|
 |
Dmitry Prokopenko, Programmer
What I like about my job:
"It's exciting to work with latest/greatest software, something new that nobody seen yet, and
I have. It makes me feel proud to be part of development/testing of this new software, because of my
input. It makes me so proud to say that I worked on this; this is how it looks because I suggested
that or came out with this idea. Or I found all these bugs that were fixed."
How did you get into the field?
"It all started when I was in high school and my interest in computers came from puzzle/strategy
games. At the time I didn't have computer and couldn't afford one, so I would stay almost
everyday after school to play on computer. It wasn't just games, I was learning DOS on my own,
windows 3.1 and a whole lot about hardware. Later I bought my first computer it was IBM 286 with
monochrome display, 5.25 disk drive and 10mb hard drive, but I was so excited. It was the excitement
to explore new things to learn something new. I remember I was taking typing and I was taking drafting
on computer, but while I was in class I didn't care about typing or drafting I always tried to
break in to things where I wasn't allowed and I did, I cracked the password algorithm and with
that I was able to figure out everybody's passwords. It felt so good that I accomplished something
big, it was never my intention to do any harm, it was for the reason to see what can I do. I had big
passion to learn about computers and after high school I went to college. But I would say that I
learned more on my own then in college. I had fellow students with me who finished college and still
didn't know much, because they didn't have the desire to learn, they were there just to get
their diploma. It surprised me so much when I would come up to some students after they completed
their assignment and ask them to show it to me and they couldn't. And these were "A" students.
After college when I had first job in computer field, I was computer technician, I always tried to
learn about the latest products that came out, always had the interest in latest and greatest
technology. After I got my fist computer as soon as I had some money I kept upgrading my computer
with faster CPU, better video card, latest CD-R. I only slowed down in the last couple years because
hardware technology got so ahead of software, that you would no longer need top of the line computer
to run latest games or programs."
What do you think it takes to be successful in this field?
"A suggestion to students who want to be successful, and want to pursue their career - you need to
have desire to learn, that's the first thing, the rest will follow." |