In our last blog, we offered a brief intro on what it’s like to work in the tech universe. This time, we’re going to help you understand the foreign language of programmers by defining complex terminology and perplexing abbreviations. (If only someone had done this for us a year ago, it would have saved us a lot of confusion!)

Blockchain? Machine learning? IoT?
When you’re not sure how to strike up a conversation with a programmer, these hot words can be the perfect ice breaker.

When you find yourself drowning in a sea of unfamiliar tech jargon and jokes you don’t get, these basic term definitions might just be a lifesaver.

Hopefully, you feel smarter after taking five minutes to read this short article. (You might even call it a sprint.)
Now, go back to watching Silicon Valley. We promise it will never be the same now that you know these terms.

This crash course on tech terms should give you that extra push you need. So, put yourself out there and start exploring this world on your own! Now that you know a word or two, you can even start a conversation with developers, while the advanced ones can even make a qt joke.

With every new job, it takes time to adjust to the people, the company culture, the office, and everything else. But when you come from a business administration background into a tech company, like the two of us did, it’s like a whole new world. You basically need to reboot yourself. (See what we did there?)

That is what happened to us: two freshly graduated business school girls who have spent their college years working in multinational organizations, surrounded by people with similar backgrounds, interests, and extroverted personalities.

Before we started working at a tech company, we assumed QA had the same meaning as Q&A, while Java meant JavaScript, only shorter. Because people obviously get too lazy to pronounce the entire phrase, right?

Frontend? Backend? Aren’t those tennis terms?

Why is it that we decided to embark in a new adventure in the first place?

Ever heard the statement “Software is eating the world”? In his essay, technology leader Andressen Horowitz claims that within a few years, almost all businesses will be digitalized and run on software. Even non-tech industries will have to start thinking like software companies to survive in a digital world.

Today, this is our reality.

About a year ago, around the time we were graduating from college, digital was already ruling the economy.

The most influential companies on the market were (and still are) Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple. Tech giants seem to have the coolest workplaces on the Earth to us Millennials. The tech industry is booming, and some say it’s expected to grow another 22-38% by 2020. Need we say more?

Being ambitious, proactive business students, we naturally decided to join the “brave new world.” We really wanted to be a part of this tech revolution and see first-hand what all the fuss was about. We never intended to be developers, but we wanted to learn from a tech company and see why they are so successful.

During our period of adjustment, we accumulated lots of observations and useful tips, which we will now share with all of you IT dummies. Here is a brief intro about this parallel universe and how the tech world appears to outsiders.

So, let’s start with the basics.

Did you get those? Neither did we. Even after reading it a few times. Qt, right? (For all of you beginners, qt = cute.)
The thing is, for most of the developer’s jokes, you need some background to understand it.
Pop references? Almost never used.
Gaming references? Bingo!

Silence is golden in the tech world. Even if you sit right next to someone, it is not unusual to send them a Slack message. Even in an open space with 50 people, it’s not noisy. Sure, you will probably hear the thump of bass drums from people’s headphones, but that’s about it.
Developers are very empathetic and respectful towards others, especially when it comes to their peace and quiet.

Office life revolves around sprints (not the running kind) and SCRUM. Daily stand-up is not a comedy show and weekly bytes don’t involve food (bummer). Other than that, developers are quite productive. If they lose some time, it’s because they’re taking time to check out the lovely creatures you’ll find walking around the office. (No, not girls, but dogs.) Taking your dog to work is a common perk in IT companies.

Board game nights are one of the most popular ways to socialize in this world. What Bingo is for retired people, board games are for developers.
Monopoly? Pictionary? Uno? Naaah, that’s just too basic since there are no dragons, dungeons or brain teasers. Switch to Cards Against Humanity, Mansions of Madness, When I Dream, Mechs vs Minions, and become a queen of the board game night!

When we ladies land a new job, we spend most of our first paycheck on a complete makeover. After all, we are grown-ups now, and we need to have a grown-up business wardrobe. Worry not; if you decide to work for a tech company, you can spend money on other things you love, like food. Why is that, you may ask? Well, the dress code doesn’t really exist; everything works as long as you feel comfortable and dress within reasonable boundaries. This includes grandpa sweaters, ripped jeans, no makeup. Even Crocs are ok – no one will judge you.

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We know a lot of you out there have been curious about what tech companies are like. Is it really like the Silicon Valley show? Are developers actually as geeky as Sheldon Cooper? And why is it that those tech startups end up being such a success? Now, you’ve got this cheat sheet to answer all those burning questions.

So, what comes next?

Now you need a basic understanding of the lingo. In the next chapter we are demystifying some common tech terms, so take a look!

Most job interviews only last an hour or two, tops. But this is the unusual story of an interview that dragged on for four long years. It must be some kind of world record, right? Not quite…

We often hear people complain about how difficult it is to find a high-quality job in Croatia, how it’s impossible to land the career you really want, how most jobs don’t offer the salary you need—and the list of negative comments goes on and on.

After hearing all these job-seeker horror stories, you may begin to wonder if all your hard work and investment in yourself will ever pay off.

Don’t let the deluge of downer stories get you down.

As it turns out, there is hope for those who are persistent, driven and determined. In the sea of depressing career stories, this one is an uplifting tale where a job seeker’s hard work, passion, and commitment to personal goals ultimately led to success—it just took a little time. Four years, to be exact.

As you might have guessed, this story all started four years ago—long before Infinum had grown to 130+ employees and moved into our big, shiny offices. Back then, we were a lean, mean start-up machine.

On this particular day, Infinum’s HR manager Tanja hailed a taxi. After she climbed into the car, Tanja and the driver engaged in the customary small talk. They discussed the weather, current events, Tanja’s job, and what her company does…

“Wait a minute!” the driver exclaimed. “Your company designs apps and websites?”

As it turns out, the driver’s son was studying to become a designer. In fact, he had already successfully designed his very own app. Tanja handed the proud father her business card. “Here’s my contact info. Tell your son to give us a call some time,” she said.

“You never know,” she thought to herself, “maybe his son is truly talented.”

Tanja received a call from the driver’s son, whose name was David. Although David was in his fourth year of studies, he did not have any real-world career experience. Even so, Tanja invited David to come in for an interview. Our management team had a very pleasant conversation with him. Unfortunately, at that time we were hiring only senior designers. Nevertheless, we told David to keep in touch.

Again, some time has passed, and a smaller Croatian company was looking for a young designer and asked us if we had any recommendations. We immediately thought of David and knew he’d be the perfect fit. We recommended him to the company, and—go figure—we helped him land his first job!

As time passed, David progressed in his career and took on a few other jobs. Then, last month we received an online application for a job posted on our website. We were pleasantly surprised to see the application was from David!

It had been four years since our initial interview, and David’s CV was buffed up with plenty of practical experience—which made him a perfect candidate for creating world-class digital products. After putting him through our comprehensive selection process, we offered David the job. He accepted our offer and joined the Infinum team today.

Since the moment we first met David, 1,434 days have passed.
After all that time, David never gave up on us—and we never gave up on him. Today, David is a part of our family, which consists of hard-working, passionate people who invest in themselves and others.

Set goals, work hard, and persistently pursue your passion. Invest in yourself, and don’t give up on what you love. No matter what happens, hard work always pays off in the long run.