Без отличных оценок в IT: как построить карьеру в тех‑корпорациях

Summary of the Video’s Main Points

• Problem with “excellent grades” in tech careers: The speaker argues that corporate/IT recruitment often assumes candidates have outstanding academic performance, but most people are only average. This mismatch can lead to frustration, repeated rejections, and low self-confidence when resumes are filtered out.

• “Conveyor belt” metaphor: He compares the education system to a conveyor that funnels many students toward a single narrow “hole” (excellent grades). Those who can’t meet the grade criteria feel stuck in a gray mass and don’t know what to do next—especially when their grades don’t align with an idealized “vacancy profile.”

• Personal story of failure → consulting start (2011 onward):

  • By age 20, he describes himself as an introvert with very weak speaking skills and poor academic results, including being fired from a program and receiving terrible grades at university.
  • He struggles to get internships and top-company interviews (for example, being rejected after asking for an internship).
  • He fails an exam in internal accounting, then switches to a high-effort approach: spending weekends in the library, collecting materials, and retaking the exam successfully.

• Help others, build networks, and create opportunities:

  • After passing, he helps first-year students with that difficult subject.
  • Through this, he meets someone who later connects him to a contact at an internship-training environment in Düsseldorf.
  • Although he’s initially blocked there (not enough capacity for a second intern), he keeps applying and searching.

• Breakthrough via chance timing + persistence:

  • He ultimately gets a call because of a large SAP project context (DHL in Bonn).
  • During the recruiter/HR chain, his application is noticed “by chance.”
  • He experiences a long approval process, nearly loses hope, and then—almost unexpectedly—gets blocked at all levels, only for an offer to arrive quickly anyway.
  • This moment becomes his turning point from a “failing student” to a junior consultant.

• Thesis strategy: choose real trends, not academic hype:

  • He explains that universities and students often follow fashionable “hyped” thesis themes (especially in Germany at the time), such as topics prefixed with “sustainability.”
  • He warns that hype doesn’t always reflect what the market actually wants (he cites electric mobility as an example).
  • Rather than writing about fashionable subjects, he selects a less trendy topic aligned with emerging tech reality: SAP-related new module/subtopic work.
  • He describes academic constraints (needing many citations—roughly one source per page) and how most students could only achieve this by collecting many books. His chosen area lacked sufficient literature, so he compensates using whatever sources were available, including practical materials, screenshots/configuration evidence, and interviews.

• Result:

  • Even though his thesis grade was poor by scientific standards, it was still enough to graduate.
  • His thesis and background then help him get one of the early opportunities as a junior SAP subconsultant, leading to further consulting work (including a six-month internship).

Presenters / Contributors

• Alexey (mentioned as the host/initiator of the question)
• The main speaker / narrator (the person sharing the personal career story; no other name is provided in the subtitles)