3/8th Nanodegree = Internship — The Aagam Shah Story

While it is our aim to continuously work towards boosting hireability of our students by enhancing their skillset, there are stories that even surprise us. Take Aagam Shah for instance. He has got an internship with an Ahmedabad based startup, Interestship, as an Android Developer. While he credits this to the Nanodegree, he hasn’t completed it yet. He is still on his third project (P3) of the Nanodegree!

The early days and the Udacity advantage

Currently a third year Computer Science Engineering student, Aagam first started learning on Udacity back in 2013. After his first course on Algorithms, he never stopped. He credits him being consistent with Udacity to the content quality and the platform UI.

When you teach someone how to learn, that person can learn anything. More than the subjects they cover, MOOC’s have motivated people to learn by themselves. A self-learner, Aagam believes that online education is changing the way people learn.

Talking specifically about India, Aagam says, “traditional college education is just about theory. No practical applications are taught or encouraged in Indian universities. If you want to do it, you have to do it by yourself. The things that are used the most in industry like Github are never taught in a university. The only benefit of college education is that you get a degree.”

“When you are learning from industry experts you know you are in good hands. The knowledge you get from these lectures by experts can never be found in a book. Most courses I have seen follow a particular book but at Udacity you get to learn from the documentation itself. And that is a big plus because when in a job you got to know how to use the documentation. The best part is ‘After you complete the course cake will be served’ and I always got one,” added Aagam.

Getting the Internship

“At Udacity we learn by doing, and this helped me when I went for the interview. I was not asked any theory based questions. I showed the apps that I created in the Nanodegree to the interviewer. He asked me questions based on my apps. And I got selected!”, he says.

There were many challenges that Aagam faced especially when he started the Nanodegree. He didn’t know anything about Android. His first app it took him time as he had to do a lot of research to implement a specific functionality. At times he even missed the Nanodegree project deadlines, because he had to manage his college studies too. But these setbacks did not deter Aagam from pursuing his interest.

If not anything else, this Nanodegree has taught me how to face and overcome challenges.”, quotes Aagam.

Aagam’s dream from the beginning is to work at Google. And he feels that Nanodegree is bringing him a step closer to this dream.