Why Russian programmers champions do not want to Silicon Valley

Russian students won the International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) again. This year, the World Cup and the winners' medals brought home a total of four universities: Moscow State University. Lomonosov, MIPT, ITMO and the Ural Federal University.

Фото: Depositphotos

Russian teams have been participating in the ICPC since 1993, and over the past 18 years, this is already the 13-I win for Russian programmers.

Journalists Air force they asked the participants of the last championship, as well as past competitions, what prospects they see for themselves at home, whether they want to move to California and what image of the Russian programmer has developed abroad.

Are Russian programmers necessarily outstanding and dangerous hackers in the eyes of foreigners?

Roman Elizarov, member of the ACM ICPC organizing committee, winner of the ICPC 1996 of the year:

“The circle of programmers varies. The sports programming we are talking about is a specific thing. It contains this (hacker stories - approx. Russian service bbc) rather perceived as a joke.

Sports programming is still a sport. And there is no politics here, especially in ICPC. ICPC is committed to staying out of politics and is committed to promoting interest in programming as a discipline.

This is an academic competition between universities that is very apolitical and academic. This championship, among other things, has the task of uniting the world.”

Ivan Belonogov, a member of the team and a first year master’s student in the department of computer technology уITMO University, ICPC 2017 Champion of the Year and 2018 Bronze Medalist of the Year:

“Everyone understands that these are some strange political stories. What they say in the news is just for the masses.

Everyone is very calm at the championships. Therefore, there is no such thing that they say about us: “Oh, these are Russians, now they will come to hack us again.”

MIPT team on ICPC-2018: Alexander Ostanin, Mikhail Tikhomirov (coach), Nikita Uvarov, Alexander Golovanov, and compatriot Renat Gimadeev (from left to right). Photo: EVGENY PELEVIN, MIPT PRESS-SERVICE

On the atmosphere at the competition and favorites among the participants

Alexander Golovanov, member of the MIPT team, winner of ACM ICPC 2018, student of the Faculty of Innovations and High Technologies MIPT (FIVT), 5 course:

“On the part of the organizers, the attitude towards all teams is the same and unbiased. But commentators and analysts have their own attitude. They are based on the experience of past years.

On the part of the participants, the atmosphere was even friendly. We all know each other more or less, if not in the face, then for some online competitions.

We saw each other as just good competitors and that’s all. There was no hostility or thoughts of “how strong they are, we must defeat them.” Of course, everyone wanted to win, but everyone treated it like an interesting game.”

Ivan Belonogov (ITMO):

The World Cup is one competition a year, but there are still many other online resources that give a general idea of ​​which teams will be strong and who is most expected to win.

In the championship there is such a rule that one person can participate in it only twice. This is a very honest rule: everything is constantly changing from this team, and there is no such thing that there is one strong team and it wins 10 for years in a row.

Every year there are different participants, so people from the outside are more likely to look not at a strong university, but at what results its team showed throughout the season - at various competitions and training camps. This year, many agreed that there were five favorite teams: us, Moscow State University, a team from Beijing, Seoul and also from Warsaw. But the Poles were very unlucky, they were left without medals at all, but this also happens.”

Roman Elizarov (ACM ICPC organizing committee):

“Indeed, the table of results for the last seven years at ICPC looks as if only Russian programmers [stand out], but rather we (Russians - approx. BBC Russian Service) are lucky.

There are many international competitions. If you look at the results table of other competitions in sports programming, then you will see that there are not only some Russians. There are Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, guys from Eastern Europe ...

Yes, the West - Europe, North America - has not been shining lately. Everyone understands this, but there is no such feeling that Russia is unique. It's more of a coincidence. You can’t say this in other competitions.”

Russian teams have been participating in the ICPC since 1993, and over the past 18 years, this is already the 13-I win for Russian programmers. Photo: TASS

ICPC Championship - a “lucky ticket” to Silicon Valley?

Roman Elizarov (ACM ICPC organizing committee):

“When I myself participated in the championship, it was a fairly small clan. Then he had a company sponsor Microsoftwhich actively offered employment. Then there was an IBM sponsor, which, unlike Microsoft Hiring goals are not particularly set.

Things have changed a lot over the years. The championship has grown significantly, it has become ten times larger in the number of participants, in the number of selections. And by interest from the point of view of employers.

You have to understand that 20 years ago, when I participated in it, Google in principle, did not exist. And now Google For many years, he regularly invites the top ten winners of the championship to come to his office to have a look and, of course, make an offer.

We must also understand that the demand for programmers is constantly growing. Now there is a feeling that programmers everywhere in the world are over. Because the number of required programmers is ten times higher than the number of available programmers.

However, winning the ICPC is a very difficult way to get an offer from Google. How much time and effort the guys spend on it ... Don't kill yourself so that you get an offer from Google.

It’s absolutely easy for guys with this level of knowledge to get an offer. They can work wherever they want. It’s not worth the trouble of getting a job somewhere at all. They do this not to get a job, but for prestige.”

Alexander Golovanov (MIPT):

“There are no people on our team who have studied or trained abroad. We all work or have worked only in Russia.

But in other teams this is quite a popular phenomenon. Facebook and GoogleIt happens that they send offers for internship or work. Have GoogleFor example, an internship takes several months, so in order to combine this with study, many people go there for the summer.

We sometimes receive such offers, but this championship has not yet caused any influx of letters from employers.

In my work in Silicon Valley, as far as I know, none of my friends and acquaintances see anything like that, this is not some kind of super goal that needs to be achieved in life. We believe that this is not a very strong indicator of success. You can work in the same way in Russian companies.

No one is eager to go to Silicon Valley simply because it is Silicon Valley.”

Ivan Belonogov (ITMO):

“I believe that it is quite possible to realize your potential in Russia; there are many companies here too.

If in Silicon Valley there are three companies for each direction, four-five-ten, then in Russia there are simply fewer of them, but in general they also exist. The same Yandex that makes its self-driving cars. They have their own social networks, they have their own search engines. Problems can be solved both here and abroad.”

Are there any obstacles to the work of a programmer in Russia?

Roman Elizarov (ACM ICPC organizing committee):

“Programming is a unique thing in the sense that it is global. It doesn't matter where you are, you can program anything for any other point in the world. Probably never before in the history of mankind has there been such a global profession.

From the point of view of development specifically in Russia, we have long reached the international level both in terms of working conditions and available opportunities. If a person wants to work in Russia, there are more than enough opportunities to find a decent job.

Such companies, of course, do not reach the scale of the giants of the global industry. But on the other hand, I know people who do not want to work in Googlebecause it is a huge organization, heartless. Someone basically does not go to work in Google because it does not want to be a cog in this huge machine.

If you want to work in a large company, you have no options, you will have to go to Silicon Valley [the alternative name of Silicon Valley in Russian]. If you want to work in a startup, then you will find options.

Another thing is that big money is spinning [there] and there is more choice in the number of startups. It is clear that you will earn more in Silicon Valley, but on the other hand you will spend more.

And exactly how you will live there will depend on your personal circumstances. There are so many factors involved that there is no single rule.”

Фото: Depositphotos

Ivan Belonogov (ITMO):

“The situation with blocking [messenger Telegram and the resources whose addresses he uses] are, of course, very unpleasant, and it is difficult to predict what else might happen.

But I would say that so far there are definitely no insurmountable obstacles. “Everything can be done, the Internet works, you can communicate with anyone and implement your projects.”

Alexander Golovanov (MIPT):

“Everything that affects the development and organization of a company depends directly on the resources of this company. And not on what country it is in and what kind of relations this country has with others.

If a company has many data centers and [powerful] computing resources, it can process more quickly and more requests.

The mere fact that this company is located in Russia doesn’t directly affect anything.

Perhaps, for some indirect reasons, Russian companies will have slower access by bypassing some blockages that have now occurred. Maybe this will affect the load on different systems or the response time. But I don’t see any more obvious reasons [why Russian companies might be inferior to foreign ones because of their location.”

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