As I went to work as a programmer in Sweden (Part 1)

Introduction h4> I develop applications for the iOS platform for more than 3 years. As it turned out in the "decadent" West profession is in demand and important. So that foreign employers are willing to invite workers from abroad, including from Russia.

The first proposals for an interview on the iOS Developer position in foreign companies started coming about two years ago through LinkedIn. After consulting with his wife, we concluded that it is possible to try to work abroad. Country suitable for emigration, has been recognized by the United Kingdom.

For emigration to the United Kingdom, there are several ways, however, the only suitable option for us was visas for skilled workers (the so-called Tier 2 (General) visa). The essence of this visa requirement is to ensure that the newly immigrant must have a job offer from a UK employer (job offer), money to work for the first time (£ 945 + per employee at £ 630 for each remaining member of the family - at the time of my study of this the question may now have other figures), a document on the knowledge of the English language, as well as (and this is crucial!) - the desire and ability of the employer to make the British worker Certificate of Sponsorship
About a year left to prepare and obtain Cambridge certificate CAE , which is sufficient documentation to support English language skills. After it is received in early 2014 started the active phase of your job search.

Job in the UK h4> In the period from January to June 2014 I sent / responded to the vacancy in the UK recruitment site about 150 times. I meticulously document all contacts, so as not to be applied to the same position more than once. Approximately every 5-8 response I received feedback in the form of a call recruiter. Yes, it is a call. British recruiters like to call. Or write to e-mail or contact via Skype, no. They love to call.

In 4 cases out of 5 call came down to talk in style:

Recruiter: Hello, (blah blah blah) i>, tell me, what do you do now?
I: tell, where, by whom, and how much I work i>
Recruiter: And do you have the right to work in the UK?
I: Unfortunately, I need a Certificate of Sponsorship.
Recruiter: (disappointed) i> Ahh ... you know, unfortunately the employer does Sponsorship, but I'll try to find you another job. Goodbye!

I think, too write that more of these recruiters I've heard nothing.

After about 5 months of active search (in May 2014), it became clear that the approach to responding to job search and recruiters involved in the selection of developers for mobile platforms for UK i> of the market does not work. After a series of strategic meetings in the second half it was decided to expand the geography of search. List of countries suitable for emigration besides the UK, has been expanded to neighboring Ireland and the Netherlands, as well as friendly now for all tech-savvy professionals in Germany.

Ireland, the first call h4> To Ireland, I went similar to the British way: Register on the main sites rekrutinovyh agencies, placed there resume and began to respond to the announcement. In total, I responded about 30 vacancies. Feedback did not exist.

The answer came when I was contacted by a recruiter girl working in Ireland, but originally from Romania. She suggested that the Irish recruitment agencies through websites looking for in the first place people eligible to work in Ireland. To me, as a citizen of Russia, it is necessary to do a job offer, it's a long time (it may take several months) and expensive (the employer when applying pay 1,000 euros). Therefore, no one was interested in my person. Also look for the girl advised the employer directly and not through rekrutinovye sites and recruiters.

Search for Irish employers directly was not as easy as it may seem at first. Nevertheless, I was able to arrange an interview at the company dealing with booking of hostels. But here I was a little ahead of myself.

Active British recruiters h4> About the same time with the beginning of the search for the extended list for me came from the British girl Ellie recruiter. The first telephone conversation with her (like the British call, remember?) Lasted nearly half an hour. In fact, at that time, for me it was already quite normal length of conversation, some comrades and talkative longer able to torture me about my experience, achievements and aspirations. In general, I did not attach much importance conversation. As it turned out, in vain.

Maid grabbed my grip, which would have envied the English bulldog (for which she, by the way, my many thanks). I still do not know why: whether it worked for some of his instructions for the candidates, whether she realized that I was with my experience will be able to someone favorably "sell».

She immediately warned that its company specializes in continental Europe, ie no UK and Ireland. The choice had several positions in Germany and one in Sweden. From my own experience, it is recommended to have an interview at all positions. Germany was extended in our list, so the German positions, I agreed immediately.

Sweden was, as they say, "to the heap." Seriously move to Sweden I was not going, but to talk to additional experience interviewing in English is always helpful. So I agreed and the Swedish position.

Germany h4> Positions in Germany was three.

The first was in Yelp . Head office in their California, working in California and Hamburg. Interview them took place in two stages:

1. First, a conversation on Skype with their HR-specialist, a story about himself, his work. Next, a brief set of several questions to weed out unsuitable candidates at all. Questions I answered, apparently, is not it, because at the end of the survey, I was informed that I was in the second round and then I will take a technical interview with a leading developer of iOS.

2. Technical interview took about a week and a half. At 10 am California time (9 pm GMT). The story of his experiences, completed projects, questions and answers about ARC, manual memory management. Next, write a method, deploy a linked list in some online text editor with the ability to edit the code by both participants interview. The list is not fast, but successfully deployed, promise to be contacted after a while.

A few days later Ellie told me that Yelp prefer to take the position of a person with extensive experience in iOS-development. Well to do, it happens sometimes.

The second position was the position in the company, engaged in the development of joint services for travel (so-called Carpool) and is located in Munich. First, I spoke with the head of mobile development, which was quite nervous German. This fellow was very nervous, spoke in English with a strong German accent, and I got the impression that he felt even more insecure than I am. :) Plus, he said that at present the development of a mobile version of the product is considered to be a priority and it is planned to direct all our efforts.

Standard questions: How much am developing which projects done, etc. After this interview was scheduled technical interviews with leading iOS-developer company. This fellow was Romania, with experience in the development, smaller than me. During the conversation with him, I learned a lot of amusing details on how to construct their product. I also learned that before the start of product development within the company, he did consulting firm (this approach is then not just once or twice I met a few other interviews, from which I concluded that this practice is very popular in Europe), and at the time product developed interview this guy and a team of four Moldovans to outsource. In addition, I clearly realized that my experience with his head enough to work in this company.

Morale to go to Munich after a technical interview, I was surprised and dismayed to learn in a few days from Ellie that the management of the company decided to once again change the strategy of product development, and again gave the development of the company. The fate of the Romanians and Moldovans accident remained unknown to me. I think the first left to supervise the work of third-party developers, and the last was fired.

The third position was the German in Berlin startup, makes another killer Google. These comrades were sent before the interview test task, which consisted of three tasks of increasing complexity, which had to be done for a limited time at a special service, the name of which I again can not remember. I do not know what these comrades sought in the first place: if they wanted to applicants to do more tasks on their own, only relying on the knowledge of rare algorithms, or to find a way to solve the problem in the same Google. I first decided to challenge myself, the second and third solutions found in Google (as ironic, is not it?). Intelligible feedback from them has not come, I would suggest that they hired someone who solved all problems himself.

Swedish version h4> Option from the Swedes, again, I do not not considered a priority.

At first there were a few video calls on Skype with at least four different personalities: the two co-founders of the company (one of them in combination is the CEO), product manager, and leading iOS-developer. All of these persons were very welcoming friendly people, which was quite easy to communicate.

Interviews themselves were as follows. Co-founders were interested in experience in general, completed projects, communicated sufficiently abstract topics, talked about the company. The purpose of communicating with me they put not so much an assessment of my professional skills as how well I enter in the existing team.

Product Manager interested in about the same issues as the co-founders, but in addition to this interest in the technical details of iOS-projects in which I took part: what technologies we used on the client and on the server, how to implement data transfer between clients and servers, etc. Etc..

IOS-leading developer asked mainly about technical knowledge, including (but not limited) memory management - MRR, and ARC, knowledge of specific frameworks, work with iTunes Connect, Provisioning Portal, etc. After a technical interview, which lasted about 30 minutes, I was sent a test task - to write a small application that works with the API of some existing service search words lyrics.

Assigned to the task about a week. In parallel, I had another test task, like the character, but I do not remember from whom exactly. I had to sit pretty in the evenings after work and on weekends to catch everything. "Helped" also that ill-fated API service smacked data as XML, and generated badly configured server production Microsoft. Since the use of third-party XML parser under the terms of the problem was undesirable, I spat scary. By the way, the leading developer of iOS-still apologizing for the «crappy API», says he has not worked with them personally, like task related topics to give. :)

Technical solution to the problem people really liked it, I began to wait for the decision about the job offer-a. My friend hr-manager Ellie had already replaced her boss (apparently standard practice in the final stages of the transaction, he has more experience - higher the probability that the transaction will not break) Matthew. Matthew kindly informed that the Swedes in general, there are only two candidates: I and another friend who was "well, just no." Matt therefore recommended stocking champagne and wait offera. I am given the previously accumulated experience, was skeptical.

And then it is time once again to talk about the Irish ...

But this - in the second part of the post .

Source: geektimes.ru/post/242933/