Santhosh's journey to becoming a software developer and chasing after his dream

Santhosh Sundararanjan - A Masai graduate now working at M2P
Santhosh Sundararanjan - A Masai graduate now working at M2P 

A mechanical engineer by education, Santhosh grew into digital marketing as a career post his graduation. With the humble vision of creating his own product to market, he decided to take up web development alongside Masai.

Now a fully equipped software developer employed at M2P, we join him for an interesting conversation about his experiences at Masai.

How did you hear about Masai?

I learned a lot about marketing products and services during my career. As such, the natural next step was to create my own product to put out there. I was fascinated with the idea of having a small team of 2-3 people who create as well as sell a product.

I was trying to learn development during my time in marketing, but I was going slow. That’s when I googled and found out about Masai. I had heard about the pay-after-placement model, so I decided to go for it.

How did your parents react to Masai?

They were confused at first, they asked me why I was switching. At that time, I was the head of marketing in my company, so they couldn’t accept that I wanted to start over from scratch. But I explained my plans of having my own company down the line they understood that.

They were curious about how the course would go since it was completely online. But at the same time, they had faith in me. That helped the process.

What’s your favorite thing about Masai?

I can wholeheartedly say it’s the curriculum. I’m pretty sure if I had learned the same curriculum somewhere else, it would have taken me at least double the amount of time it took me with Masai. So I liked the pace and the weekly assessments.

Another thing I liked was how the course was structured. We learn to focus and concentrate a lot for long periods of time. So these two things made Masai stand out.

How was your construct week experience?

Construct week is where we collaborate more with other students. You quickly learn to work in and manage a team. Everyone has their own quirks, and effective communication is necessary to perform well. The experience of working with other people’s code is enriching itself. So learning from construct week really helped.

Tell us about your placement experience

I was really excited from day one of the placement process. Just constantly checking my dashboard for any updates. I sat for multiple companies, and learning what each company is asking for was interesting. I had to wait a bit before finally landing my current job at M2P.

I had told my parents that it might take me months to get placed, as I didn’t want to get their expectations high. But when I got selected sooner than that I revealed it to them and they couldn’t be happier. A little surprised, but very happy.

Advice for future students

For anyone making a big change in their life, it’s natural to be a bit hesitant. But I’ll tell those people that if you’re willing to work hard for it, then Masai is a leap of faith worth taking. There’s no space for second-guessing because there’s nothing to lose other than time.