From Mechanical to Software Engineer: A Coding Journey
Even without previous experience, investing in new skills can kickstart your career in a different field
The saying “choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life” rings true for Nithin A R, now a Software Engineer at IBS.
Despite not coming from a computer science background or having any experience in coding, his hard work and thirst for knowledge earned him the role at IBS.
Read his advice, struggles, and ultimate triumph as he made a massive career change from Mechanical to Software.
Hi Nithin. Thanks for being willing to share your experience with us! Tell us a little about you
Hello. I’m Nithin, from Ernakulam. I did my B. Tech in mechanical engineering at SCMS School of Engineering and Technology, and M.Tech at Government engineering college, Thrissur. I worked as an assistant professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at SNMIMT college, Ernakulam. I’m currently a software developer at IBS.
Talk about your journey so far
Humble beginnings
There is nothing particularly remarkable about how I started out. I did pretty well in school and got into SHM college in Kollam. But I did not take admission there as I wanted to improve my entrance rank.
My efforts combined with the support from the coaching class allowed me to clear the entrance exam and then join SCMS College for my Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering. I graduated with 69% but was not fortunate to secure a job during the campus placement. I did not have any work experience, apart from two paid internships that I did to fulfill course requirements and don’t really have any value in the job market. So I decided to write the GATE entrance exam for post-graduation. I worked part-time during my GATE coaching and completed my Masters in Mechanical Engineering (2018). I then took up a job as an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at SNM College(Feb 2019-July 2021).
Financial struggles
While working at SNM, I had a constant urge to learn more and improve myself. I wanted to pursue Ph.D. and this time I worked hard and secured the 3rd rank in the manufacturing stream of NIT for the 2020 winter admissions; but unfortunately, Ph.D. vacancies were only available for the top two rank holders that semester.
Since my family was not financially sound, I decided to have a look at different options including going abroad for higher-paying jobs to support them. All things considered, I decided to pursue my Ph.D. in Ireland. The first step to this journey was to write the IELTS exams, which would allow me to apply for my study visa. Now, all I had to do was give my best in the preparation and the exam. I was supposed to pay the fee for my IELTS exam a week from then, but things were getting out of hand. The pandemic affected me indirectly. My salary at the college was cut to half. I had my educational loan to pay off and the salary cut made it more difficult to make ends meet.
A new chapter
In the midst of this crisis, one of my good friends, Bijoy Sijo introduced me to Machine learning and suggested that I should join an Instagram Live by TinkerHub by Praveen Sridhar. I was the Nodal Officer of the IEDC at my college then and attended the live session in the hopes of getting a few tidbits to share with them. That’s when TinkerHub conducted a session about peer learning and community at our college and introduced students to coding. I was interested in machine learning and was therefore debating about shifting from Mechanical to Software. I was hesitant and doubtful because I was in the Mechanical field for 8 years. So during the final Q&A session, I asked about changing fields from Mechanical to Software and was advised that skills are all that matters!
I decided to master coding with the guidance of a book, — “How to learn Python the hard way”, that was recommended by Bijoy; and he kept me at it by checking in with me every few days. It was tough in the beginning, so I referred to different resources, including online platforms like Coursera and Udemy. I sometimes asked for help from Bijoy, my colleagues Manoj and Aji at IT who were always ready to help and continued to motivate and support my learning. I worked on a project related to Machine Learning, exploring flask, Django, open CV, and such. I also started doing some freelance work.
That is quite the roller coaster as you started a new career. What motivated you throughout that process?
I pursued my dream to teach students in my previous role however, that did not support my financial needs. This motivated me to change my field of work and to be honest, working in a software/ coding space brings much more excitement and fun. I love being challenged, solving complex problems, and working closely with smart and passionate people. The best thing about the tech industry is a constant drive to improve and innovate and a universal willingness to share knowledge and educate.
All that hard work paid off! Can you tell us about your role at IBS?
We have an amazing team here at IBS CDx-DXi where I work in the NLP team. Although we are called the NLP team, we are quite versatile in our roles. During the 6 months I’ve been here, I’ve worked with the front end, backend, testing, product support, and RnD. For someone like me with a different background, putting on different hats felt challenging at first, but our team was incredibly supportive and helpful during the transition.
How did you go about getting the job?
My interest was in Image processing, Python, and Machine learning when TinkerHub HireHack came along and the first opportunity was based on Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Web development. During that time, I was unaware of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. However, I took the opportunity to gain more exposure in these areas. After completing HireHack I received an internship from IBS. The Senior Technical Architect at IBS — Soumya Sharath, provided me with the task to learn AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) which is an HTML framework developed by Google to implement a pop-up chat box inside an email. As I was unfamiliar back then with HTML, CSS, or JS, I had to work and study simultaneously while providing regular updates to Soumya. After completing my internship, in June 2021, I received a job offer as Software Engineer at IBS.
I was under the same project team from my internship when I enrolled as a Software Engineer at IBS. I was inducted into a job-oriented team and I was able to learn Angular, Postgres, Django, etc on the job.
HireHack
HireHack is a TinkerHub initiative that ties up with companies that are looking for skilled employees. TinkerHub keeps track of their community members and skills that they acquire through various programs and refers prospective employees based on the requirements of the company. This could be a referral to the company hiring process or an independent hiring scheme that TinkerHub sets up.
If someone was considering a career change similar to the one you made, what would you tell them?
If you’re serious about it, lean into it.
Try new things for the sake of trying, and to seek out answers to your own questions. It takes a lot of courage to take a new path but anyone who can take that decision has what it takes to find success somewhere new. There are definitely going to be bad days along the way. Days when you feel like you made no progress, or feel stuck at something. But don’t give up, take a step back, ask your peers, and compose yourself. You will definitely figure it out yourself.
Recommended learning resources
I’d say start with some free online tutorials like Corey Schafer or Sentdex to get a feel for coding. Medium articles will help a lot too. I’d always recommend a hands-on approach.
And then improve coding and problem solving using HackerRank (for basics) and LeetCode (for advanced).
You can also refer to some Machine Learning books like — Hands-On Machine Learning with Scikit–Learn and TensorFlow and Practical Deep Learning for Cloud, Mobile, and Edge: Real-World AI & Computer Vision Projects Using Python, Keras & TensorFlow.
Any advice for someone else starting to learn to code?
Find something that captures your interest, learn about it, meet other people who are interested in it, then build something awesome with it. Don’t be afraid to fail and don’t feel disheartened if you don’t understand something right away.
Anything else you’d like to share?
Only you can change your life, but you don’t have to do it alone. I am grateful for the people who helped make all this possible and I am grateful to those I have met on this journey.
Thank you, Bijoy, for being an amazing friend and a wonderful guide!
TinkerHub Tech help server and Discord channels and friends were truly a helping hand.
Thanks to Abhinav M Hari, Manoj, Aji, I was able to keep the momentum going.
Gopikrishnan Sasikumar’s Machine Learning Path is a real lifesaver!
Dheeraj, Rahul & Ankitha also helped me a lot during TinkerWeek.Py Machine Learning Camps.
I’m really grateful to everyone who has been a part of my journey!
Thanks for your insight, Nithin! We are so glad we got the chance to be a part of your career and are especially excited for your future in the tech industry! 👏
If you want to further discuss the topics presented, you can reach out to Nithin on LinkedIn.
We hope you had a great time reading Nithin’s story :)
This TinkerHub story was brought to you by Fathima Nihla Latheef, Shwetha Sasindran, and Erin Edward from the TinkerHub Team! If you loved reading this post, show your appreciation by clapping below! Stay tuned to us for more reads on learning, building, and collaborating.
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