I changed careers at 35. Curiosity has guided everything since.

After graduating from Belarusian State Economic University with a degree in finance and credit in 2004, I spent the next 14 years working across two banks and five departments. Retail and corporate lending, collateral evaluation, financial analysis, credit risk, and accounting reports were all part of the work.

I liked the work and the people, but eventually every day started to feel the same. I wanted to keep learning, move forward, and have more freedom. I had always been drawn to automating and improving processes, so technology began to feel like a natural next direction.

I had no relevant degree, no friends in tech, and no clear map of what kind of programmer I wanted to become. Studying after a full-time job while raising a young child made progress slow, so my husband and I made a bigger decision: I would leave banking and study full-time.

My last day at the bank was July 13, 2018. The path that followed was not especially straight, but it proved that I loved programming and the kind of sustained problem-solving it demands.

I completed Java Fundamentals and Java Enterprise courses at the Educational Center of High-Tech Park Belarus. I was the only woman in the advanced section and finished as the best student in the class. More importantly, I learned how much effective development depends on self-study.

I then joined a lab where graduates worked on real start-up projects. I built admin panels with Java and Vaadin, wrote documentation, helped shape architecture, reviewed code, and supported newer developers. The code was imperfect, but it worked and taught me lessons a course could not.

• Ship useful software before waiting to feel fully ready.
• Read documentation closely when tutorials run out.
• Make collaboration and feedback part of the work.

Freelance opportunities for a new Java developer were limited, so in October 2019 I began learning JavaScript, then React and Node.js. After strict, heavy Java, JavaScript felt like fresh air. React was especially satisfying because the results became immediately visible.

I practiced by building tools I wanted to use: a fitness app, a financial manager, and several dashboards. Admin panels and dashboards became a natural specialty because they combine technical depth, product decisions, and interface clarity.

After about six months of focused JavaScript practice, I began bidding on dashboard work and found my first client within days. My banking background later helped me join Sikoba as a product manager and developer, where I also moved into React Native.

In 2021 I joined StoreHero and Matics. Both started as short-term engagements and became lasting collaborations. Today I build complex products end to end, with particular depth in analytics, operations, integrations, and trust-heavy product surfaces.

My path was neither easy nor short, but I would not change it. It made me persistent, comfortable with ambiguity, and genuinely excited to learn something new every day.