Moscow, 2005. In one of the buildings of the Moscow Automobile and Road Institute (MADI).
I stood before a large audience, having just finished my presentation on the implementation of computer viruses at the lowest level of information systems. A tense silence hung in the hall — it felt as if everyone had stopped breathing, waiting for my next move. It was an interschool competition of scientific projects in information technology: representatives from various schools and MADI, future graduates of schools with their projects, and their support teams had gathered there.
I exhaled, feeling the tension that had built up throughout the presentation slowly begin to fade. I scanned the room, catching the gaze of the first hand raised — it was time for questions.
The first question came unexpectedly:
— Excuse me, don’t you think that the techniques you described today create serious problems for major corporations like Microsoft, and for Bill Gates himself?
I replied:
— Bill Gates’s problems are none of my concern.
The room froze for a split second, then burst into applause, and my presentation came to an end. I felt a surge of elation — I hadn’t expected to make such an impression. It seemed as though the entire world paused, leaving me standing alone at the peak of success. And yet, despite that feeling of triumph, this moment was only the beginning of a journey — one that would make me reflect deeply on my future.
When all the presentations were over and people started to leave, my support group approached me and said, “Igoryan, that was amazing! You’ll definitely win something.” And so it happened. I was awarded second place and was told: “You could have taken first place if you’d shown anything on the computer, since your entire presentation was only on the board with a marker.” Second place granted the right to an interview when applying to MADI, while the first-place winner was admitted without any additional exams, and third place could get in only if they scored at least the minimum passing mark on the entrance exam.
Still, for me, this second place was a real victory, and I was sure that everything turned out as well as it possibly could: I was on the verge of entering a prestigious university. Preparing for entrance exams no longer seemed important, and I even stopped considering other universities.
This was in 2005, when the Unified State Exam (EGE) was only just being introduced on a trial basis, but universities were still conducting their own exams. Although I took the EGE in trial mode, it did not affect my admission. After winning the competition, I decided to focus solely on one university.
Although this success was significant, my happiness was overshadowed by events that had happened in my life shortly before. In March 2005, not long before this event, my mother was hit by a car and died. This was a terrible blow to our family. My father went to identify her, and after that his health deteriorated sharply. He was sick almost all the time and began drinking more than he should.
During those difficult times, as I was coping with loss and watching my father’s health get worse, the support from my school and classmates became a real lifeline for me — they not only paid for my graduation party and helped with clothes for it, but also supported me emotionally. I am very grateful for everything my class did for me then.
Despite everything that happened, I managed to focus on my studies and finished school with almost all excellent marks, except for a couple of Bs, though I didn’t care much about that. My attention was completely absorbed by programming, which I had already devoted two years to by then. So, when in June 2005 a post appeared on our forum offering $800 for a software project, I realized that this was a great opportunity.
I contacted the author of the post and arranged to meet him at his office. It turned out to be Alexey Viktorovich, the director of a small international freight company. The company was involved in finding freight and carriers for transport, as well as providing customs clearance services — in short, it was a logistics intermediary. They needed a program to automate these processes.
After meeting Alexey Viktorovich and discussing the project details, we agreed that I could start working. I started working from home, confident that I had found a great summer job and not particularly worried about the upcoming exams.
It is important to note that the main task was to transfer the old Microsoft Access database to a modern Windows application. I decided to implement this in C++ using C++Builder, as this language gave me enough flexibility and performance to work with databases and create a convenient user interface. This was my first serious project, and I saw in it an opportunity not only to earn money but also to significantly improve my programming skills.
The work was not easy: I had to figure out the structure of the existing database, understand the business requirements, and then implement functionality that would make life easier for the company’s employees. I was learning on the job, tackling every problem as it arose. This project became a real challenge for me and, at the same time, an important stage in my professional development.
On the day I was supposed to come to the interview at MADI in early July 2005, something unexpected happened. Maybe I simply mixed up the date, or maybe I overslept — it’s hard to remember now. But the result was the same: I missed the meeting with the dean. When my classmates and friends heard about my blunder, they joked that I’d slept through an important day, though to me it seemed like nothing more than a simple mistake in my schedule. In the end, I was told that I could now apply only through the regular exams.
At that moment, I decided that I wouldn’t apply to MADI — not now and not later. Instead, I set myself a new goal: to apply next year to MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute). But before starting my preparation, I decided to take six months off to rest and recover after a stressful year. Only after that did I plan to enroll in the preparatory courses at MEPhI and begin serious preparation for admission.
Meanwhile, I continued to work on the project I had taken for the summer, but thoughts about the future did not leave me. Then my father, seeing how I was trying to cope with the situation, suggested another way out. He called Alexey Viktorovich and asked him to hire me on a permanent basis, effectively as a programmer and system administrator. My boss, already seeing the first results of my work, agreed. Thus, I began going to the office regularly, and they started paying me $300 a month.
