Perseverance — How I got a Full Stack Developer internship at Generation Blockchain.
It was August 2018 and I was already starting to worry what I would do after April 2019, the month that I would graduate from IIIT Guwahati with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science and Engineering. So, I started applying for jobs. Just the previous semester(i.e. sixth semester), I did a project on Express, Node and I loved it a lot. So, my job applications tended more towards Back-End Development jobs but I was also applying for Full-Stack Development jobs. This is the same time, I was also thinking about Smart Contracts, Decentralised App Development jobs for which I have acquired basic skills during my fifth semester. So, I also started learning more about DAPP Development through tutorials. I also started applying to Blockchain companies.
It was September and by this point, I had been applying to many startups and most of them just didn’t want to proceed with the application because of such high notice period or because I was a fresher. The reason I was so obsessed with applying to startups is that the growth prospects when working in a startup are very good unlike established companies and also, we are always on a stretch role in a startup.
My mid-semester exams started and two exams went by and it was a Tuesday when I received a reply for my application of DAPP Developer at this startup called Generation Blockchain. It was this guy named Anshul Bhagi. He gave me his WhatsApp number and asked me to contact him directly so we could schedule a video chat.
Before actually pinging him on WhatsApp, I researched about him and found his credentials to be very impressive(Anshul Bhagi’s LinkedIn Profile). At this point, I did not want to lose a chance to work with him. So, I messaged him and asked when would be a good time to chat. During these messages back and forth, I learnt that he did not actually notice my graduation month from my job application. But he was open to exploring the possibility of giving me an internship for the month of December 2018. So, we chatted on video the next day and during this chat, I noticed that he was not assessing me like other job interviewers, he was genuinely interested in knowing what kind of mindset I have. I told him I knew JavaScript and did not know React but was willing to learn it as that is what I generally do. He said he would give me a project the next day. I requested him to give me the project on Sunday as my mid-semester exams will be over by then.
I did not actually contact him on Sunday about the project. I started learning React on Monday though and contacted him on Tuesday about the project. He promised me that he would send the project specifications to me by the end of next day. As promised, on the Wednesday at exactly 8pm, I received the specifications. He asked me to decide a deadline for myself and asked me to stick to it. After looking at the project specs and analysing from my past experiences, on the morning the very next day(i.e. Thursday) I told him that I would be able to complete and submit the project by the coming Tuesday.
In the beginning, I thought that I would be able to complete the project by Sunday evening. But as I went through, it seemed harder and harder. I would work for more than 15 hours a day while sleeping very less and eating only once and drinking coffee thrice. There was so much to do as I was facing new bugs daily which were hard to fix. I seriously underestimated the depth of the project. Many times, I would think that I should give up. But then I would somehow gather up the will power to continue doing the project. Don’t mistake my exhaustion for misery as I was genuinely loving the process of learning a new technology and using it in the project — it was just that I was on a very tight schedule and I wanted to make good on the promise of me delivering the project on time. I love software development in new and exciting technologies and that is why I was so hell bent on getting the job here.
You should know that I had never learnt or used React before that week. Despite many roadblocks, I was able to complete the project by Tuesday evening. In total, I took six days to complete the project. I submitted the project and he congratulated me for completing it on time as I had set the deadline myself and followed it without asking for an extension. He evaluated the project the next day and decided to give me the internship.
Throughout this process, I found that anyone can pull off learning a new skill in a very short period of time if they have the right motivation behind it. The lesson I took home from this experience was…
Believing in yourself would pay-off 100% of the time.
These are all the technologies that I used in the project — React, Solidity, Bootstrap, Web3 and a whole lot of understanding of Ethereum Virtual Machine. Now I am also learning Redux as React and Redux go hand in hand for large applications. I am very much looking forward to the internship experience at Generation Blockchain and also, I am very excited about meeting Anshul Bhagi in person. Hopefully, it will be a wonderful experience that I can share with you guys in another post.
This has been a very exciting experience for me, so much so that I decided to share it here. This is the project that I was talking about and this is my LinkedIn Profile. Thanks!!