NE EDUCATION BUREAU
CHENNAI, SEP 27
Learning is a lifelong process to keep pace with the fast changes taking place. Rising above mediocrity, Abirami S, a system engineer from a service-based company in Chennai, received a staggering 300% salary hike after 11 months of tech upskilling. Abirami cracked the first interview she undertook post-upskilling, securing a product-based job at Zetwerk.
Born and brought up in an ambitious family in Chennai with multiple successful engineers employed in the US, Abirami aspired to be an engineer since childhood. However, due to the lack of proper guidance in her school, her path toward becoming a skilled engineer seemed very unclear. During the critical years of Class 11 and 12, Abirami was unaware of the significance of preparing for IITs and other important engineering entrance exams. Due to this lack of clarity and counsel, she had to settle for a Tier 3 engineering college in the city, studying Computer Science, the stream of her choice.
- Apart from learning the necessary skills to master the art of software development, upskilling helped me believe in myself and provided me with the confidence to tackle the coding challenges thrown at me: Abirami S, Scaler Alumni.
- When a learner sticks to their career goals and is ready to go to any lengths to achieve that goal, dreams are bound to become a reality: Abhimanyu Saxena, Co-founder of Scaler and InterviewBit
- Now, reaping the benefits of continuous learning, Abirami urges every techie to focus on growth and learning, understanding the software industry’s scope and need.
While most of her peers were investing time to hone their coding and software development skills, Abirami didn’t step out of the set curriculum, fearing failure.
However, being a hard worker and consistently doing well in her studies, Abirami secured excellent marks and was a rank holder in her batch. She secured a decent job in the service-tech industry. Abirami once again settled with whatever was being offered without questioning the status quo. A good part of the 2.5 years at the service-based company went by with Abirami being placed on the reserve bench, with little to no career growth. This, in turn, led to her contemplating her choices and thus seeking her friends’ counsel to achieve sustainable career growth. A few of her coder friends had first-hand experience with tech upskilling from Scaler, and they recommended that Abirami undertake the Scaler Academy program. After much deliberation, this seemed like the ideal opportunity to help her scale greater heights in her career.
“The first three to four years of one’s career is when the learning curve is generally steep. Hence, it is important to identify the right career decisions and grab the best opportunities during this phase of life. For me, I knew exactly where I wanted to be. My target was squarely set on landing a job in a product-based company. But, the path to reach that goal was very unclear. I was looking for guidance that could direct me toward this goal. Upskilling in software programming was precisely that for me. A guiding light toward my dream job. Apart from learning the necessary skills to master the art of software development, upskilling helped me believe in myself and provided me with the confidence to tackle the coding challenges thrown at me. Moreover, it helped me develop the attitude of giving everything a try in life, without the fear of failure or results holding me back,” said Abirami S, Scaler Alumni.
Through mock interviews and mentorship provided by industry experts in the tech industry during her upskilling program, Abirami was ready to handle the real-world challenges of software development. With this new lease on life, equipped with the right skills for a product-based company, she was now optimistic about reaching her target. Abirami went on to secure her dream job as a Full-stack developer (SDE 2) at Zetwerk, with three times the remuneration she received from her first stint with the service-based company.
Speaking on Abirami’s success, Abhimanyu Saxena, Co-founder of Scaler and InterviewBit, said, “Today, the need for skilled software professionals is massive in the country. Even as our engineers secure the required educational qualifications, they seem to lack critical thinking and problem-solving skills, which the industry demands. Understanding this need and internalising the desire to bridge the skill-gap situation is very important for every software engineer to stay relevant in the current tech environment. Only then can a coder leave a mark and impact the industry. All credit to Abirami for understanding this need and taking the right decisions toward becoming a skilled software developer in a product-based company. When a learner sticks to their career goals and is ready to go to any lengths to achieve that goal, dreams are bound to become a reality.”
After securing her dream job, Abirami has been on a growth journey with her team at Zetwerk, winning multiple awards for her high-impact contributions to the organisation. Now, reaping the benefits of continuous learning, Abirami urges every techie to focus on growth and learning, understanding the software industry’s scope and need.
