A Developer’s Story: Riyas P.

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Riyas was looking to do his M. Tech when he met a niche consulting start-up, Sahaj Software. He changed his plan and started his career as a programmer instead. He was the first fresher to join Sahaj, and he has been a part of the company for over 3 years now.

How did you start coding and what about programming gives you a kick?

I’ve been coding since Higher Secondary. I was interested in it and the interest grew when I did Computer Science and Engineering in college. After college I joined Sahaj.

I think it’s a nice place to start a career as a fresher. I got to interact with senior developers and grow as a programmer. In college the focus was on getting the output right. Programming on the job was entirely different with extensive complexities and scale.

What I love about programming is doing things the right way. Getting the result is always nice, but getting it without employing a hacky way is incredible.

Although, I would add that I haven’t found my passion yet. I love tech but I’m equally passionate about photography, the arts, drawing, plays, mimes. Everything is good. I think I have multiple passions, all of which I’m exploring.

What are some interesting challenges you have worked on?

My very first job was to move an application backed up on a graph database to a relational database. That was pretty hard. It wasn’t something I could just do, but I had to learn, figure out how to implement the solution and then do it.

Another interesting problem was when I built a JWT authentication system using Django for an application. I had to do OAuth implementation so that users of that app would be able to log in through another app.

 

Where would you prefer to work – a Startup or an MNC? Why?

My experience is only with Sahaj, which is a startup. I prefer to work at a startup because to learn in a startup as a fresher has been an invaluable experience. You get to see the big picture, take responsibility and be involved in what happens.

When I graduated, I didn’t prepare for a Sahaj kind of company or interview. I was prepared to do M. Tech. But the way the people from Sahaj talked and pitched the company was interesting and the people were awesome. And I wanted to be a part of that team.

I’ve heard at MNCs there’ll be 20 members in a group and as a fresher you get bug fixes. You’ll never see the big picture or don’t get to question why something is being done. From exchanging notes with other developers, I find that the learning and growth are on a different scale at startups.

What are your thoughts on the Indian tech industry?

The industry is really pushing for great technology to come out of India. But the higher education industry needs to be pushed to upgrade the course contents and even the design, to cater to what the industry needs today, instead of making students learn ancient languages like Lisp and prolog in labs.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

There’s a notion that you shouldn’t make mistakes at all. That’s the wrong way to think when you do it or your employer does it. Everybody makes mistakes. It’s important to be aware of that.


About Geektrust Dev Stories 

Geektrust is a platform for technologists to find interesting opportunities and shape the future of tech. We meet inspiring people and companies in our work, and we see some great code written by our users. So we started the Dev Stories series, to bring stories of different developers to the world. Hope you enjoy reading them as much as we love writing them. If yes, leave us a comment or share with your friends.

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