JUST FIVE WILL TRAVEL TO THE VALLEY

— The process is as follows — we announce a competition, make a selection, staff members view the startups where they would like to undertake the internship, then claim a visa and go to the Valley, and come back to Kazakhstan in half a year, — said the program Manager of the Yessenov Foundation, Roumissa Bashayeva. – The first two years we received about 120 applications for the program. The competition is open to graduate students and working professionals in the field of IT from all over Kazakhstan.

Deadline for submitting applications is at midnight, October 21. The foundation and independent experts will then review them and by November 5, the first stage will be completed.

— First of all, we will assess candidate’s knowledge of programming languages, work experience as a programmer, intellectual integrity, and English proficiency as well as other aspects, for example, volunteering experience, — says Yeldar Akhmetgaliyev, a Trustee and the Expert Board’s head.

20 participants shortlisted for the second stage will be notified by e-mail and the list of contenders will be posted on the foundation’s website. The second stage of the competition will wrap up by late November. Participants will be interviewed (in person or online) by members of the Expert Board.

— At this point, we will be assessing candidates’ professional skills, their ability to acquire, assimilate and analyze new information, to find innovative solutions, communication skills and the ability to logical justify chosen solutions. Based on the results we will have selected five winners who get to do the internship in 2019, — Yeldar continues.

Yessenov Foundation has been holding this grant competition since 2016. Five Kazakhstanis have already completed their internships in the USA, while the other five are still at the Valley until this November. All of the winners that had returned home went on to work with the startups remotely. For instance, Yernar Amergaliyev has founded VimChat‘s local branch in Astana, employing 8 Kazakhstanis. The head of the company visited Kazakhstan. During his stay in Almaty, he presented the startup to Galimzhan Yessenov and highly appreciated the work of Kazakhstan specialists.

Olzhas Aitbekov, one of the winners, is currently completing his internship at Arka startup (package design and manufacturing), shares his story:
— Participation in the program and the internship has changed my mindset at large. My values have changed, I have more self-confidence. Internship at the Valley is a jump start for personal and professional growth. The atmosphere is very inspiring here, and I am happy doing something meaningful.

Sergey Tian (POWr Intern) anticipates the internship to be a major career changer for him. “I love the team and the company environment. It brings inspiration to my work and impetus to do my best,” he adds. Sergey’s co-participant in the program, Arai Sabyrzhan believes that another driver for development is the fact that “you see strong developers every day and work with them”. Another winner of the foundation’s grant, Islam Madeniyat, plans to complete his work at ShotTracker next year in January.

— There was no delay whatsoever – I arrived here and plunged into work right away. Good thing I had studied the project in advance, which is an application for basketball fans. There was a lot of pressure as I had to bring my A-game since the Jr. NBA championship was drawing near. In the end, we did it, we delivered the most accurate data about the games in real time to the fans, athletes and coaches at the event,” Islam shared his progress.