Meet the Sprinters! v2

And now we’ve made our way to the third Selection Sprint of 2022.

Almost 200 people made a choice and came to Haapsalu to study coding for 3 weeks. And also get an understanding if the kood/Jõhvi program fits them. After the Selection Sprint, the applicants will get to know whether or not they have the possibility to start their studies at kood/Jõhvi!

But let’s get to know these awesome people who took part in the 3-week journey:

Mari

“I was born in Pärnu, but for the last 14 years I’ve been living in Tallinn. I have a Masters degree in electrical power engineering (cum laude!), but I have been working and specializing in energy markets (gas and electricity, balance management and trading).

I have had an interest in coding for a while, but small kids took their own attention and time. But I think that now is a good time to make a start from scratch!
I love to watch movies, travel and play padel but I’ll never say no to a good movie and a glass of wine with good company!”

Enlik

”My name is Enlik from Indonesia, but I’m currently living in Tartu, Estonia since 2019. Also, I have lived in Australia from 2016 to 2018 for a working holiday purpose. Being a nomad for these past 5 years has truly opened my mind to know the world in a better way.
Even though I studied IT before, I still feel thirsty to learn different things in this fast-growing subject, especially with an up-to-date curriculum from kood/Jõhvi

In my free time, I’d like to explore nature and new places, play PS4 games, listen to audiobooks or podcasts (including kood/Jõhvi podcast), play badminton, and read Japanese manga.”

Yevgeniya

“I am from Kazakhstan but graduated University of Tartu in 2016, studied economics there, then went back home, and returned to Estonia in 2021 October.
I worked as an English teacher, and was running handmade jewellery shop. Grew tired of everything some time ago, started to think I want a more flexible and challenging job, and decided I need to try something new.

Currently, I am working in Veriff as a verification specialist, and taking a course on QA (testing). I have tried a bit of programming, started with CS50 course, but as I haven’t finished yet. I have tasted only C language, and haven’t gotten my hands on any other languages yet. So really looking forward to Golang.
I am really keen on trying out kood/Jõhvi program, looking forward to learning a lot and meeting new people.”

Indrek

“I’m a 38-year-old from Tallinn.
I’ve worked as industrial designer in printing industry for most of my life, but past 3 years, I’ve been working freelance, as a lead graphics artist and animator. We released a point-and-click cyberpunk adventure game named Born Punk a few weeks ago.
My passion is game development, pretty much since I was 6, I’ve been pretty active part of forming Estonian indie game development scene in the past and I’ve been always tinkering with small game projects as a hobby. I wrote first (and probably only) tutorials (in Estonian) to QBASIC ages ago, but aside that, never got very deep in programming.

My other major hobby is probably hiking, I just go and chill in the forest every summer, and miss it all winter. I’ve volunteered for Erasmus Student Network in Tallinn for couple years, organizing events and taking care of graphic design part of marketing.
I’m also an artistic type, and even though I have pretty good basic understanding on coding, I never really got deep into it, nor had any actual training/education, so kood/Jõhvi sounded like a perfect chance to get into it in more structured, logical way. Or at least get confident enough to say “Yeah, I know how to”. While indie game development requires you to be jack-of-all-trades (which also means fair amount of C), it can also mean master of none. So, this is quite exciting. Can’t wait to see how it goes.”

Anna

“My name is Anna and I’m currently living in Tallinn. It seems like I’ve been waiting for the Selection Sprint since I first heard of it last Summer!
I’ve been working in the IT sector for 3 years now. My current job is Customer Support Specialist but I’d like to boost my tech skills and get more challenges in my life.

I enjoy music (mostly rap and pop), read detective stories, love the Czech language absolutely madly, and I’m learning Estonian now. I also love traveling and walking around the city and discovering new places!”

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Great to hear stories from so many awesome people. And you know what? That’s not all. We have different kind of interesting backgrounds and people from all around the world. The only way to truly understand the atmosphere, is to take part in the Selection Sprint.

The new application period opens from 2023. Until then keep an eye on our social media channels, webpage and blog for information regarding next years applications!

PS. The heading “…v2” indicates that this is a sequel. Check out the first iteration!