The SSC aspirant who became a Backend Developer after Masai School
Born and brought up in the capital of the country, Harsh (25) was intrigued by the world of engineering from a very young age – when other kids around him were busy playing with toys, he was immersed in breaking each of them to understand how these things worked. He recognised his curious nature towards Science and took Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics along with Computer Science in class 11th.
For college, he went to Bengaluru (considered the Silicon Valley of India) to pursue a B.Tech. in Computer Science. However, after the very first year, he lost interest in the traditional method of teaching and instead chose to skip classes in the second year to attend various events and competitions related to coding and development. Such occasions introduced him to the corporate side of things and made him realise that he had a long way to go before he could recognise himself as a professional. He did a lot of internships during this time to equip himself with relevant skills.
He got placed at an MNC after graduation but abruptly got rejected before even joining the office. A dejected Harsh now took an internship in another MNC as a Research Analyst while also preparing for GATE; however, he could not score good enough to get into a good college. He also applied for a few jobs in between but wasn’t satisfied with the kind of package they were providing. Following such setbacks, he explored more options including government exams and boot camps when he came to know about Masai School.
Read the conversation to know more about how he turned his career’s fate in just 6 months while studying at Masai.
Talk about your initial experience at Masai School.
I was initially very confused about whether I should prepare for SSC or go for web development (I was interested in both). After a lot of contemplation, I realised that the chances of clearing the SSC exam were very slim – so I went ahead with the latter.
I spoke to Yogesh to understand more about Masai School and its PAP structure – which stated that I would only have to pay the fees after earning a job of more than Rs.5 LPA. Even though it all looked too good to be true, I took my chances and enrolled myself.
After clearing the test, I was invited for the orientation and was briefed about the 9-9-6 schedule (a military-style of training) which initially sounded very inconvenient to me. I wasn’t someone who was used to such a rigorous kind of training but with time, it became a smooth and exciting routine for me – all that was needed to follow our instinct and our passion.
Did you face any problems while learning?
As the curriculum moved ahead, I faced some hurdles in the 3rd month when the concepts got a little intense. However, the best part about studying at Masai is that they teach you ‘how to learn rather than just focusing on ‘what’ to learn. All my doubts were duly taken care of and I was able to learn new concepts with a simple yet effective approach as taught by the mentors.
What is the importance of discipline while you learn to code?
I believe that anyone can code but not everyone can code like a professional. It’s like a game of chess; once you move ahead, you cannot go back but you have the scope of improving yourself with every next move you make. It requires your full dedication and once you get the hang of things, there is no looking back. I have witnessed massive improvement in my own skills since when I started and today I can proudly say that it is only because of the confidence that my mentors showed in me that I felt inspired to give my 100% every single day.
Tell us more about the course and curriculum you enrolled in at Masai.
I opted for the 6-months Full Stack Development program. It included HTML, CSS, Node, JavaScript, Express, React and MongoDB which was spread over 6 units. Each unit was divided into 4 weeks and after every class, we were also given assignments to learn the application of each concept for real-life problems. The DS (Data Structure) classes focused on algorithms and the ‘why’ behind everything we were learning. Overall, it was made sure that we just didn’t learn every program; we were also taught how to connect every program with each other and as students, it was absolutely interesting for us!
They also have the IA program where our individual doubts are addressed with utmost attention and efficacy – all of this made it feasible for us to sail through the entire curriculum without any hesitation or issues.
How long did it take you to get placed after the course?
It did not take me more than a few weeks to get a job that provided me with 2-3X more salary than my previous job. At present, I work as a Backend Engineer with Eat.Fit and have completed my first month here recently.
It is amazing to see how I am able to incorporate all my learnings from Masai at work. Even though there are times when we have to deal with advanced or complex problems, I do not feel afraid to try them on as Masai has prepared us to take on new challenges with ease and a simple outlook. My family is happy to see the progress I have made in the last year and the credit for it goes to the sheer efforts put in by the team at Masai.
The Masai Experience
We at Masai appreciate Harsh’s passion for learning development. Moreover, he was one of those students who maintained regular contact with all his colleagues as well as mentors which never made him feel like he was alone in this journey. Seeing him thrive in his career makes us immensely proud and we hope that his story inspires our future students.