Question: So what secrets does Montreal reveal?

Answer: The same we have discovered in 1997 in Chicago – the market demands "complex" professionals, wide-profile specialists. The market is interested in practical experience. Programmers with one to three years of experience get the greatest demand. If you want to become a valuable specialist, you don’t learn some programming language just because it’s your hobby – you learn a systematic approach to get a job. Programmers are somewhat spoiled – they can "jump" from one job to another literally every year for extra $5,000 or $10,000 to their annual salary. However, in order to do that they would need knowledge and skills in demand, those that are valued on the market - versa those being a "fashion of the minute",- knowledge of all the stages of project development, multi-purpose skills. Comfort with professional jargon and clear terminology. Urgent need in professional "legend" and powerful resume. Secrets are not all the above but also the complex approach that we implement. "Methodology of fetching" is our "know-how". I am a practician myself, working as a Senior Software Architect, and therefore I know what knowledge to put it into people’s heads and how. Into those people’s who don’t want to remain who they are. Furthermore, I understand the most that the time is precious for those people, that during 3 to 4 years they need to compensate 20 or 30 years. They can’t afford to learn "something somehow". This apparently is going to be a matter of a hard work for them. But that becomes rewarding eventually. In a year, a person looks back at oneself and wonders: "Was that me back then?" That is, we try to change people’s philosophy applied to the reality of living in the North America, approach, attitude, comprehension. We don’t simply help someone to become a professional, we craft professionals. Such secrets – non-secrets.

Question: Please, tell about your school and the program.

Answer: This is not quite a school. At least, not in a regular meaning. We don’t give mere professional knowledge but also practical skills, and, as I have mentioned above, we give "the ticket to life". Mindstream Software Inc. is federally registered, and, as it’s being planned, it will come out to the market with computer software consulting services. Thus, people who want to acquire a programming specialty aren’t students but get informally hired to work in real-time projects. The company already has several client firms. To develop projects for them it is necessary to have a certain level of knowledge and skills, our consultants get taught and prepared during a six-month training project that is divided into two parts: database development and object-oriented programming. The first part last about two and a half months when participants learn such languages as SQL, DDL/DML, T-SQL and PL/SQL, and also get trained to work with remote database managements systems (RDBMS), such as SQL Server and Oracle, including learning to compose mandatory project documentation. The second part last about three and a half months. It includes the entire complex of languages and technologies, related to such languages as Visual Basic 6.0: VB, VBA, VBScript, ADO, ActiveX, COM, DCOM, introduction to MTS/COM+, introduction to web-development (ASP, HTML/DHTML, XML, VB WebClasses, IIS); introduction to Visual Studio .NET (VB.NET, C#, ASP.NET, ADO.NET); skills in CASE (Visio, ERWin, Crystal Reports). Considerable part of the program is dedicated to application infrastructure and software architecture – in three to five years our graduates may become good software architects – a specialty that at this time isn’t yet available in colleges or universities. Studies are held twice a week, 4 hours each in the evening. Teams are 7 to 8 people. Each consultant is given a PC and premises are reachable 24/7. Tutors who initially help with project tasks are present also because team work is dependable on everybody’s effort.

Question: You teach neither Java nor C++?

Answer: No. We put the task to intensively train good, multi-profile specialists rather than to deliver superficial academic knowledge in a narrow field. Moreover, to learn Java it’s better to start with C++, and preliminary with C language. Nay, Java has eventually ceased to sound like a cool word and it has become a regular language, as other languages, and what’s more – not the easiest, not the most effective, with its own disadvantages. Its volume on the market doesn’t exceed the volume of Visual Basic. As new technologies, such as .NET, appear on the market, Java yields. A new language C# (as a part of .NET) has absorbed the best from Visual Basic, Java and C++.

Question: Considering information from various sources, the labor market, particularly, in the computer programming field isn’t specifically optimistic…

Answer: In the computer programming it’s always been optimistic and like none else. Another matter is that its structure has changed for the last 5 or 6 years. 10 years ago the relative boom had started, when a mass of people bursted into learning programming. They learned 1 or 2 languages and they got hired. It’s not enough any more. The requirements have grown since then. New technologies emerged. It is obvious that the economy has affected the market as well. But the economy is known to not go only up or only down. Nowadays the market gets better. This is a good time to start: in 9 to 12 months the market situation will be very benevolent, and it’s important to be ready by that time to offer the skills the market will need.

Question: What language the training will be held?

Answer: Exclusively in English. Besides that, specialists have to learn to operate with professional terminology, with technical language while performing job, and before that being ready for interviews to get that job. All the program vocabulary consists of English words. It doesn’t make much of sense to teach people in other languages, a s well as in French only to increase possibility of finding more job positions. If someone wants to learn French – there are languages course for that. After moving from Chicago to Montreal, without specific knowledge of French I worked as a contractor for a large French-speaking company: most of Canadians are bi-lingual. That’s knowledge that matters – not a language.

Question: What are requirements to enter this program, and what’s the fee?

Answer: No special requirements exist. Desirably people are to be between 25 and 50 years old. We don’t give vain promises. Almost immediately, in the very beginning, I can tell what are obstacles for someone to find a job, what people need to put efforts into. The fee is minimal: $3,000 for 9 months with initial $500 to claim a "seat" and the rest in monthly payments. That is, about $250 monthly. It’s less for an academic hour than a fee for private French courses.