"My career began at the age of 19 at Kaspi.kz," says Nazarbek Aueskhan, AI engineer, about starting his career in IT.

An AI engineer from Kazakhstan shared insights about his first job and offered several tips for those seeking employment in the IT sector.

Nazarbek Aueskhan, city — Almaty, AI Engineer, Instagram, Linkedin

About himself

I was born and raised in Kyzylorda. In 2014, I graduated from the Kazakh-Turkish Lyceum and enrolled at SDU University majoring in "Information Systems." Four years of intensive study were well spent, and in 2018, I graduated from the university with honors, already having achieved early successes in IT.

My interest in exact sciences and computers arose in childhood. I always loved tackling complex problems, and this passion gradually evolved into a deep enthusiasm for IT.

Currently, I work remotely for the American company Monosoft as an AI Engineer. My work involves developing and implementing computer vision solutions, as well as integrating large language models into various projects. This is an exciting field where every day brings new challenges and discoveries.

About my first job in IT

My career began in 2017 at Kaspi.kz, Kazakhstan's largest FinTech company, when I was 19 years old. I worked as a Data Analyst. At the very beginning of my career at Kaspi.kz, I was involved in analyzing banking products, where our team developed predictive models and classified data to solve business problems.

A year later, I joined the computer vision project — Kaspi ID. This innovative photo verification project was the first of its kind among Kazakhstani banks. I participated in creating models that determined whether a real person was in front of the camera or if a fraudster was using a photograph printed on paper or displayed on a device. Initially, we implemented this technology on ATMs, but later its use expanded to the Kaspi mobile application.

Realizing that my work helped millions of clients safely use banking services brought me immense satisfaction.

In my third year of university, we needed to find a company for summer internships, so I submitted applications to several companies, including Kaspi.kz. I was interested in them because I had heard that they had a strong Data Science team, but I did not expect much. However, soon I received a five-day test assignment from them. This was my first serious step toward my career.

The first stage involved solving a test assignment with two tasks: classification and prediction. This coincided with my study of a machine learning course, and this knowledge played a key role in my success. After successfully completing the assignment, I was invited to an interview with the head of the Data Analysis department. This was my first major interview, and I was very nervous. In my preparation, I reviewed all the lectures and tried to find potential questions online.

The interview included a discussion of the solutions I provided and in-depth questions about the algorithms used. Then I was invited to the second stage — an interview with the director of Kaspi Data Factory. This stage turned out to be difficult because many questions concerned practical problems faced by professionals in production, while I still lacked work experience. After this interview, I no longer held out much hope, but a few days later I was invited to a final interview with the chairman of the board. This stage was more behavioral and turned out to be the easiest. And already as I was leaving the office, I received a call with a full-time offer.

I was extremely surprised, as I had initially been looking for a place for a summer internship, but instead received a full-fledged job offer.

Theoretical knowledge gained at university played an important role in my employment. In addition to academic skills, personal qualities such as persistence and a drive for self-improvement also proved to be important. In IT, it is important to be able to adapt quickly and solve complex problems, and I always tried to be purposeful and ready for new challenges.

About difficulties

At the initial stage, there were no serious difficulties. It was important to prepare in time for the internship and interviews, and I managed to do so.

After five years of working at Kaspi.kz, I decided to take a break and start looking for vacancies abroad. However, a long period of working in one company negatively affected some hard skills, and I felt this during interviews. For the first few months, I constantly failed technical interviews at large companies, which certainly took a toll on my self-esteem. But I understood that success always comes through failure. After about 30 unsuccessful attempts, I found a job at a Dubai-based company as a Computer Vision Engineer.

The main difficulty in the work lies in the fact that the AI field is constantly evolving at a tremendous pace. You need to stay up to date with new developments, otherwise it is easy to fall behind.

My strategy is continuous learning and reading scientific papers to always stay at the forefront of knowledge.

For beginners, one of the main difficulties is overcoming the fear of interviews and competition. The IT industry can seem huge and intimidating, but it is important to remember that every professional was once a beginner.

3 tips that will help you find a job in IT

1. Do not be afraid of failures. Failures are part of the journey. Learn from every interview, and success will not keep you waiting.

2. Continuous learning. Technology does not stand still, and to succeed in IT, you must constantly update your knowledge.

3. Practice. Knowledge without practice loses its value. Find projects, participate in hackathons, create something of your own — this will improve your skills and strengthen your portfolio.