Gurukul @ Sahaj Software!!!
When I first discovered Sahaj Software Solutions Pvt Ltd, I had an inkling that it is going to be a place where my professional life will change, for good.
The work culture, technical excellence and a wide variety of clients on the website made me excited about this opportunity.
On receipt of the offer, I was made aware of “Gurukul” a program that helps groom new graduates into Sahajeevees. Sahaj started this program in 2019 to induct new graduates into Sahaj. The main goal of the program is to introduce graduates to the world of software development, along with the ways to increase their confidence, sense of discipline, self-reliance, empathy, creativity, and mindfulness. The intended duration of the program is 4–5 months.
Our batch is the first batch where it was completely run internally and it had been made possible only due to the awesome teamwork. This is the first time we had someone dedicated to run the program full-time, internally.
My Gurukul batch of 2020 is the largest (12 people) of graduates Sahaj had onboarded, so far. Some of us had a 2 month of pre-internship catch-up conversations with the Gurukul organizer.
Before Gurukul, when I started working with Sahaj, for a month, I was working on one of the internal projects. I was very fascinated with the way people around me were working and that was my aspiration. I wrote code using TDD for the first time and found it very difficult and could not understand its importance! The coding practices followed were so diverse that I wished I could code the same way! This increased the curiosity of the entire batch and we were rearing to give it a go.
20th Jan 2020 — The Day I was waiting for …
And Gurukul started:
We began with welcome talks and various introductions and icebreakers,
we were made aware of the structure of the program during the next few days.
We started to solve a lot of problems by pairing with each other.
Then in the subsequent days, we went through
* Fundamentals of OOPS
* Clean coding practices and object calisthenics
* Writing good code following SOLID, YAGNI, DRY, etc..
* Object Modelling
* TDD and unit testing
* Refactoring techniques
* RESTful services
* Integrating with DB
* UI fundamentals
* Design(UX) fundamentals
* GIT
* CI, CI fundamentals and running test as part of CI
* Learning to present using PechaKucha style
* Pair programming
* User story writing using User Journey and I.N.V.E.S.T principle
* Learning Agile using the Lego game
* Fundamentals of project management
* Consulting 101
* Project simulation
And many more…
I started to understand the difference between being a developer and a solution consultant. Today, when I see the code that I wrote on Day 1 and what I write now, I could perceive not just the remarkable difference in the various aspects of code but also the evolution of a structured thought process. I started to appreciate and understand the importance of following TDD. With every passing day and more practice, it is becoming easy to write code following TDD, it’s still a long way before I gain mastery.
In Gurukul, we were enabled and equipped not just to become a successful software professional but also a well rounded Sahajeevee.
Throughout the Gurukul, all the Sahajeevees who spent the time to impart their experiences, were very supportive, encouraging and at times hard on us. We interacted with a lot of people, almost 25% of the team, right from the security guard in Pune office who took an impromptu session, to Sahaj’s biggest clients, to the super energetic, knowledgeable and extremely enthusiastic Sahajeevees to founders of Sahaj.
There were a lot of software principles that were introduced which taught us the importance of asking questions and changed our approach of looking towards problem-solving in general.
In retrospect of almost 8 grueling weeks, my top 3 favorite takeaways are
* “With Freedom comes Responsibilities”,
* “Ask the right question to get the right answer”, and
* “5 WHYS”
It was a fabulous experience for me — observing the changes in myself and my thinking from where I was to where I am, is no mean feat. One thing that I hope is that changes in me remain forever and I hope I constantly learn and evolve by following the principles I have been exposed to. Thanks to all the Sahajeevees who started the program for new graduates.
The story does not end here. Sometimes what you think is an end is only a beginning…
