Annapurna Agrawal

From working for someone else to creating courses to becoming an ambassador, life did a full 180… when I became a software trainer from a software developer.

Even though I was a graduate from the Electronics stream, I had entered the IT industry. It wasn’t unconventional but it was also unexpected!

Since elementary school, I’ve had a fascination with computers and technology. We had a wonderful computer teacher who taught us BlueJ at school. Following the same lane, I opted for Information Technology in HSC. One can easily expect that for Graduation I would have opted for computer science, but I went for Electronics because everybody said it was the best! If only I had a faint idea about the stream, I definitely would have opted for computer science.

 In the second year of engineering, I crossed paths with a senior who was into Android development and after not too long I started learning Android from him. The part of me that had abandoned coding was reincarnated. Till the end of my graduation, I kept on learning and upskilling myself. I even started creating YouTube videos related to Android Development, to teach people what I learned. This was just an experiment I was working on till then. And this was how my leap of faith, the switch from electronics to software, turned out.

By the end of the final year, I already had 2 jobs in hand, Wipro and Infosys. But I was not satisfied with it. I wanted to start my career at a place that was all about learning and hard-core coding. I wanted to join a start-up. And then I came across Mindfire Solutions. My college life came to an end on 18th May and Job training was to start from 25th May with a mere 7-day gap in between. Being from a Non-CS background, it was difficult to keep up with the other trainees who had already worked on their final year CS projects.  

As time passed, I continued to learn my way around the block, the astonishing world of Computer Science and Technology. I was assigned a client project soon. Besides working with clients, I continued working on creating tutorials whenever I got time. I worked on creating educational content for some well-known online giants like Envato Tuts +. I also sent my courses online on Udemy and Skillshare. With time, I realized I can monetize this passion of mine a good deal.

I quit my job exactly two years later and got into Pluralsight. To date, I have 6 courses on Pluralsight library, both Android and PHP. And that’s how I went from being a software developer to being a software instructor.

While all this was happening, I was also a part of a community called Google Developer Group aka GDG. GDG has given me a platform to teach others and encourage them to improve their technical skills. I have been a part of this group since my college. It was in 2014 that I taught Android to 15 people for the first time – my first offline teaching experience if you will. After volunteering and organizing events for GDG for a good chunk of 3 years, I became the Women Techmaker’s (WTM) Ambassador for the Bhubaneswar chapter. WTM as a community has brought 1000s of women in technology from all over the globe together through workshops and events.

One might ask, for what am I putting all this effort? For the ultimate treat – a couple of weeks of holiday to decompress and appreciate my hard work. I award myself with such trips whenever I get a chance. I have started enjoying creating travel content too. I record whenever I feel like capturing the moment.

Total Work Experience : 5 Years (Mindfire Solutions, Pluralsight)