This is what a career 2nd innings looks like with Masai School

Sanjay Patel (30) was born and brought up in Rewa, Madhya Pradesh. He currently works at Billion Lives as a Frontend Developer. 

When in school, he considered himself as an average student but his family thought otherwise. He was always among the top 3 students of the class. Being an introvert from the very beginning, he did not spend a lot of time thinking about his career plans in school. He spent most of his time studying and being immersed in his books. 

He had a strong foot in Mathematics so he decided to take PCM in Class 11 and scored well in his board exams. However, his family was not supportive of him taking admission to a private college due to financial instability. As a result, he pursued B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from a local government college without having clear goals in his mind. 

Within a few weeks, he felt disinterested in the course as he could not focus on the classes. Instead, he explored coding and website development outside the classroom with his friends. This became the foundation of his interest in software development, something he didn’t know he would pursue at a later stage with Masai School.

Read the candid conversation with him where he opens up about what followed after college and what ultimately led him to Masai:

What did you pursue after graduation?

I wasn’t really sure of what I wanted to do in terms of my career after finishing college. In the final year, I appeared for the GATE exam and even qualified for NIT, however, my elders were expecting me to get a reputed job as a Civils Officer just like my elder brother. I moved to Delhi for a year to prepare for UPSC and various other exams but could not clear any of those due to underlying health issues. 

Following this, I took admission in UIT, Bhopal, based on my GATE score but left it after 3 semesters as my family demanded my presence back home due to financial constraints. To support them, I joined a coaching institute as a Mathematics teacher.

How did you come across Masai School?

I quit teaching at the coaching institute when things became stable at home in 2018. After some thought, I decided to discover my passion for coding again and moved to Bengaluru with my cousin. He introduced me to Masai School and told me about the people he knew who got placed from here. 

I did my research about it and I must say, I was highly impressed. For someone who had seen such ups and downs in his career, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to avail. I was also relieved that I didn’t have to pay any fee without getting a job of Rs.5 LPA. 

Was the 9-9-6 schedule at Masai fruitful for you? 

After admission, I was introduced to the military-style 9-9-6 schedule followed at Masai – which meant that I had to give my full dedication to the curriculum without fail. It changed my routine for real, as I wasn’t someone who would wake up early in the morning or sleep on time. This routine turned out to be so fruitful for me that I still follow it without fail.

Tell us more about your course and assignments.

I enrolled for the Full Stack Web Development course that covered HTML, CSS, Node, JavaScript, Express, React and MongoDB. Along with daily assignments, weekly tests and compulsory meet-ups with our colleagues, we were also given weekly team projects (beginning from week 1 itself) for a better understanding of the concepts and team spirit. 

For someone who had no prior experience in HTML or CSS, initially, it was difficult for me to understand some concepts. To add to it, I also had poor skills in English. Thanks to Masai, not only did I get the chance to learn to program with industry experts but also polish my communication skills. Yogesh and other mentors gave me sessions on how I could improve my dialect and how to stand out during job interviews. This was a rare kind of gesture that I had witnessed from all my previous setbacks. 

How did the placements go for you?

I got placed in the same month I completed my course. I earn a decent income for my family now and so far, the experience of working in the corporate world has been delightful. While there are new concepts that I have to learn apart from what I had learnt during the course, it hasn’t been a roadblock for me as now I know the ‘art of learning new things because of Masai. 

The Masai Experience

Sanjay shows us that one may start their 2nd innings in a career with a lot of inhibitions but if one is disciplined and determined enough to fulfil their dreams, then there is nothing that can stop them. Looking back at where he came from and what he has managed to achieve in 6 months, we are sure that he feels immensely proud of his journey, just like we do.