From Novice to Nimble — My Journey With Technology 💫

Aditi Soni
11 min readMay 14, 2018

Motivation for writing this blog —

The beginning of my story is relatable to a large number of students who are in junior years of their college. I was lucky enough to be guided well by my seniors and friends. Through this blog, I want to share my journey with such students, hoping to benefit them and motivate them.

I am Aditi Soni and I have just completed my Bachelor of Engineering in CS from SVITS, Indore. Four years ago when I entered college, I was like most of the students, who came into the field of Computer Science just for the sake of job security. I had no idea what Computer Science is. Remembering my initial college days, I was very disappointed and unable to find a single reason, why engineering is the right choice for me and that too in Computer Science.

Months passed, I started losing confidence, thinking that programming is not my cup of tea. I used to come back home every day with disappointments and felt that I don’t deserve to be there because everyone else (especially boys) was so updated. They knew all the ongoing stuff related to tech and even if I try, I wouldn’t match their level at that point. A girl who was among the toppers of the class suddenly became an average student. One major reason for my disappointment was I always looked up to the people who were best in technical stuff and only they were my competition.

“It only takes one person to change your life”

~Anonymous

I started to change.

Yes, you read it right. This was the point where my life was going to take an amazing turn. Life is just amazing, at every step God has scheduled something unexpected for you.

Well, I was lucky enough in this case. I met a guy in my 2nd semester who was an extreme tech enthusiast and who eventually became my friend. A guy with a decent nature and helping attitude, he helped me in overcoming my fears and made me believe that I can do this. He always said that I can see potential in you and you can do it. He used to teach me C, C++ in our free lectures, and also gave me resources to learn. At that time I did not have any computer or laptop at my home and it was very difficult for me to practice programming. I used to practice C, C++ programs in my smartphone with the help of the C4droid Android app.

It all started with the help of this guy — Aditya Sharma (My Best Friend)

‘’And here, My journey with technology had just started’’

As someone has said, ‘’Change is not easy’’. Yes, it was not a fairy-tale ride for me, rather a roller coaster one. Without the internet and laptop, learning programming was very difficult but not impossible. I tried very hard, gave up so many times, went through all that frustration, cried many-a-times, but didn’t quit. And that was the point I started winning myself. I was learning, I was growing. It was all just a phase and it taught me so many things. Then I got my first laptop and it was a “grease-the-wheels” moment for me.

Well, I was lucky in one more case. I had very helpful and talented seniors who helped me grow at every step and guided me all along the way. In my 2nd year of Engineering, they introduced me to the local technical communities, where I could learn and up-skill myself. I consider myself as an opportunity grabber. I never miss a single chance to become a better version of myself. I used to attend all community meetups and did not miss a single one.

Yes, initially it was very awkward for me to be in a community where so many professionals holding senior positions were present. I was so hesitant to go and have a word with them. Even at times, I was not able to present myself properly in-front of them due to the complex that I am non-tech-savvy. But, I tried and did things out of my comfort zone. It takes a lot of courage to do something that doesn’t lie in your comfort zone. By doing so, you might lose confidence and faith in yourself. But when you fall, there is something else to rejoice. You come back stronger than ever. The same thing happened to me. My come back was something I had never imagined for myself.

“Cleared the first step of Change”. Now it was time to test myself and grow with each downfall.

At the end of the 2nd year, there were interviews in my college for different technical clubs. I went there. There were 80+ applicants and I was sure I won’t get selected. But yes, participation matters more than the result. So I went for an interview with some basic preparation. My interview went well. During that interview, I began to realize the hard work that I did in learning technical things.

And guess what?

I got selected among 10 students and was the only girl in that technical club! That was the first moment when I was getting something back for all of my hard work. I took that as an opportunity and gave me 100%.

While I was in this club, I started learning Android. At that time, everybody was going to coaching classes to learn Android. But I decided to teach myself. I tried so many online resources, wasted 2 months and I was almost convinced that Android is not for me. Then my friend told me about Udacity, an online learning platform that works in collaboration with many giant tech companies. I started learning Android from Udacity. Initially, it was difficult to understand their teaching pattern, but as soon as I understood it, I fell in love with Android and Udacity. When I was learning Android during the semester break after my 2nd year, I was offered an Internship. I told them that I am not a professional and still learning Android. They said that if I had a passion to learn and build something unique, then I was most welcome. Then I went through a 2-hour interview with the CEO of that startup and yes, it was indeed a great experience for me. I got selected as an Android Intern. I interned for 2 months and got to learn a lot in that period.

All of this led me to become the “Most Active” club member of the year.

“That cap on my head defines it all”. These are my beloved seniors and other club members.

It was my 5th semester when my senior told me about the “Anita Borg Scholarship”. I went through their website and applied for the scholarship. For the application, we were asked to write essays on some questions. At that time, I was not aware of Women Techmakers. But while filling that form, I searched for it and got to know so many things about WTM. Eventually, I got selected for the next phase of scholarship.

1st phase selection mail from WTM Scholars Program.

In this phase, I had an interview call with a Google Engineer and he asked me a lot of things about WTM. I was able to answer all the questions because I had done my research already. But unfortunately, I did not get selected for the next phase. It was a disheartening moment for me.

I also applied for Android Applied CS Facilitator for my campus and I got rejected from there as well. I was very sad that even after all the handwork, the force was not with me. Even though I had faced 2 rejections recently, I tried to stay motivated and working towards my goals.

In August 2017 during my 3rd year of Engineering, I got an interview call from GDG Indore regarding the WTM Lead position form that I filled earlier. I was an active attendee of local technical communities and used to attend all their meetups. This helped me stand out from the crowd as one of the active female attendees. Since I had already researched Women Techmakers so much, I was able to become a part of the GDG/WTM Indore community as a WTM Lead. I had been handed a great responsibility of leading the WTM Indore chapter, and I promised myself to give my best to this community. Since then, we have hosted a couple of city-level events under the banner of WTM Indore. Click here to visit our Facebook page.

Featured on the Global WTM Website Directory (click here)
GDG/WTM Indore Community

Next in line was Microsoft Student Partner. The MSP program was introduced to me by my friends at the end of the 3rd year. I was interested and applied for it as well. The application process was in two steps. Firstly, an application form that included a 1-minute video about yourself and then a phone call interview with the MSP Program Coordinator. Fortunately, I cleared both the steps and became a Microsoft Student Partner. I also went to BITS Pilani for the 3 days MSP Summit. It was an amazing experience.

In November 2017, WTM Leads Summit was organized in Bangalore by Google. All the 30 WTM Leads across India were invited. I was one of them. All of my expenses (including flight tickets, accommodation) were taken care of by Google. It was again a great learning experience for me, meeting so many people from different regions and having diverse skillsets. Also, going to the WTM Leads Summit was my first flight experience! Thanks to Google.

WTM Leads from all across the country in WTM Leads Summit.

After 2 days of WTM Leads Summit, GDD India was planned. I got an invitation for attending that event as well because I was a WTM Lead. But in that period, my exams were going on. I did not want to miss this opportunity in any way. So I planned a tight schedule and went to WTM Leads Summit, came back via a flight to Indore, gave the exam, and then after that, went again to Bangalore for GDD India. It was a great experience! I met so many Udacity instructors and Googlers there. I also tried so many new things in the sandbox area.

At GDD India 2018 with GDG/WTM Indore
Photos from GDD India, especially the one with Lyla Fujiwara!

Then in January 2018, I came to know about Google Udacity Scholarship for India. Because of my interest in Android, I was planning to get a Nanodegree for a very long time. So, with a lot of hope, I applied for the scholarship.

On the morning of 7th Feb, I received a mail congratulating me for receiving the scholarship! I was elated!!

Congratulation mail from Udacity!

I was very happy to be enrolled in the Developers track which is oriented for intermediate developers. The mail specified that the course will start on 14th Feb. When the course started, I went through it for 2 days and started to give up. As it was my last semester of college, I got occupied in a lot of things. So many things happened simultaneously — Major Project, Placements, WTM event works, Android App challenges which were a part of my remote interviews for placements. I was not able to watch the course material and was inactive on Slack and Udacity forums. The Slack community and forums were flooded with messages all the time!

During that period, I also went to Pune for placements and till then, I had lost hope on the Challenge course for Udacity Nanodegree. But after I got placed, I started getting some time, and then I started participating in Slack and forums. It was very frustrating at first, thousands of students talking in one workspace. But, somehow I tried and increased my engagement on Slack and forums. During this scholarship, I got to know about Udacity’s Data Science scholarship, and because of my interest and urge to learn something new, I applied for this scholarship and got selected for it as well.

Congratulations mail from Udacity for Data Science Scholarship.

I don’t have enough words to explain this incredible experience with this Google Udacity Challenge Scholarship. I did so many things in 3 months. I solved queries, took part in quizzes and did all the challenges. Also, I was fortunate to become a moderator of one of the collaborative projects whose work is similar to a CEO of any company. As a mod, I learned teamwork, time management, pressure handling, project management, and new concepts of Android. I met so many people on Slack and became friends with some talented, like-minded individuals. I can not thank Udacity India and Akshit Jain sir enough for building and mentoring this astounding community and allowing me to be a part of it.

So, this is my journey so far with technology which made me a responsible and tech-savvy girl. I am so thankful for all the people who helped me to become the person I am today. I am so fortunate to have such a great Udacity slack community as well, who made the past 3 months a great learning experience as well as fun at the same time.

P.S. — This is my first blog and I have tried to be as brief as possible about the whole journey. I have not covered anything in detail.

You can find me on LinkedIn and Facebook. I hope to connect with more like-minded people in the future!

Thanks for reading my blog :) Do clap if it was worth reading!

EDIT (23/05/18): Today, I’ve been granted the Android Developer Nanodegree Scholarship from Udacity India. The scholarship was granted to only the top 150 among thousands of scholars based on 3 months challenge course (Phase 1). Phase 2 begins on 29 May 2018. This has been a great journey on its own. I’ll be writing a separate blog for this soon!!

EDIT (27/06/20): I completed Phase 2 and earned Android Developers Nanodegree from Udacity. Currently, I am working as a Software Engineer in Pune and Lead Women Techmakers chapter here.

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Aditi Soni

WTM Pune Lead | MSP | Android Developer | Engineer (CS)