Vandana left her teaching career to become a web developer

Vandana Tiwari - A Masai graduate now working at GoGroup as Frontend Developer
Vandana Tiwari - A Masai graduate now working at GoGroup as Frontend Developer

Vandana hails from Varanasi - the spiritual capital of India - located in the state of Uttar Pradesh. Her father is a government employee and because of that, the family had to move from one place to another regularly. Notably, that gave the three daughters of the family some incredible exposure.

After completing her higher secondary education, Vandana opted for BSc in mathematics for her graduation. Post which she pursued B.Ed to fit the societal narrative that a girl is best suited to take up teaching as a profession. Over the next five years, she served as a teacher in some renowned institutes across Varanasi.

Even though Vandana’s career was stable, she was not happy. While the city found serenity running next to the banks of the Ganges river, she was in turmoil. This was not the job she strived for. So she started exploring opportunities in other sectors. While serving as a mathematics teacher, she found an opportunity to also work as a computer teacher where she taught students basic HTML. This experience, compounded with her love for reasoning, drove her closer and closer to programming. This is when in a twist of fate, she came across Masai on YouTube.

As she started exploring more about similar institutes in this field, it became clear to her that Masai was the one. She was awestruck at the systematic model, followed by Masai. From practice-based learning to ISA, everything ticked for her. So, without missing a beat, she joined Masai to change her future.

After the completion of the full-stack web development course at Masai, she landed a job at GoGroup as a front-end web developer. A while ago, Vandana stole some time from her hectic schedule to talk with us about her journey. Here is an excerpt from her conversation with us.

How did you come to trust Masai?

The Income Share Agreement, in which you do not have to pay anything upfront, was more than enough for me to trust Masai. My own experience of seven years as a teacher has taught me well to distinguish between good and bad. If they were scammers, they would have asked for the fees upfront.

The intentions of Masai are evident in the transparency they have maintained while running the institute. Masai makes all the crucial data public on its website. So, it was not difficult for me to trust Masai.

How was the Masai experience?

Initially, I was afraid that coming from a non-tech background, I would be unable to cope with other students. But, the mentors and the management proved me wrong. The curriculum is so well-designed that even a beginner will never feel left behind.

And the ever supportive mentors and IAs added even more satisfaction. We could message them anytime and we would get a reply instantly. Even though Unit-1 was tough for me, this support system helped me get through it with no hiccups.

Practice-based learning is an essential and integral part of the Masai experience. For people like me, who come from a non-tech background, a highly disciplined lifestyle is a must if they want to learn about so many technologies in just six months. The discipline developed at Masai continues to serve me at my current job.

I couldn’t take part in building projects during two Construct Weeks because of personal reasons. But after that, I worked on a few projects and the lessons from those projects helped me immensely in landing a job.

My journey at Masai has been nothing short of amazing. These days, I can not stop myself from praising Masai whenever I get a chance to talk about it.

Has Masai helped you improve your communication skills?

Absolutely! Even though I was a teacher, I was always doubtful about my capabilities. But, Skillathon and CSBT sessions at Masai helped me boost my confidence. These sessions improved my life skills to a great extent.

At my current company, we have two meetings in a day. And, now, I am very vocal about my opinions and questions. This is possible because of Masai only.

How was the placement process at Masai?

The support of the placement team was immense. I was the second last student who got placed in my batch. And during those tough days, it was the placement team that was by my side all the time.

I had appeared for interviews with two companies before being selected by GoGroup as a front-end web developer. Even the team from GoGroup was impressed by Masai and the way it prepares students for the industry.

Is it worth paying three lakhs to Masai?

Totally. In fact, when I was in Unit-3, my sister was preparing for NEET and I asked her to join Masai. After the initial refusal, she, later on, joined Masai and now is in Unit-5. Not only her, but five other students have also joined Masai after being inspired by me. Two of them were employees of Wipro.

If this course was not worth three lakhs, I would not have asked my sister and friends to join Masai. In fact, I am so vocal about Masai that my friends jokingly accuse me of being paid by the institute to praise it. And now, I am running a YouTube channel as well to motivate students so that they can transform their lives as well.

Vandana wraps up the interview while talking about a funny incident wherein she did not join her very first class but assumed that she attended. A blunder was caused because of her non-tech background. She once again implied that, if a person like her can grab a job despite coming from such a background, anyone can transform their lives with sheer hard work and determination at Masai. She encourages aspiring developers to join Masai and take the leap of faith.