Developers from Kcell, Kolesa Group, Alif Bank, and other companies share insights on how to start a career in IT without making unnecessary mistakes.

How to start an IT career without unnecessary mistakes and grow faster? We’ve gathered honest advice from practicing developers at major companies. Their stories include real mistakes, lessons learned, and steps that help beginners grow faster and with more confidence.

Daniyar Amangeldy, city — Almaty, Android Developer at Tinkoff, LinkedIn

I think I had a good start to my career. Since university, I worked on several pet projects, found a development studio that hired me, and worked hard, practiced, and studied theory. I interviewed for an internship at Yandex, where I was advised on what to study. In every new project, I tried new technologies and read programming books. After a year, I was invited to Kolesa Group as a strong junior. There, I continued to practice, spoke at meetups, and kept developing.

Steps that can provide the fastest growth at the start:

1. Work on pet projects even while studying — this is the main experience for your resume.

2. Start practicing as early as possible.

3. If you want to become a software engineer, at the start use AI as a teacher, not as an assistant. Until you understand the generated code, AI doesn’t help — it replaces you.

4. At the beginning of your path, don’t obsess over T-shaped skills. It’s important to first master your core craft. It’s better to move to adjacent areas only after gaining experience and being sure you’ve chosen the right path.

5. Develop soft skills. We work in teams and with people, so without developed soft skills, difficulties may arise — including in problem solving and critical thinking. Personal experience: since school, I performed on stage often and easily found common ground with people, so I feel comfortable in teams and at meetups.

6. Show initiative — participate in meetups, hackathons, and workshops.

7. Networking. Try to meet new people and help them. This is especially important at the beginning of your path: you get recommendations for companies, better understanding of the market, and more opportunities.

Baglan Adaskhan, city — Almaty, Python Developer at Kcell, LinkedIn

If I were to start my IT journey again, I would do three things differently.

1. I would stop jumping between directions. Today — Python developer, tomorrow — DevOps, then Data, and something else. It seems like you’re “developing,” but in reality, you’re just spreading yourself thin and not becoming truly strong anywhere.

If I could go back, I would choose one direction, for example, Python backend, and calmly stick to it. Growth comes not from knowing a little bit of everything, but from depth in one area.

2. I would start being more intentional earlier. My previous approach was simple: “They told me — I did it.” But strong developers always think like this: “Why is this needed at all? For whom? What will it improve?”.

3. I would start interviewing earlier. For a long time, it seemed like “it’s too early” and “I’m not ready.” Now I understand: an interview is the best test. It immediately shows where you’re strong and where there are gaps. After each interview, growth goes much faster than studying alone without understanding real requirements.

If I could go back, I wouldn’t waste time on chaotic learning. At the beginning of my path, I learned one thing, then another, then a third. I tried hard, but didn’t understand which skills were in demand.

The first thing I would do — find five dream job postings. Not to get hired immediately, but to understand what skills are needed, what technologies are used, and what tasks you’ll have to solve.

The second — learn by copying strong projects. Not just watching tutorials and repeating after the instructor, but taking a real project on GitHub and trying to build a similar one.

And the third — start asking for feedback much earlier. Show code to more experienced colleagues, ask questions: “What’s wrong?”, “How should it be done?”, “Where am I making mistakes?”.

Because on your own, you can move in the wrong direction for months without even realizing it. High-quality feedback saves time and significantly accelerates growth.

Ikrom Rajabov, city — Dushanbe, Android Developer at Alif Bank, LinkedIn

If I were starting my career from scratch, I would focus much earlier on practice in real projects, not just on studying theory. At the start, it’s easy to get stuck in endless learning and waiting for the moment when confidence appears. However, working with real tasks, mistakes, and constraints quickly shows what knowledge is lacking and how to apply it in practice. This experience forms engineering thinking and accelerates professional growth much more than theory without application.

For maximum growth at the beginning of my path, I would highlight four steps:

1. Choose one direction and deepen your knowledge in it, without spreading yourself thin.

2. Start working with code reviews and stronger developers as soon as possible.

3. Pay attention to code quality — readability and architecture, not just “making it work.”

4. Learn to explain your decisions — this significantly speeds up professional thinking.

Gulnaz Kazhenbayeva, city — Almaty, iOS Developer at Kolesa Group, LinkedIn

If I were starting my career from scratch now, I would be less afraid of interviews and create more of my own projects. It’s important to be able to show your interest and motivation, even if you don’t know the exact technical solution. It’s much more important to show your thought process and ability to look at the task broadly, considering the future development of the project.

At the start of my career, my own pet projects and willingness to learn helped me a lot. I came to my first interview with almost no experience and learned a lot while working. I learned to admit mistakes, accept criticism, read articles, and try different approaches to find the best solutions.

I also attended conferences where I met other developers, listened to talks, tried to understand their approaches, and then applied these ideas in my work. At Kolesa Group, I saw a completely different scale of processes and tasks. I liked the team and the people around me — this helped me quickly integrate and develop.

In my work, I always tried, and continue to try, to offer several solution options with their pros and cons. After understanding the business plans, we together choose and agree on the optimal solution. Honesty, engagement, and responsibility — I think these qualities helped me reach my goals faster.

Also, at a certain point in my life, I clearly understood what I was striving for and how my work helped me with that. When I defined what I wanted — not only in my career, but in other areas of life — it became easier for me to act not through “should,” but through “want,” for example, “I need to do [A, B, C]” because “I want X.” From that moment on, growth — both professional and personal — became more conscious and natural for me.

Iskandar Dadabaev, city — Bishkek, Java Developer at MEGA, LinkedIn

At the beginning of my career, I would work on my “imposter syndrome”: I wouldn’t give up when something didn’t work out, I would be patient, learn, try, not be afraid to make mistakes and ask questions, even if they seemed silly.

At the start, the fastest growth comes from having a good mentor — that’s half the success. It’s important to surround yourself with like-minded people and communicate with experienced people, learn from them, and adopt best practices.