The story of an IT official who returned from the United States to Ukraine during the War: "I feel Ukraine and the people here. And I want to keep everything I love."

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, about 497 thousand of our compatriots have returned to Ukraine. Among them is Anton — itovets, who moved to the United States four years ago, and now joined one of the volunteer battalions in Ukraine. He told DOU about how he dreamed of living in the United States, where he was caught by the news about the war, why he returned to Ukraine and what he would do after the victory.

At the request of the hero, we publish the story anonymously.

How it all started:"I've been dreaming of visiting the States for a long time"

I was born in Ukraine, I have a technical education, which I received at FIOT, KPI. Almost everyone who has completed something technical, according to my observations, becomes programmers. So it turned out for me. Now I work as a Senior Frontend Developer. In general, my stack is: .NET, C#, JavaScript, Amazon Web Services, Angular, but at the moment the key ones are TypeScript, Node .js and AWS.

I started working in the 3rd-4th year. My first customer was the Kiev Institute, for which I spent three months developing software for measuring the temperature in boilers. Then it was an unknown area for me. I read the manuals in English, communicated with the customer myself, and then tried to adapt it to the technical parameters. And in general, I realized what important softskils are and what I miss:)

In the first full-time job I got, the company's client was a foreign medical firm for which I developed the portal. And after a while, I went to a Ukrainian-American company, from which I went on business trips to the United States.

I must say that I have long dreamed of visiting the States. I read various books: Carnegie, Napoleon Hill "Think And Grow Rich". You know, this youthful maximalism. I wanted to see how people live and work there.

Relocation to the States: "my salary was not bad, but if I were an American, I would get more"

After I returned from business trips to the States, I began to look for a company that could move me there. I knew that there were not so many of them in Ukraine, and I spent three months preparing for interviews.

But it was not so easy to arrange a move. When I said in an interview with one of the largest Ukrainian IT companies at that time that I wanted to work in the United States, they began to calculate whether it was profitable to hire me. In the end, I was assigned an additional interview, and I went to the project. It was 2016. Then I had to change the stack from .NET to Front-end .

Four years ago, I was relocating, and the first thing I realized was that Americans are not saints in business and they have a lot of "Dickie". At least in insurance companies. I worked in the IT Department of an insurance company, and there was no such level of it as in Ukraine, completely different approaches to development, and not the best. I realized that Ukrainian programmers have very cool technical skills and understanding of architecture.

What Americans are cool about is communication. And for Our specialists, this is the biggest problem. Sometimes they don't feel the customer's "pain" when speed is required. And they don't understand that sometimes meeting the deadline is much more important than writing good code.

As for the job itself, I worked in a client's office. I didn't feel like I was working for the company that moved me. I rarely even checked my email. Completely immersed in the customer's environment.

At first I was supposed to be a frontend employee, and when I arrived, it turned out that I was hired as a specialist in Amazon Web Services. But nothing, I learned everything. I earned доларів 100k a year and lived in Philadelphia. My salary was not bad, but if I were an American, I would get more.

"I was sick and tired of it, and I burned out many times"

I've been a timlid for the last seven months. To be honest, I was sick and tired of it, and I burned out many times. But I couldn't tell the team that, they say, sorry, dudes, I was sick of everything. So instead, like a parrot, he kept saying, " Yo, how are you, what's new?». But this couldn't last long, so I decided to take a break and recharge. And a little more travel. I had just received a green card at that time.

First I thought to go to Los Angeles, which I really like, then take a sailing yacht and walk to Hawaii to surf. One of my hobbies is yachting. And then return to Ukraine for half a year, do not rush anywhere, enjoy life and make music, DJ. This is my new hobby.

But inwardly I knew that I would go home before traveling. Although he hoped that a full-scale war would not start.

"The news of the Russian invasion caught me in a bar"

On February 24, the guys I went sailing with went for a beer. We talked about the war, and one of them, a former military man, proved that Ukraine would not stand for even a few days. That it will be like in Afghanistan, where there were a lot of military personnel, but they did not fight back. And I didn't agree with him. Then I looked at the news, and there Kiev is being bombed. And he's like, " dudes, the war has begun." I called my mom. My parents live near Kiev.

For a few days, I was shocked and very stressed. And then he meditated, which I've been doing for the last five years. I thought about the topic of death, injury, and accepted that it was possible. I decided to return home anyway and understood that you can get injured while fighting, and just as a civilian during the shelling.

In addition, I have a therapist, I talked to him about the war a few months before — I was thinking about whether I was ready to go to it if it started. War is super-effort. You give your best, fighting on the front line is extremely difficult. And I was exhausted from my job, and I didn't know if I could "pull it all out". It wasn't easy mentally.

Return to Ukraine: "I was already ready to go, and in the evening I saw a video of thermobaric bombs breaking down, burning everything for several kilometers"

I arrived in Poland on March 1. Before landing, I asked the flight attendant, with the pilot's permission, to announce a gathering of those who are heading to Ukraine on the plane. On the plane, and then at the airport, I met Ukrainians who were planning to go to Kiev as volunteers. I also decided to join. They didn't want to take me at first because I didn't have any combat experience, but I said I had drones and they agreed. All of them had military experience, some participated in more than one war.

In Poland, we contacted Ukrainian volunteers. Let's go to a hastily created database. There I was given a helmet and armor. I planned to buy them myself, but there was nowhere else to go. So with my new friends, we ran around the shops, bought additional equipment, bought a car to go to Kiev.

I was ready to go, and then in the evening I saw a video of thermobaric bombs exploding, burning everything for several kilometers. And I was very afraid to go to the epicenter of all this. I wanted to run out of the house and buy a ticket back to America. I remember trying to cram additional Kevlar into the armor, which was already heavy. However, I overcame my fear and went to bed.

In the morning, it turned out that there was so much equipment in our car that I just couldn't fit. The guys said:"Listen, there is a volunteer here who will go to Kiev, he will be able to drop you off, here is your phone number." I contacted that volunteer, and on March 3, we crossed the border.

I came to Lviv and stayed for a few days with a friend. I decided to join the volunteers and undergo combat training as part of some dobrobat. After I trained in armor, I realized that I had to do sports for a year instead of doing nothing. And I also wrote off a Ukrainian coach who was supposed to give me exercises to pump up my back.

There was one not very pleasant story with the volunteers. I looked at one thing at the base, a Kevlar plate, and then it disappeared. And they blamed me for it. Because the camera shows me touching it, and the next few minutes are empty. I was seriously attacked, but someone said: "Let's deal with it in a civilian way," and called the police. I talked to them, they shoveled all my things, phone, and then the SBU did it according to the same scenario.

Interestingly, in the end, first the SBU shook hands, then the police, and then the volunteers. The time is like this.

In dobrobat: "I realized that I was a soldier, like a shit bullet, but I can perform some tasks"

Therefore, during these few days that I was in Lviv, I went to one volunteer battalion through volunteers and joined it. We are currently preparing.

We were given certain tasks. I realized that I was a soldier like a shit bullet, but I could still do some things. Our direction is aerial reconnaissance. And I'm currently preparing for it the most. I will help people who are directly fighting. My task is to identify enemy targets. However, this is also a big risk, because the work is on the front line.

Those who stopped by first are "marinated"for a long time. It is not known where and when we will be sent, maybe we are talking about two weeks, or maybe more. Among us, 20% of Ukrainians who lived abroad.

I often think about Ukraine, its significance for me. Of course, this is my home, and also a shelter where I can come and Rest, where the whole world will not touch me. I can feel Ukraine and the people here. And I want to keep everything I love. I also like going to raves... And people who just get high from music, carefree, relaxed, happy — for such simple and important things it is worth fighting.

In conclusion

After the victory, I will go to the states, take all the music equipment and return to Ukraine to volunteer and rebuild it. And then Los Angeles, Hawaii, sailboat racing, surfing and parties :)

I'll be back in it too, but I need a long break. Perhaps I will move to the role of a manager and lead some project.

I also want to fulfill a long-standing desire and travel around the world.