Meet our career consultant at CodeGym University India, Shubham Dumbre. With a background in computer engineering and management, Shubham became interested in developing online education and career counseling for Indians. He’s a founder of Delta The Innovators community and an author of two books – “Let’s make IT simple” and “Decoding Zindagi”.
In this text, he talks about his professional background, explains how the job market works in India, and provides useful hints for those who think about switching their career and start with learning to code.
How did you evolve from the position of a developer to the role of a mentor and consultant?
My first internship was more inclined towards open-source development. I used to assist the mentors there in trainings on different technologies, and utilizing IoT tools like Raspberry Pi, Arduino, etc. So these were initial opportunities that paved my way towards learning about people.
Then I started conducting seminars and live sessions at different universities and colleges in Mumbai. Probably in the first two years of my career, I’ve established connections with approximately 50 different institutes. Then, after meeting professionals from various colleges who have already got PhDs, it occurred to me that learning is the best way to enhance our own profile, by which we can enhance our skills.
Later, I got a chance to work in Pune (in Skada Technology Solutions) and used to regularly travel from Mumbai to Pune. This route takes three and a half hours, and this used to be my regular routine. Which was quite challenging, as I needed to keep up with the timings of the express trains because the local motion is complex.
To evaluate the impact of my work, I have a habit of capturing its results. So I like to keep photographs, and I want to create videos. I have developed these skills since my school days. I like editing videos, speaking out about what I’ve done, and sharing experiences. I used to capture every significant moment and post it on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook. And that’s the reason why the IT community in India started to recognize my efforts.
At some point, I got the chance to interact with one of the senior managers of upGrad. It’s an online education platform and a top-rated company in the EdTech sector. So, I had casually got a chance to visit their office, and it turned out that my new acquaintance was looking for professionals to join his team. So he asked me: “Would you be interested?”
It startled me a little bit, because I just went there to meet him, but I decided to seize the opportunity. So balancing my engineering career with this upGrad full-time role was challenging for the first six months, but it was worth it.
During 2019, on my birthday, I launched my startup, Delta The Innovators. We posted three Guinness World Record projects with IIT Bombay, a premier institute in India. Delta The Innovators is a stalwart philanthropic syndicate who have impacted more than 10000+ people by imparting education and by providing innovative technical solutions regularly. I educate people as a philanthropist, generate income via innovation and technology. I have extensively worked with people from rural areas in India.
What’s worth mentioning that Delta The Innovators, along with IIT Bombay and SoULS in solar technologies, have set three International Guinness World Records.
On 2nd October 2018, out of total 135000+ students all over India, 5700+ students simultaneously lit Solar Lamps at IIT Bombay Campus, Mumbai. This was the first world record.
In the following year on the same date i.e. 2nd October 2019, we set two new Guinness world records by involving people from around 75+ countries across the globe. Together, we all lit Solar lamps at our locations and spread the message — Go Solar!
Basically my work was to connect with different people across India, and the rest of the team members were reaching for people across the globe. So we had around 70 to 80 countries participating in the event.
The challenge was that we had to get around hundreds of volunteers in a single day. So I just took up my contact list and started calling everyone on it.
Why did you decide to help people find their career path?
In India, there are many talented people, but they're unable to qualify for jobs. So I try to bridge that gap by providing them with freelancing opportunities in organizations that are looking for a web developer or a tester. In addition, I provide them with technical and career counselling, which is principally based on my professional experience.
A couple of years ago I’ve had a six-month hiatus, and during this time, I attended 25 to 30 interviews. Every month I went to 5-7 interviews, and when you meet many recruiters, you get a deeper understanding of how everything works. I had always asked them to give me feedback on what was off so I could improve it, and that’s how I cracked the job placement process.
Around the same time, another company approached me and offered a career consulting position. They had students but didn't know how to train them for jobs, make them job-ready, and bridge the technical and soft skills gap.
So I started educating people about this, and came across different questions. Many people approached me saying: “How should I create my resume? How should I face the interview? How should I, uh, update my LinkedIn profile?” These were common questions, but I searched through many resources on the web, and surprisingly, they were of not much help. Some were outdated, somewhere like very specific to certain positions. So I thought of creating something that can be helpful for a larger amount of cases, in the modern setting. So I’ve created a one-hour session series about all the things you should actually have on a resume.
Many people in India believe that they should have an large resume to increase their chance of landing a job. But firstly, if your professional track less than 10 years, your CV should be single sided, on a single page. Secondly, it should include only relevant skills and achievements for a certain position. This is something I’ve learned while working at upGrad, and I decided to combine that experience with my personal journey.
Later, I’ve continued my work in EdTech by joining Coding Invaders, that, like CodeGym, mentor learners who are willing to master a career in IT. I was one among the founding team members, who joined them as a Technical Editor and a Career Consultant. My thing was to create the course platform, which then used to go to the tester, and later return with the bug fixes part.
The Russo-Ukrainian War impacted us too, and many of us were asked to look for other career opportunities. It was a sudden shock, somehow we all absorbed it and moved on.
I regularly help government bodies and NGOs in India to solve workplace challenges by means of training sessions, workshops, etc. That's how I focussed on Freelancing and worked on 3-4 time bound projects post Coding Invaders.
Later, CodeGym happened. I received an offer to join the team and carry out the tasks which are more related to my experience in career counselling. We conducted our first online session on IT career guidance for soon-to-be CodeGym students in India on the 28th of August, and since that time, I oversee this and other career-related verticals.
Why do you recommend studying at “Java Developer Profession” course?
I tried the platform myself, got the credentials, and revised a significant part of training materials. The content and curriculum is excellent.
And of course, the idea of having a regular mentorship, having someone who will take you by the hand and help you walk through the learning pace from initial lessons is good. In India, learners sometimes lack the consistency, so they need someone to guide them. It is excellent that we have live sessions every week at the “Java Developer Profession” course.
Apart from online sessions, students have a Slack channel to communicate with mentors and course support. So, there’s an omnichannel force that constantly pushes people to study, and increase their motivation. So this is a perfect course to master the Java-related profession, even if you have no prior experience in programming.
What do you think about online learning in general? Is it efficient to learn something on online courses?
Most Indians before Covid considered offline as the only option that would help them to excel in their careers. Online education was not accepted in India. During Covid, each one of us realized that online is effective. And now, in post pandemic era, the inclination is more towards online.
What’s the overall picture of issues that this “offline to online” transition has?
Many people in India now think: “Let's learn something online”. But they often lack the consistency, which online learning requires. I might enroll in a course, but I will only register, watch it for two or three days, and later I will be like, oh, it isn't easy. We’re used to concept that learning means regularly going to school or university, and taking exams, and the habit of self-learning online isn’t easy to form.
Some people take advantage of the flexibility which online learning offers, saying let's do it tomorrow… and tomorrow never comes. So the self-discipline in online education is missing.
Another issue is that some people have a lot of technical difficulties in terms of necessary devices and configurations. And I’m talking not only about students, but about educators as well. The teachers who have been in the education industry for 20-plus years, face difficulty with setting the proper environment for online learning and examinations. In addition, these professionals may struggle in conducting the sessions well because now students are demanding and more tech-savvy than the teachers.
Given all this, the courses which were initially designed for online training, offer convincing advantages for their learners:
The course curriculum, like in our course, is designed in the way that helps students master the skillset, which is demanded on the job market right now. It is an industry relevant learning, with all the necessary tools and requirements included.
The mentors are well aware of the peculiarities of online training, know how to grab attention, and set the perfect environment for learning.
Online learners have far better career chances than offline students. Learning online, we tend to interact with people across the globe, and it helps us to hone the skills for working on extensive projects, in large, remote, or international teams.
Could you give some pieces of advice CodeGym users to achieve their goals and become developers?
So firstly, the learners will have to set a schedule because if they don't manage their day, online learning will never happen. People in India always have an attitude of doing it later. Today is hectic, and tomorrow is never going to come. So this thing needs to be fixed.
Secondly, most of us are fluent in English. So it's easy to interact, but actually, not all good listeners are able to present their thoughts in English. So I advise them to improve their language at the beginning of their studies. One perfect thing about CodeGym website is that it has a translation feature. I really like that feature. I did a complete website audit and found that this feature sets us apart from the rest of the tech market. So people here will be able to like at least relate to the concepts in their own language and then start it with coding.
Do you dream of a career as a developer in a top Indian company, but don't know where to start?
Sign up for a webinar with Shubham Dumbre and Aditi Nawghare. They will help you understand how to become a developer in India and what you need to do to get there.
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