This is how a Professor transitioned into a UI Developer: Chaitanya’s story

Nistala Chaitanya, 30, is not your regular UI Developer- it has taken him a roller-coaster ride to reach where he is today. Born and brought up in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, he had been a brilliant student since his childhood and was always among the top 3 students of his school till class 12th.

After completing school in 2012, he opted for B.Tech at Anna University, Tamil Nadu in Electronics & Communications. Moving forward, he decided to dig deeper into the field he had already graduated in and completed his M.Tech in Radar & Microwave Engineering from Andhra University in 2015. It is believed that Radar & Microwave Engineering is one of the toughest subjects under Electronics & Communications- the reason why he opted for such a difficult subject was only because of his zeal for continuous learning and acquiring knowledge.

Within a week of completing his M.Tech, Chaitanya got a job as an Assistant Professor at a private university in Visakhapatnam. He says, “I always wanted to become a teacher and then do a PhD. My dream came true when I got placed as an Assistant Professor and by the end of 5 years, I was among the top-performing faculty members of my department. I also received a lot of appreciation from the principal, the teachers and the students. It was a wonderful experience.”

So how did coding come into his life?

While it was true that Chaitanya was interested in teaching from the very beginning, he also developed a little interest in Programming and Product Development during his college days- he got introduced to MATLAB, which required basic coding and was easier for him as compared to other software. After understanding the potential of coding in today’s world, he decided not to restrict himself to just one field and opened his doors to learn more about Information Technology. Being from a non-Computer Science background, he knew his options to learn coding from scratch would be limited but he began his search anyway.

“One fine morning, I came across an article in a newspaper. It mentioned a few programs that were meant to help people like me, looking forward to switching their field and Masai School happened to be one of those. What impressed me about Masai was its military-style schooling- the curriculum, the discipline and the schedule it offered to its students seemed very genuine. In fact, I was surprised that students didn’t have to pay any fees unless they got a well paying job in a relevant role. As a result, I immediately gave the entrance test and joined the course without further ado.”

As he had been a teacher himself, he knew the importance that an institution holds for its students. It took him 2–3 months to finalise an institution for himself that didn’t make false promises to its students and also focused on intensive teaching. The fact that Masai was absolutely student-centric with concrete timings, he knew he would be getting an ample amount of time and support to learn as well as practice. Even though he struggled a little in the initial days as he came from a non-Computer Science background, he found himself motivated soon enough as the classes took their pace.

After finishing the course successfully, Chaitanya braced himself for the placements in April 2020 when the unfortunate Covid-19 pandemic hit the world- this meant that he would have to wait till things got in control. It was after 2 months of waiting that he finally landed himself a job as a UI Developer at Aggregate Intelligence in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

Today, as he looks back to contemplate on his journey, he credits the confidence that Masai infused in him- “At Masai School, we had a soft skills class for 1 hour every day, right from the commencement of the course. Our instructor Yogesh used to teach us valuable lessons that were very important to face the outside world- be it going for demo labs or participating in hackathons- he taught us to be presentable in every aspect.”

Before joining, Chaitanya too wasn’t sure like most students that switching his field to coding would prove to be a wise decision or not. To clear his inhibitions, he asked the CEO of Masai School, Prateek Shukla, if it was okay for him to try a new field- “He told me that it doesn’t matter at all. What really matters is the confidence and ability to learn new skills that one must possess to thrive.” Along with Prateek, Aman and Nrupul too had been an integral part of his time at Masai because of their constant support and guidance.

Chaitanya strongly recommends Masai School to aspiring Developers because of its curriculum that takes care of the ‘industry needs’, which are actually required for an individual to land a job in the IT sector. Even though things are smooth now, he still wishes that one day, one completing this phase of his career — he gets back to teaching and is able to share the valuable lessons (both technical and moral) he learnt from Masai that helped him become the person he is today.