Sidhant balanced both job and course to learn software development at Masai

Born and brought up in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, Sidhant was clear in his mind as a young student that he had to become an engineer and for this, he took Science with C++ as his major in class 11th. This was his first experience with programming and he instantly fell in love with it. But it only lasted for 2 years.

After completing school, he decided to follow his father’s footsteps (an Electrical engineer) by pursuing B.Tech. in the same field. He lost his father when he was just 5 years old and it didn’t matter to him which course he was into, as long as he was in his memory.

After 4 years, he got job offers from various renowned companies like Wipro, Cognizant, Mindtree, Infosys and Accenture – out of which he went ahead with Cognizant. However, he left the company after 8 months due to some personal commitments and had to return to his hometown.

Not sure about his next career move, he joined a local college in Bhubaneshwar as a marketing executive for a short period while also preparing for various government exams (which got delayed due to the pandemic of Covid-19). Sidhant decided to pause for a while and think about what he wanted to do next in his career.

Read this conversation where he expresses how he spent the next 6 months of his life to reach where he is today.

When was the first time you heard about Masai School?

After some reflection over what I wanted to do in life, I decided to reignite my fondness for coding and development and looked for courses that could help me build a career out of it. This is how I got introduced to Masai School. 

I read about it on an online news portal and at that time it felt like the light at the end of a dark tunnel. It was a perfect place for people like me who had taken a gap in their career, not knowing what to do next. Moreover, there was no constraint on the students to pay the fees at the very beginning – we had the option of paying it only after we get a job of Rs.5 LPA. I spoke to my mother about it and decided to give it a try.

Were your parents supportive of your decision?

My mother grew very worried. On one hand, I was 28 with no proper job and on another, I was asking my mother if I could enroll for a course at this age. This probably happened because we were no very well-off financially and it was expected out of me to work and earn to run the house. 

After a thorough discussion with my mother, I decided to take up a job in parallel to the course at Masai so that I could fulfill everyone’s demands including mine. 

Was it difficult to manage a job while studying a rigorous course like Full Stack Web Development at Masai?

I got a job at Amazon under the transportation department with a night shift. This worked in my favour as Masai follows a 9-6-9 schedule which meant I could focus on my job after my classes. I would finish my classes at 6 pm, start with work at 7 pm and do the assignments in between my working hours and sleep at 4 am every day. While my friends and family thought it won’t be possible for me to handle both the things together, I carried it off smoothly because I was super determined to make it work.  

Tell us something about the course. What all did you study?

The curriculum at Masai is top-notch. It has been crafted keeping the current industry trends in mind and I was confident that it would help me become the kind of professional I wanted to be. We studied languages like HTML, CSS, Node, JavaScript, Express, React, MongoDB and Redux in depth. 

As I took another chance in my career and learned things from scratch, I knew that I would face difficulties while understanding certain concepts. However, the mentors at Masai were always present for clearing my doubts and they constantly motivated me to give my best. Which encouragement, I managed to complete most of the assignments on time and it boosted my self-confidence even more.

How did the placements go for you?

It took me quite some time to clear the interviews before I got placed at GlobalLogic as a software developer. The team at Masai was very supportive during the process; we were trained to enhance both our technical and soft skills. My communication skills improved drastically and because of it, I was able to clear the interview with good feedback. My family is very happy to see my current progress!

The Masai Experience

Sidhant could have left his desire to start something afresh after passing a certain phase of his career but he didn’t – his determination towards his goals was so immense that he fulfilled them even while working full-time. It is only because of such high-spirited individuals like him that we at Masai feel motivated to perform better for our students with each passing day.