Soon-to-be grad Alex Krytskyi talks life as a software engineer at Terawe
For Class of ’19 graduate Alex Krytskyi, success is “just a matter of execution.”
After completing his associate degree at Green River College, Krytskyi was admitted to the college’s applied baccalaureate in software development. During his junior year, he doubled down on searching for an internship and building his professional network. Krytskyi’s hard work, positive attitude, and stick-to-itiveness ultimately landed him a full stack web developer internship at a startup in Redmond.
Now a senior who will graduate with his bachelor’s degree in June, Krytskyi is currently working as a software engineer at Terawe, a Bellevue-based cloud and AI solutions provider. In the Q and A below, Krytskyi discusses his journey in tech and offers helpful career advice to new college graduates.
First thing’s first. What lead you to Green River’s software development program?
ALEX: I got my associate degree at Green River College, and had an option to either stay at Green River to earn my bachelor’s degree or transfer to a university. I did a lot of research on various universities and Green River’s curriculum appeared the most appealing to me. I really enjoy learning by actually applying knowledge, when the theory goes hand-in-hand with practice. Many institutions have a disproportional amount of theoretical classes and lack real-life projects. At Green River, I was able to work in an agile team with actual clients and learn about data structures, algorithms and OOP principles at the same time.
Tell us about the previous internship you completed at Cirkled In?
ALEX: I truly enjoyed my work experience at Cirkled In. Cirkled In is a startup company which means I had to wear multiple hats at the same time. I was working as a full stack web developer for almost a year with them. We were using LAMP stack. The knowledge that I received from Green River was extremely useful and invaluable for this position. On a daily basis I was developing new parts of the platform, collaborating with a team from India, a local team, worked with the marketing team to get feedback from customers and implement new features. Within a year, we raised 100K+ users on the platform and that was a big success on our roadmap.
Can you talk about your new role at Terawe?
ALEX: Terawe it is a solution provider company that has contracts with different companies. The company can outsource you to one of the partners or to work on their own products. Terawe had an open position with their client -Microsoft. This position was CI/CD DevOps in Azure Stack team. It was a big jump from a Full Stack Web Developer to a CI Engineer since everything was quite different. In terms of day to day life, we are practicing Scrum methodologies and have regular stand-up meetings, sprint planning, and retrospectives. I really enjoy the company’s culture and the people I work with. Since I was a newbie there, I was going through a lot of training and they really set me up for success.
What career advice do you have for students who are looking for an internship or job?
ALEX: I think the instructors at Green River College give the best advice and it’s just a matter of execution. Everybody will agree with me that the hardest thing for a fresh grad is to get an interview in the first place.
First, a lot of jobs have a very short time frame for applying, so check for opportunities daily and apply to as many positions as possible. It will take time. Stay positive and be consistent with this. Second, meet employers in person. Polish your pitch and get connected with the person you are talking to, make them your advocate for that position. Third, once you get an interview, make sure you are ready for the technical interview. Hands down, Cracking the Coding Interview is your best friend here. Also, I highly recommend using different websites like LeetCode, HackerRank, and others to practice coding challenges online. Fourth, the behavioral interview is equally important. A company can always teach you new technologies but they won’t be able to change who you are. That’s why you want to show yourself from the right perspective. Be sincere and prepared for questions like “what are your top three strengths and weaknesses?”
A question we love to ask: is there a specific class within the bachelor’s program you would like to mention that helped you prepare for employment?
ALEX: I think Data Structures (IT 333) and Algorithms (IT 334) are very important since those are applicable everywhere and help develop your thinking. Full Stack Web Development (IT 328) also really helped me land my first job as a web developer. I learned a lot from every class I took and Green River’s program certainly sets you up for success.
Learn more about Green River College’s applied baccalaureate in software development by visiting www.greenriver.edu/software
