Interview with Dosbol Alpamys

 Today we will meet with Dosbol Alpamys, who is quite famous as an ICT teacher at Astana IT University.

- Hello, could you tell us a little about yourself?
- Hello, my name is Alpamys.I am a teacher at Astana IT University.Also, I work for the same company as an iOS developer.
-How can you describe yourself in two words?
- Pragmatism and honesty.
-What were your first steps in the field of IT?
- Since my school days, I have been engaged in programming in information technology classes. Fortunately, our information technology was going as expected, we studied Pascal, Visual Basic, tried to do different types of animation, etc. I was very interested in all this, and the first step I would consider was that I organized the "Leader of the 21st Century" game at school and made a fully animated presentation with different sounds. It took a lot of time, of course, but in principle the result was worth it. I got the same interface as in the real game " Leader of the 21st Century” and actually this was my first step.
-Did you come to this activity yourself?
- Yes, the choice was quite deliberate. In the 11th grade, I already knew for sure that I would go to study as a programmer. I didn't know what universities there were, but I had a clear understanding that I wanted to be a programmer.
-Describe your biggest achievement and most impressive failure?
- I can't say about the biggest achievement. I think that was enough, because I view any success from a positive perspective. There is no such thing as the biggest or smallest success. For me, any success is in any case the progress of my personality and because of this, I view it in a positive way. But probably from such great achievements, I can note many victories at startup competitions and admission to the master's program on a grant. I enrolled in Project Management, studied information systems, passed an oral exam, and received a grant. For me, this was definitely a success, as it was considered impossible at the time. Because, in the whole country, about 20-30 grants were allocated. Also, I appreciate the victory in one of the main startup competition. We reached the “Technation” final and won the STEP Kazakhstan competition. The remaining achievements are the development of the first application, especially when it is used by a considerable number of people.    
    If we talk about failure, I remember only one. I took the project, but for certain reasons, including the workload at work, I could not finish it, and also let people down.In the end, we explained ourselves in front of each other and everything ended well.
-Where should a beginner start if he wants to follow in your footsteps?
- I don't think you should follow in my footsteps. Because, initially, when I entered IT, it was my conscious choice. But I went to university with absolutely no knowledge of English at that time, and programming in C++ seemed very difficult to me. Of course, I did not fail programming, but I came to the conclusion that I would not want to do this, and I began to look for other options. The second semester comes and a new teacher comes who really interested me in programming and then it turns out that I fell in love with programming due to the work of this teacher and finally decided to become a programmer.
    Although about a year and a half ago I thought that I was no programmer, but it all depends on the teachers. Maybe it was up to me, but sometimes there are situations when you want to give up everything and stop doing it. So I wouldn't advise people to follow in my footsteps. It is better to approach the university with serious preparation. If it is an English-speaking university in any case, actively study English , if it is programming, then certainly know the basics of programming. Because, without such training, at some point a person may lose motivation and because of this, I think that it will be harder to follow in my footsteps.
    I am more self-taught, because I studied very poorly at the university (at least at the bachelor's degree).I think my GPA is proof that I studied very poorly. If I studied well, some knowledge would not have to be acquired along the way, namely in development. In the end, it turned out quite well for me. In principle, everything is good that ends well.
    So, everyone is free to choose their own path and it should be individual for them. No one is like anyone else, situations are similar in many ways, even if they are similar in abstraction, but they are still individual and each has its own way. It is very important to do what a person really wants in the soul.
-What brought you to the field of education ?
- First, it is a move from Almaty to Astana due to certain circumstances. At that time, Astana IT University was opened and this was the best option. Before that, of course, I always had a desire to teach, but we could not agree with the university on the time of teaching. Because I had a job at the time. I asked for evening teaching time, namely elective subjects with development, but somehow it did not work out. In the end, everything turned out in Astana IT University. Teaching is interesting, it gives a lot as a professional. But there are naturally pros and cons. Let's say that there is less stress in the work of a programmer, a smaller person gets tired and, as it were, more free time, I would say more. In this case, there are also certain pros and cons in teaching and they need to be evaluated adequately. The academic environment has its own peculiarities, which is radically different from the usual IT environment for me, but in principle, so far everything is going well.
-What was the most difficult part of your journey?
- Admit your mistakes and disadvantages in everything. From a technical point of view, nothing was mega difficult, but from the point of view of the relationship with people it was quite difficult. That is, to understand the very edge with whom and how to talk.
-What are you interested in besides iOS development and teaching?
-For example, I have been practicing jiu-jitsu for more than 3 years. It allows me to stay in shape and it really interests me. In general, I like to watch and observe martial arts and practice it myself.
 -Do you have your own motto, mission?
 -As such, there is no slogan, no motto. I think the most important thing is to remain human in any situation. The rest is all meant to be!
 - Thank you for an interesting conversation!
                                                                                            Turamiyeva Aruzhan