Breaking Boundaries: Aman's Journey from a B.A. Graduate to Successful Developer

Aman Kumar from Jammu was all but a normal B.A graduate with a curious interest in coding. So much so that when opportunity knocked on his door he decided to step out of his comfort zone and build a future in the tech industry.

He went from being a B.A graduate to being student of tech with Masai to an Instructional Associate with the institute, an extraordinary feat. Now employed with SenseHawk as a software engineer, Aman joins us for a quick chat to shed some light on his wonderful journey.

How did you get to know about Masai?

It was actually through a lucky encounter on YouTube. I was just browsing randomly when an ad for Masai popped up. I was interested in coding, so it immediately made me curious later and I absorbed everything on the Masai homepage.

What was your parents' reaction?

Initially, they were very doubtful. They’d never seen something like pay after placement, so it’s funny, but it felt like a scam to them. So I waited for a bit, going through all the reviews and alumni success stories.

But it eventually came down to how popular Masai got. That gave me more confidence to move forward with my decision to join.

What’s your favorite thing about Masai?

The best thing is that Masai school gives you the freedom to choose your path. You don’t have to worry about the fees first, that liberation from financial constraint makes Masai so appealing to many people like me.

Once you’re free from worrying about how you’ll afford the education in the first place you can actually focus on learning and succeeding at your goals.

What was your experience with a practice-based curriculum?

At the start, it was challenging because you’re coding for a massive chunk of your day which you’ve probably never done before. And as a student, I tend to worry about a lot of other things like upcoming evaluations, preparing well for interviews, etc.

But once you actually sit through the placements process, you do realize that everything you did during your course is helping you perform well now. So if a fresher were to get a job in a company, they might feel exhausted from everything, but a Masai student can cope with it.

Tell us about your construct week experience

During our construct week project, we’re tasked with building real-world projects, ones that mimic what the industry demands. And initially, it was tough to perform according to my expectations because it was something new.

It was a team effort, and sometimes we’d have communication gaps or a clash of ideas and it’d make things hard. But in my current job role, I create projects very similar to that one, so my experience not just with code itself but also working as a team directly plays into it.

So the construct week project has been very helpful in that sense.

How was your placement experience?

I actually chose not to sit for the placement process since I decided to become an Instructional Associate with Masai first. Afterward, with that experience as my foundation, I entered the placement process. So I interviewed for only two companies before landing a job opportunity with SenseHawk.

I was hesitant at the start of the process, but after my first interview, I had grown quite comfortable since I realized that my Masai experience had prepared me well. I went in with confidence during the second interview and cracked it successfully.

What do you think Masai is doing differently from other institutes?

One major difference between Masai and normal college education is the amount of practical experience you get with the former. Students don’t touch computers until their final year, let alone build industry-level experience.

Plus, the pay-after-placement model essentially eases the financial burden a student carries around all the time. Instead, allowing all that energy to go into building skills and getting real-world experience that would actually be useful in a job.