When you start loving something that you initially did for fun — Rohan Taneja
“One Nanodegree and three job offers before I graduated!”
My father has worked in the IT industry all his life. Watching him work on his laptop all day and hear stories about how technology is doing wonders in the real world are one of my treasured childhood memories. I had programming as a part of my curriculum at school and it felt good to write code for fun. This was back in 2011 and Android had just started to pick up speed in the market.
And a few years later, it hit me. I realised that I could create apps on my own that people would use every day and that got me excited.
At first, I used to think of an idea and Google around to see how I could design a solution for that. I toiled around for hours and days but ultimately I would create something which I would be proud of, and it made me want to create something more, something better.
I am a member of Google Developers Group (GDG) New Delhi, and one day I got an email from them informing me about the Android Developer Nanodegree scholarships being offered by Udacity. That’s when I went through the Udacity website and found out that Udacity offers great courses and that too for free. I applied for the scholarship as well. Meanwhile, I was already learning Android on my own but when I tried out Udacity’s courses on Android, I wished that I had come across them earlier. Luckily, I got the Android Developer Nanodegree scholarship as well.
Udacity’s courses are laid out brilliantly. Their video content has actual people talking to you and not just screencasts of an IDE is what made me trust Udacity. The lectures are so interactive that it feels like a connection just like that of an actual classroom. The Android course creators at Udacity are developer advocates from Google itself and their content certainly shows the amount of research they have put into 2 things:
1. What a student wants when he’s learning
2. What the IT industry wants from developers
Their content has quizzes, exercises and models real-world situations where you get to work on starter codes. I developed 6 projects during my Nanodegree and I felt that I got better with each one of them. That’s what kept me motivated.
I completed my Nanodegree in January this year and the skills I obtained during my Nanodegree helped me get 3 job offers from app development companies before I graduated. I’d recommend their Android Developer Nanodegree to every college student who wants to build amazing apps.. If you have no prior experience with Android, their Android Foundation Nanodegree could do wonders for you. Udacity also offers NDs for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Digital Marketing and much more.
In July, I appeared for Google’s Associate Android Developer Certification Exam in collaboration with Udacity and managed to get certification on my first attempt since I already had the skills required for it, thanks to my Nanodegree. If you’d like to know about the exam as it happened, tips & FAQs, please go through the following 2 posts:
In April this year, I got a chance to attend Udacity Propel held in Gurgaon since I was an Android Developer Nanodegree graduate.
Udacity Propel is an initiative by Udacity India’s Careers team to connect Nanodegree students to the jobs of tomorrow. It was a great experience.
When I was in college, I took the Git & Github course by Udacity as well. I’d also recommend their HTML & CSS course which I’m currently pursuing so that I can build my own website.
If you are looking for an online course to launch your career in Android app development, Udacity might be a great choice for you as well 👍.
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