My Journey from Manufacturing to IT Industry

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Information technology is a lucrative field with so much diversity and also decent pay as compared to other industries. I started my career in the Manufacturing Industry and then switched to the IT industry. I got so many messages and emails regarding my journey from manufacturing to IT Industry. So in this blog, I will explain all things I did to get a job in IT Industry.

Background

I come from a small village Penbori in the Washim district of Maharashtra. I completed my

• Secondary Education from R. M. V. School in my village
• Higher Secondary Education in Computer Science from Bharat Secondary School, Risod
• Graduation in Mechanical Engineering from Sinhgad Academy of Engineering, Pune.

I was placed from campus in one home appliances manufacturer in Pune. While working there I learnt many things but after some time, my work became repetitive and confined to a specific area. Also, I had rotational shifts and long working hours. The hectic work schedule there made work-life balance impossible. I was also facing so many health issues.

A friend of mine, Aishwarya Upadhyay knew me since my graduation days and he knew what I was going through. He advised me to start with programming. I tried but couldn’t do studies parallel with work because of my hectic schedule. Then after lot of consideration, I decided to give up my job and study programming.

I decided to pursue PG Diploma in Advanced Computing from Centre for Development in Advance Computing (CDAC). I enrolled for the classes in Pune to prepare for CDAC’s entrance test. Classes were going to start on 26 Mar 2020. Everything was planned so I resigned and I left my job on 20 March 2020. There is phrase in English “Man proposes, God disposes”. Soon all my plans were shattered as the government announced a nationwide lock down on 25th March.

The classes started in online mode but lockdown forced me to stay in my native village. There were so many problems like network and electricity issue in attending online classes. Also, I lost one of my very close relative and also had to undergo a surgery. All these things consumed 6 months. I dropped my plan to pursue PG Diploma as I couldn’t get expected rank in CDAC entrace & it was going to be conducted in online mode. I had completely lost my morale and people started criticizing me for leaving my previous job.

In such a phase, my brother who is my support system, talked with Aishwarya Upadhyay. Aishwarya agreed to guide me by becoming my mentor. Aishwarya is working as Senior Data Sceintist at Seagate Technologies.

The Journey Begins

In November 2020, I started with Harvard’s CS50X: Introduction to Computer Science. Delivered by Harvard’s famous Prof. David Malan, it is considered one of the best CS Courses of all time. In the words of David “ This course teaches you how to design & implement solutions to the problem. It teaches you how to think more methodically, more critically and more computationally.”

CS50X is divided into 8 weeks and covers the following topics

• Scratch
• C
• Memory Management in C
• Basics of Data Structures and Algorithms
• Web Development with Flask
• Artificial Intelligence.

After you finish the content of every week, there are problem sets and lab you need to solve and submit. The problem set contains real-life problems from fields like Finance, Politics, genetics etc. Problems are certainly not beginner-friendly and I promise you that you will be stuck for days on the same problem set, but don’t give up easily. You need to learn the art of debugging and Google & Stack Overflow will be your best friends in your hour of need. CS50 problems are designed in such a way that you will learn more by solving problems than through the lectures.

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While solving the problem, you need to break the problem into steps and build it gradually. I remember being stuck on a single problem set for a week, I would ask my mentor for a solution but he would tell “Don’t give up easily, try once more”. All the efforts you will take in solving the problems are worth the joy you will get when you solve the problem.

You also have to submit one final project where you need to implement an idea of your own using everything you have learnt in the course. All the problem sets must pass all the tests.

Web Development

After CS50X, I was comfortable with web development so I decided to explore it further. CS50 also offers advanced courses like CS50Web, CS50AI, CS50Game Development. I started with CS50W: Web Programming with Python & JavaScript. This course covers web programming and it is delivered by Brian Yu.

CS50W covers the following topics in detail

• HTML
• CSS
• Git & GitHub
• Python
• Django
• SQL & Databases
• JavaScript
• UI Development with React
• CI / CD.

This course is also divided into 8 weeks and you will have to submit problems sets and a final project like CS50X. In this course, you have to develop web applications similar to Google Front End, Wikipedia, Twitter & Gmail as the solution for problem sets. This course covers everything you need to be a full stack developer.

After doing CS50W, I did one more course Complete Web Development Boot camp 2022 by Dr Angela Yu. One thing I would like to mention about Angela, relevant to this blog is that, she is a trained Doctor and worked for many years in the medical field. Later she learnt to program and started teaching it to others. Now she is one of the best teachers in the CS field. You can learn more about her journey here.

This Web Development Bootcamp covers the following topics

• How Internet & Websites work
• Front End Development with HTML, CSS, JS & Bootstrap
• React
• Design Principles for Aesthetics
• JavaScript & DOM Manipulation
• Back-end Development with Express.js & Node.js
• APIs, Git & Github
• Databases,SQL & MongoDB
• Authentication & Security

This course is sufficient to make you a MERN Stack Developer.

Internship & Job

After doing these courses I started applying for jobs & internships. Vikram Anand’s Dream Job Masterclass & Vaibhav Sisinty’s Linkedin Masterclass helped me for interview preparation. Also they taught me how to network with professionals and how to use Linkedin effectively for the job search.

I got an internship opportunity at Volibits Pune as Web Development Intern. Internships are great for working on real life project and getting industry exposure. I mainly worked on Front End Development using HTML, CSS, Bootstrap & JavaScript. While doing an internship, I got a job offer from Infosys to work in Data & Analytics. In interviews, they mainly asked me questions related to Python & Data Strictures. Currently, I am working there as System Engineer.

My Learning Journey

My Tips for Beginners

If you are at the same position as I was 2 years back, thinking to change your career because of whatever reasons you may have. Following things which I learnt in my journey may be helpful for you

• Find a Mentor : This is the most important thing if you want to have a successful career switch in a short time. I experienced that having a mentor who knows the field where you aspire to work will save you a lot of time, efforts and money.
• Follow your mentor : Just having a mentor is not enough, you need to also follow him. You should learn whatever he tells you to learn by giving your best.
• Cover the Basics: Strong Fundamentals are the foundation for the awarding career. You can start with CS50X or 100 Days of Python by Angela Yu. These courses are beginner-friendly and cover all the basics of CS.
• Identify Your Interest: While learning basics (especially from the above two courses), you will get idea of different tracks like Web Development, Game Development, Data Science, etc. You should find the track that fascinates you and you are comfortable with.
• Explore your Interest : Once you identify your interest, now you can dive deep inside it and learn everything about it. Become an expert in your track.
• Build Projects: Once you have learnt the things, now is the time to use them to solve problems. Build as many projects as you can. Start with simple and gradually start building complex projects. These projects will make your portfolio very attractive for the recruiters.
• Get the Job: Once you have the strong portfolio with numerous project, you can start applying for the jobs. LinkedIn is the best medium to network with people and get job opportunities.
• Never give up: In your job search or learning journey you may stuck at some problem or may get rejected many times, but never give up. Always wait for that one selection which will reward your handwork.

Conclusion

Hope this blog will give you an idea about what all things you may have to do if you are looking to change your career into IT Industry. If you have any specific questions, you can connect with me on LinkedIn. Thank You.