Պատմություն, հնագիտություն, ծրագրավորո՞ւմ. 42-ցի Անահիտի ճանապարհը դեպի կոդեր և կիբերանվտանգություն
28-year-old Anahit Hayrapetyan is one of 42 Yerevan’s experienced students, but — and as surprising as it may be — coding wasn’t her first choice of study. We tried to clarify just how a historian who hoped to become an archeologist ended up taking the path to cyber-security directly from her.
“I graduated from Yerevan State University, Faculty of History, because I loved history when I was young. Later, I wanted to become an archaeologist, but I did not continue in that direction, because the field is not developing much in Armenia. I decided to choose a modern profession and the first thing that came to my mind was cyber security,” recalls Anahit, who learned about 42 Yerevan through a friend who was working as a security guard at the recently established programming school.
“Of course, I wasn’t confident in my abilities, and I always thought that the fact that I was weak in math would really hinder me, but, nevertheless, I decided to try”, she recalls.
According to Anahit, the Piscine was the most difficult. Sometimes she would spend the whole night at the school, trying not to fall behind and to learn as much as possible. These “tortures” eventually yielded their results and Anahit passed on to the next phase, the main curriculum — 60% of which she’s already conquered.
“I’ve always said that you need to have great will power here; to not give up, and try to move forward. There’s one more thing that’s very important: you shouldn’t compare yourself to others, because there are those who have already gotten quite experienced in programming and are here for the purpose of furthering their knowledge. But if you’ve come from a completely different background, like me, it doesn’t mean that you can’t do it; perhaps you’ll do it a bit slower, but you definitely can,” she says. Anahit has overcome all of the challenges that come with suddenly changing your profession — in a short amount of time she has found a job in hernew field (for cyber-security purposes Anahit’s place of employment will not be revealed).
Anahit is from Arten village near the Talin region. During her time studying at 42 she received a residence scholarship from the Armenian Education Foundation, which, in her words, made the process a lot easier by giving her an opportunity to spend more time at the programming school more often.
Anahit not only gained professional skills at 42, but also new skills in communication. The previously more introverted and antisocial Anahit is shocked at how easy socializing with others has become. “At the end of the Piscine we had to reveal what had changed in us, and I shared that I had entered the Piscine as an introvert and left as an extrovert.”
Anahit is not making predictions about the future just yet, but one thing is clear; cyber-security is her calling and she’s going to continue to further her knowledge in it, whether at 42 or elsewhere. Anahit’s advice for future students is one thing: “Be confident in yourself, and everything will work out.”
