How an aspiring pilot changed her route to become a Software Developer — Richa’s story
Richa Chauhan persevered in her pursuit of success and never gave up on herself. Born and brought up in Khurja, Uttar Pradesh, Richa belongs to a family with a diversified background- which created an ecosystem of support for her to pursue her interests.
Growing up, just like any other student she wasn’t very focused on studies, and loved dancing and painting instead. She realized the importance of studies only after her tenth grade. During high school, her father led her through the various career options available to her, and she chose Science as she aspired to become a pilot. Later Richa got herself an admission in Gujarat University for a BSc degree in Electronics.
After completing her BSc, she changed her mind of becoming a pilot, and decided to pursue MCA for the next three years of her life.
During her MCA, she developed an interest in coding, databases, and programming languages like Java. However, the placement cell in her college was hiring for completely unrelated profiles. Determined to find a job related to coding and programming she worked as an unpaid intern for a company just to gain experience.
A moment of realization hit Richa- she understood that if she needed to grow, then she would need more technical skills which she currently lacked. That’s when Richa decided to take some courses to help improve her skills.
While exploring and researching online she stumbled upon Masai School, which not only offered her the opportunity to learn skills but also assured her a software job relevant to her skills with a good salary, once she graduated from the program. The best part for Richa was the fact that Masai School asked for no upfront payment, and believed in skilling rather than money making.
During her course, she not only learned new technical skills but also built a routine to improve her everyday productivity. She was also able to manage her time well, for which she is grateful to the 9 to 9 to 6 routine. According to her, Masai pushed her out of her comfort zone, transforming her into a more disciplined and self-aware person.
As the curriculum became more challenging with each passing day, so did her determination; learning new skills and gaining knowledge in something new was not easy, but Masai made it possible. She appreciates her mentor Abhishek’s efforts, who was always on the backend to support her. Masai not only taught her the course visually but also gave her projects to practice on, teaching her how to function as part of a team, thereby building effective communication skills.
It took her two months after the completion of her course to get a job but she lost it after a few months due to the pandemic. However, Masai continued to help her and she recalls the efforts of her colleague Shweta in providing her with new opportunities. The result of this continuous support was very fruitful for Richa as she had 3 job offers in hand after some weeks.
She is presently employed at Sigtuple as a Software Developer, and no matter what her challenges are, she continues to strive harder and learn something positive from them. She inspires our next-generation developers by saying:
“As the world keeps on changing and moving forward, always be ready to learn new things. The habit of learning will allow you to become more capable, and with this, you will be able to solve any problem you come across.”
