Entering the world of cryptocurrency as a front-end developer: Vaishnavi’s journey

I would like to highlight the Industrial Mentor Sessions where they pair you with an industry professional. These professionals assess you on the basis of your strategic approach and knowledge of coding which eventually help you to improve your overall game. 

Vaishnavi Bharat Kawthankar

Vaishnavi, an exceptional student and professional, hails from the metropolitan city of Mumbai. She currently works as a front-end developer at CoinSwitch, a trusted marketplace for crypto trading. 

We recently had a candid conversation around her journey at Masai and about how she evolved from being an electronics engineer to a front-end developer. 

Here are some interesting excerpts from the interaction-

Tell us about yourself and your life before Masai

I have spent almost my entire life in Mumbai with my parents, both of whom are working professionals with eminent organizations. I am an Electronics and Telecommunications engineer from the Don Bosco Institute of Technology. After college, I got placed at a private company where I worked as a software engineer for 3 years.

What compelled you to leave electronics engineering?

In our country, we have a sad reality where most engineers, despite belonging to different fields, are tagged as software engineers. Unfortunately, I too was a part of this trend but under this role, I never really worked on software. 

After 3 years, I decided to take a leap of faith and leave my job to learn more about actual programming and development as this field is undoubtedly more in demand than other fields. I talked to my parents and after a lot of convincing, they finally let me leave my job and take up studies again in order to become a software developer. 

How did you end up joining Masai?

While researching for options to study after quitting my job, I could either move to the U.S. to pursue M.S. or apply for a Master’s in India or just go for a short term course to have a deeper understanding of web development. 

It is when I came across the Masai’s website that I found the perfect solution to my problem- the website is so well-defined that it immediately impressed me. I liked Masai’s out of the box approach to teaching and a brilliant curriculum. I even got the curriculum reviewed by some of my friends in the IT sector and they were convinced that it was amazing what they were offering. 

So that’s it- I applied and got in soon.

What was your experience of studying at Masai?

It was prolific, to say the least. I never really doubted their pace, curriculum or the faculty- I just decided to spend the next 7 months of my life dedicatedly to learning what was being offered to me. I have always been a studious person and the kind of environment they have made for everyone to learn makes it just more enjoyable than most regular institutes in the country. 

While I spent most of the day’s time in studies, I also made sure to interact with some fellow students every day after classes. It felt like a little breather at the end of the day. We even created our own little study group to discuss various topics and it was always an option for us to reach out to the faculty in case of any blocker.

Talking about the faculty, I must emphasize the fact that no matter where you are on this planet, if you have signed up for Masai, you can easily expect that they will track you down from any corner of the world and help you deal with all kinds of study-related and even personal problems. Not for a single day do you feel like you are alone in this journey and the major credit for this goes to the Instructors and IAs.

In just 7 months, I was able to learn full stack web development on the MERN stack, including front-end development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), Data structures & algorithms, Node.js & Express.js, among others. I also worked in a team to build real-time projects during the Construct weeks. That was another amazing experience.

Apart from studying, what are the other aspects that you would like to highlight about Masai?

I would like to highlight the Industrial Mentor Sessions where they pair you with an industry professional. These professionals assess you on the basis of your strategic approach and knowledge of coding which eventually help you to improve your overall game. 

Apart from these, there are also various activities and sessions related to soft skills development such as Skillathon which was a regular part of the curriculum- it shows that Masai is not just dedicated to teaching but it also cares about the overall development of its students. 

Tell us about your experience during the placements. How did you get a front-end developer role?

After the course, I was shortlisted for 2 companies, MPR and CoinSwitch. The recruitment process happened simultaneously for both of them for 3 days and by the end of the 4th day, I got the offer from both the companies. I was ecstatic!

I decided to go for CoinSwitch eventually because of various factors, one of them being that it’s a product based company. I had already worked for a service-based company in my previous job and it was time to try out new ventures.

Being a woman, what do you feel about the gender disparity in the tech field?

I honestly do not like it when people are given more or less attention due to their preferred gender. I believe everyone should be treated equally and it’s high time that we normalize the fact that women, just like men, are capable of thriving in any field they choose to be in.

While I do not appreciate gender disparity in any form, I would like to mention that it’s great how Masai does not show any kind of bias among its students. We all are just treated as budding coders no matter which race, background or gender we belong to. Every student is given equal preference and I love this aspect here!

Lastly, any advice that you would like to give to aspiring developers who wish to join Masai?

I would just say that they should go for it without any second thoughts. There are hundreds of students doing well in their careers, thanks to Masai and this proves that it is not a scam. It is a genuine place for anyone who wishes to become a better coding professional and once you give it a try, you will definitely not regret it. 

I am glad that the 7 months of the deadline that I gave to myself turned out to be worthy and I can easily give the credit to the professionalism with which Masai operates.