From electrical engineer to a Software architect at Wipro Digital — Shivanand Thangalapalli

Having studied at one of best universities and colleges, Udacity for me stands out separately. You will find out in the blog ‘why’.

‘Never really thought about it’ Or ‘Yes, but I am skeptical if I am there.’ Okay, now let’s talk about what is that one thing that’s stopping you from achieving that life goal. Probably, the answer would be ‘you.’ You are probably your biggest barrier and accelerator towards achieving your life goals.

I am IIT Roorkee graduate in Electrical Engineering, but my heart lies in technical entrepreneurship. I have always thought about how technology helps solve complex business problems. Following my passion, I moved to Essex Business School, Paris for my MBA after working at Oracle for about two years. During this period, I worked on my startup called ‘Leafbook’ — discovering real-time and visually appealing digital content by scanning print media. It was during my venture that I felt a strong need for a top level understanding of data driven approach to big businesses and how businesses run, which led me to Udacity.

The Udacity Nanodegrees are built by companies like Google & Facebook, it is something in trend and updated. The theoretical concepts could be entirely different from real life applications, the Nanodegrees at Udacity mainly in focus with the industry perspective and the real life application of technologies. In other words, it’s tailored for the acquiring the skillsets you might need every day.

There won’t be a single moment that you will feel bored during your nanodegree. All thanks to interactive videos, quizzes, and projects. The videos are short and crisp which you can watch on-the-go. The course curriculum is a lot of fun than you would expect.

A person like me with no exposure to technology, for us to stay in sync with technologies, we need strong content which is on-point and industry relevant. Udacity solves that need entirely.

The support that you have fellow learners is tremendously fantastic. Unlike other traditional education systems, you are a part of a community which is highly motivated in that particular field and is interested in growing together. You can see that energy and enthusiasm in various slack communities and community forums.

I was amongst the first few graduates of Business Analyst Nanodegree and helped other students with feedback on their projects and resolving their queries.

A part of your Nanodegree includes career support and guidance which will help in preparing you for your prospective job. Recently, I got to be a part of Udacity Propel — an initiative by Udacity to connect it’s Nanodegree graduates to companies. I was selected for ‘Software Architect’ role at Wipro Digital. My role includes high-level design choices and dictating technical standards of the software. Through my role at Wipro, I got much clearer view of particular business solutions.

I would highly recommend Udacity to individuals who are looking at enhancing specific skill sets and great industry relevant content. Pretty sure, with the right guidance and passion you will be a few more steps closer to your life goals.