Anyone can code. Can they?

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Throughout life, we come across a great many stories, both real and fictional, with one common theme: an ordinary someone going about their life, and then something happens that transforms their life from ordinary to extraordinary.

As much as we are inspired by these stories, we believe that innately we are not as great as the heroes in the stories. They have something special that makes them successful, which we don’t have. And hence, we must learn their secrets, and apply some of it in our own lives so that someday, we might do something worthy too.

And yet, if we were only to pause and think, and look back at our lives, we’ve all had those superhero moments. When we were challenged with what seemed beyond our capability. We probably didn’t have the faintest idea about the magnitude of what we were taking on at the time. Nobody said “this is your moment” or “this is the time to prove yourself” or “you are the one for this task; there’s nobody else”. It just fell on us, we just went with it, and somehow, with sheer grit and whatever other powers we could muster from within us, we did it.

Funny thing is, when it’s someone else who pulls off a small miracle, we think of them as heroes, but when we do the same thing, we brush it aside as “just lucky” or “nothing major”.

So what makes heroes special exactly?

We’d all argue – some scientifically and some anecdotally – that it’s many things from innate interest, talent, the ability to work hard, and several skills honed to a T. We’ve heard that talent is the result of hard work, that genius = perspiration and so on. But we know that perspiration is not enough either. So what is it?

The secret ingredient, as Po the panda discovers in the middle of the fight of his life, is YOU.

There is no magic formula or a secret ritual or anything like that. If you believe in your own potential, you can make anything happen. And it’s not just in fiction. Read any “how I became successful” book. Underneath all the things anyone did that resulted in a happy and fulfilled life, you’ll find fervent belief in oneself.

But it’s not as simple as what Chef Gusteau’s misunderstood motto “Anyone can cook” seems to say either. As Anton Ego clarifies at the end of the movie, “Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere”.

Can anyone code? Certainly not. (I know because I studied coding for 2+ years at NIIT while doing my BA in Economics back in 2001. As per NIIT, I had the aptitude for it, but I realised after a very expensive, time-consuming and frustrating experiment, that aptitude tests don’t mean squat when you don’t have a basic idea or interest in what you’re about to do.)

But, can a great coder come from anywhere? Absolutely.

Two of the best examples we can share are Ranjith, a CA by profession who discovered his passion for programming, cleared our coding challenge, met us for interviews, and is now a developer at Geektrust. And Jayanth, a Geologist who loves to code, and now works at Geektrust. We’ll be writing more about them in our upcoming blog posts.

We’ve believed for the past 6 years of the existence of Geektrust, that talent and opportunities are evenly distributed today. We believe that the best people don’t come only from IITs, and the best jobs don’t exist only in Google. We believe that everyone deserves a chance to fulfil their true potential. You can do anything you want to do, if you believe in yourself.

Image credit: NASA TV (Perseverance rover landing on Mars, Feb 2021)
Image credit: NASA TV (Perseverance landing, Feb 2021)

As proof, we have stories of developers working at companies such as Blackhawk Network, ThoughtWorks, CasaOne, Zomato, Geektrust and 50+ other companies, where we’ve looked at potential over vanity metrics while shortlisting applicants. And job seekers also have looked at learning, exposure, and excitement of doing something new over job security.

The result? Candidates get offers faster. Companies are able to hire with 20% of the time and effort, and make 3x more offers.

The best part is, nothing is being compromised anywhere. Are companies getting bad candidates because they don’t have impressive credentials? No. Are developers losing out on job security or huge salaries because they’re not working at big companies? Also a big no. It’s a win-win for developers and companies, besides the wins for the team at Geektrust and what we believe in.

It’s quite something to see what you’ve believed in for so long finding takers and starting to become a reality. So, what do you believe in?

One comment

  1. Excellant. I do agree with what you say. Across the spectrum, I see many talents. But they never utilise their passion.

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