recruitment ad I thought that soon I will need to go to work, back to the factory ... and that I've been in Korea for five years and my health is not going to be eternal to work in factories … I do not want to speak badly about working in Korea, after all, this country gave so many of us an opportunity to come and earn decent money, but this type of labor affects health very quickly …

All these thoughts flashed through my head and I started searching for information about the Java Mentor school (now Kata Academy) on the Internet, because I saw it on the Habsida website. I thought: "Now, as always, I'll find bad reviews and find out what kind of a school they are!". But, to be honest, I didn't find any bad reviews. On the contrary, everything was very transparent, I could write directly to the Habsida graduates who were employed. So I asked my husband's opinion, and he said that I should give it a try.

I wrote to Habsida, and they answered me with an email containing information about the test exercise and links with information for those, who, like me, know nothing about programming. The exercise required to write a program for the console calculator. The word 'console' didn't mean anything to me, so I just made a graphical 'shell' of the calculator according to a template from the textbook, which I downloaded online from the link provided, and submitted it. Of course, they did not accept my 'decision' and asked me to do it again.

I obviously lacked knowledge, so I decided to take a beginner Java course with a mentor from Java Mentor, which cost 300,000 Korean won. My advice to newbies with limited finances would be to just take a similar course on Stepic - although there is no mentor, it's free :).

During the day I took care of the baby and household chores, and after she fell asleep for the night, I would sit at my old laptop and slowly build my calculator. By the way, when I asked if a weak laptop would be suitable for studying, they told me not to worry as it is possible to code even in a memo pad, so do not worry if you don't have a new computer, but I'd say it is rather better to have a more powerful device. My tip number two - do worry! Because you will be coding in a framework that my old laptop with 4GB of RAM pulled very slowly. During the pre-project and project, after installation

of all databases (MySql, PosgreSQL, LiquiBase) generally it would freeze for 30 minutes, so sometimes I would fall asleep and wake up at my laptop with a stiff neck. In general, it was a pain to wait until SpringBoot starts up or the page with BootStrap loads. Buying a new laptop was out of the question at that time, so I just continued to do it with the old one. Writing the calculator at night took me a month, and I would catch up on sleep during my daughter's daytime sleep. It was not possible to practice every day, as one-year-old babies sometimes cry at night as well.

If someone asked me why I chose Habsida, I would say that the main reason is their post-payment policy and employment guarantee - in case you can't get hired, you don't have to pay anything. During my studies, my brain began to work actively again and it was an outlet from my newly-mother's routine.

Of course, not all of it was easy. I had to sleep very little, I did not always have a quality feedback

communication from the mentor, there were disagreements with other students ... so, my studies dragged on: instead of 6 months, I studied, with breaks for family

circumstances, for more than a year. Honestly, sometimes it was very hard, both mentally and physically, but I remembered the signed contract, so I kept going as best as I could. I reminded myself why I got into all of this - for the sake of the opportunity to change my job and not do hard 3D (Dirty, Dangerous, Difficult) manual labor. Thank you very much to Vladi and his team for not expelling me and giving me the opportunity to finish my studies.

The most difficult stage for me was the pre-project. I remember getting stuck with one error in the HTML and I couldn't see it. I almost despaired, and I thought how wonderful it would be if the mentor could point his finger and say: "This is where we need to fix it!". Instead I was told to find the error

on my own, which I eventually did. But now, I will be more careful with HTML tags and will not put two <form> tags in a row.

The project was also not easy, but very interesting. It was a team project on Gitlab and my first time seeing such a large repository.

The tasks were mostly on the backend and one on the frontend. I had to tinker with the frontend, but it was possible to see how the project was built in general, learn new things and apply this knowledge to my task.

I also had to adjust to Moscow time. While my daughter was watching cartoons, I handed in reviews or sat on phone calls on the project. Sometimes I had to hand over the review with my kid loudly shouting directly into the microphone. When I was too tired and I wanted to quickly hand over my work or review, I would use this to my advantage. When they heard my kid with me, they just accepted my work quickly and did not look for faults.

Tip number three - plan your free time. If you have been sitting at it for 4 hours and it's not working, then it's better to get distracted by another task or ask for help. During the project, I did not sleep for 2 days due to one task on the frontend and nearly set the kitchen on fire. Luckily, my husband was there to put out the fire.

Most of all, I remember the reviews on Java Core, which I took together with students from other countries. It was really interesting and a lot of what was taught stuck in my memory.

After the project, I began to prepare for employment directly with the Habsida team. I want to say that they worked on my CV really professionally, especially in Korean (which is basically the most important thing in Korea). They also helped me write a resume in English, although I didn't need it that much during my job search. They also helped me prepare for the interviews in Korean and English. I have an intermediate Korean level (3급) and in general I translated my information through Google translator and then sent it to Habsida, where they helped to correct the information. As a result, I passed three interviews. For the first interview, the employer himself even came to my workplace and interviewed me during my lunchtime. One was held by phone in English, and one more in Korean in person. I also was invited for a fourth interview, but I was no longer able to go, as I have already started at my new job. The first three months are a trial period with a payout of 90% of the salary (at first they wanted to make it 70%, but according to Korean law, they cannot pay less than the minimum wage). My mother is even more happy than me for this journey.

The last tip: if your dream is to become a developer and work in IT, start making your dreams come true. First you might need to code a calculator.