5 questions for Bachelor's degree graduate Deniz Erdogan to understand why choosing to study at ITIS is the right decision for a foreign student.
Deniz Erdogan is from Turkey, graduated from ITIS in 2023, and is already the chief analyst at the Innovation Department (AIhub) Credit Europe Bank, and is also applying for a senior position because the company took him into the management trainee program in order to develop leadership and management skills.
We decided to ask him about how his career path began.
1. Why did you decide to come to study in Russia?
Since childhood, I have been interested in the culture and history of Russia, and I have read books by Russian writers such as Evgeny Zamyatin's "We" and Peter Kropotkin's "Notes of a Revolutionary" and "Mutual Assistance among Animals and Humans as an Engine of Progress." And when I had to make a decision about where to study, I had no doubts.
2. What attracted you to Kazan Federal University?
My friends have told me a lot about Kazan Federal University, besides, KFU has a high world ranking.
3. Why did you choose the field of information technology studies?
After technical education, you have a lot of opportunities. You can choose any field of activity, because IT specialists are needed everywhere - medicine, finance, education, media, etc. I liked this flexibility. For example, many related topics are integrated into the studies at ITIS. In my 3rd year, I enrolled in a Bioinformatics elective course where I studied biology, various technologies (PCR tests, etc.). The range of topics to study in our field is very wide, programmers will be useful everywhere.
4. What were your first impressions of studying in Russia and at KFU?
I realized right away that ITIS prepares students well for professional life. The training consists not only of programming-related courses, we also acquired some talents that played an important role in our careers, such as critical thinking, project management, research methods, analysis, etc. That's why we have a great advantage in selecting people who will apply for management positions (management trainee). I also made friends here. It is a very unique and enjoyable experience to meet and be friends with people from different countries.
5. By the way, you won the Russian Language Olympiad. How did you manage to master the language so well and what rule do you consider the most difficult in Russian?
I think that due to my interest in language and culture, for example, I like Tarkovsky's films, and I was motivated to watch his films in the original language. Russian and Turkish are somewhat similar, because both have cases, adverbs, etc. But there is something in the Russian language that was very difficult for me – these are exceptions. It takes a week to learn 1 rule, and a month to remember all the exceptions.
But it's all worth it, because studying at the Institute of Information Technology and Intelligent Systems of Kazan Federal University gave me a profession, an opportunity to build a career and live in Russia.