Aged 21 and studying at university, Krasimir Etov decided to join Telerik Academy Alpha .NET to attain the coding and soft skills companies demand and land his first job in IT. Less than a month after graduating from the program, he jumpstarted his career as a Junior Software Developer at Fourth – a leading provider of cloud-based forecasting and cost control software for the hospitality industry and a Telerik Academy partner.
Participating in a life-changing tech-ed program
Krasimir eagerly shares that joining Telerik Academy Alpha was a life-changing decision for him. The program was recommended by a friend and quickly became the ultimate source of knowledge, expertise and experience he needed to become a .NET developer.
“The training provides the necessary knowledge and experience, so people with no IT background could quickly jumpstart their careers. I know this for a fact. The technical and soft skills I acquired in just 6 months helped me achieve that and be truly efficient at work.”
After graduating from the program, his life has changed tremendously. Krasimir is now financially independent and has new friends who are also part of the IT industry and stay closely connected while helping each other.
“Landing an IT job and being independent was important to me and accomplishing that feels great. I can proudly say that Telerik Academy has been one of my best investments so far.”
Krasimir appreciates highly every aspect of the hands-on program – especially the experience he gained while participating regularly in teamwork projects.
“To be honest everything learned in the Academy I use on a daily basis. The curriculum is structured in such a way that it meets all employers’ demands. Also, team work was something we needed to be good at in order to succeed. Now this is helping me tremendously at my job.”
Meeting his future employer during the training
Krasimir had the opportunity to learn more about Fourth for the first time during one of the partner presentations in front of the entire .NET cohort. He was impressed by Fourth’s expertise, and he immediately knew he wanted to work there.
“Fourth is operating in a very interesting industry– hospitality is a challenging business where you can see tangible results. I also like the products the company develops and the tech stack they use.”
Today, Krasimir is part of the Data & Services team at Fourth, where he participates in the development and delivery of high-quality software. From working on a microservice-based platform and exploring new approaches to different scenarios to learning new technologies every day, he finds his responsibilities both dynamic and satisfying.
“I enjoy the opportunity to work both on the back-end logic (.NET) and front-end visualization (MVC, Angular) tasks. This is providing diverse exposure and great skillset which is valuable in our sector.”
But it’s not only the technology aspect of his job that makes Krasimir go to work with excitement every day. His colleagues, the company culture and atmosphere are even more important to him.
“At Fourth I met very experienced and positive people willing to help and share their knowledge. Alongside the great office space, I must say that it is a cool place to work, grow and have fun.Our break-out zone is amazing: you can relax playing billiard, foosball or with the PlayStation. I particularly enjoy the Friday after-work drinks in the office and the regular team events the company organizes.”
Advice to the next cohort of Telerik Academy Alpha students
“Give your best, learn, try and experience with new things every day. Don’t be afraid to share the knowledge you’ve gained with others. Also, don’t give up if training sometimes gets a little hard or intensive, that is the right way to success.”
Ready to start creating your own success? Join the next Telerik Academy Alpha program.
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