How an electrical engineer switched careers to join Capgemini

Adluri Janak Bharadwaj

Janak Bharadwaj was born and brought up in Karimnagar, Northern Telangana. As a student, he studied in various Tier 2-3 schools because of limited access to quality education in his area. Things got better when he received a chance to study in Hyderabad to complete his high school. Here, he excelled both in studies as well as co-curricular activities.

His father is a civil engineer and his mother a college lecturer who had always wanted the finest education for their child – following which they did not pressurise him to run after success but excellence. While he could not make it to a premier college after taking Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics in class 12th and preparing for JEE, he was satisfied that he did not disappoint himself or his parents. 

Owing to his interest in Mathematics, he learnt that graduation in Electrical Engineering would give him the opportunity to apply his understanding of the concepts in a practical way. However, he soon realised that the traditional style of teaching at his college wasn’t up to the mark in terms of industry standards. For most of the subjects, he was encouraged to just mug up and appear for the exams. Furthermore, during the time of placements, most companies that came onboard looked forward to hiring employees for the IT sector. This made Janak’s situation a bit difficult. 

Read the full conversation with him to know about how he changed tracks to learn Software development at Masai School

What happened during the college placements?

Most companies that came to campus placements preferred students from the IT department as opposed to a traditional field like ours. After a long wait, one renowned company came forward for other departments and hired a few of us. However, after sending the offer letter, the company did not get back to us for almost half a year and we were very dejected.  

So what did you do after this setback?

I prepared and appeared for a few government exams but did not have good luck in those either. In fact, I also gave the GATE exam during this time in which I got a good score. This score helped me pursue Masters from JNTU, Hyderabad and I took admission as I had nothing else in my mind back then. While studying here, I learnt that when you go for core subjects like Electrical, it takes a lot of years to grow as opposed to newer subjects like Computer Science.

This thought struck me when I was in the 2nd year of post-graduation and interning with Renew Power in Hyderabad. It was an on-site job where we were required to prepare reports for our clients manually. To get this done, I started using certain software that made life easier for me – all the work that I was doing by myself was now automated. I realised the importance of software development after this experience and decided to explore my options in this field. 

How did you come across Masai School?

A friend of mine is an alumnus of Masai School and he introduced me to it. I was looking for a setup that was willing to take students like me with no background in Computer Science. However, after seeing my friend’s unbelievable growth, I thought of giving it a try as there was no risk involved (Masai does not ask for any kind of fees from you unless you earn a job of more than Rs.5 LPA). 

And just like that, I was soon a part of Masai’s Full Stack Web Development program.

How was your overall experience at Masai School?

Initially, the 9-9-6 training was hard; I wasn’t someone who would dedicate such long hours to study. However, I soon understood the importance of focusing on things that would prepare me both for life and the corporate world. This motivated me to attend every class with absolute dedication. 

The mentors are extremely supportive and cooperative at Masai. All my doubts were duly cleared even outside class hours. At Masai, we got the full leverage of applying what we learnt during our lectures and were given regular assignments to showcase our newly acquired skills. 

One life skill I learnt that I cherish the most is leadership – I worked on a team project with another student during the pandemic. We were working on the clone of a website and it required extra great efforts as things got a bit haywire during the pandemic. There was a time when my partner was down with Covid-19 and I had to take the full charge of the whole project by myself. This helped me in demonstrating my leadership qualities and it still helps me in my current job. 

Are you satisfied with your current job?

Yes absolutely! After 3 weeks of completing the course, I got placed at Capgemini as a Senior Analyst (which is similar to being a software developer). My family is super proud of the progress that I have made over so many years and the credit for it goes to the brilliant team at Masai. 

To all the aspiring developers of tomorrow, I would just like to say that it is very important to be honest to yourself and keep the hard work going because ultimately it is what will make all the difference that you are seeking.

The Masai Experience

It is because of individuals like Janak who join Masai that make us live up to the expectations that our students have from us. We are fortunate to have dedicated individuals like him who are self-motivated (despite being from a different field) to work towards a better future –  a future that will be ruled by Information Technology.