Deep Dive into Software World with Software Development Engineer from Amazon (w/ Rahul Bhanushali)

In this episode of ‘Up The Ladder’, Board Infinity’s Co-founder Abhay Gupta interviews Rahul Bhanushali. Rahul will talk about how he was able to secure positions at amazing tech product companies like Amazon, BookMyShow, etc.

We’ve put together a few of the main questions & answers from the interview. This 1-hour long interview had a lot more that was discussed that couldn’t be covered in this post. This episode is a must-watch for all technology enthusiasts & freshers who want to dive into the software world.

(You can watch the full interview here: A Deep Dive Into Software world with Software Development Engineer from Amazon)

The Interview

Q1. How should freshers improve their problem-solving skills?

I realized that it’s more important to know what not to do instead of the other way around.

During the start of my professional journey, I used to visit websites like HackerRank to improve my problem-solving skills.

I would look at a problem, figure out a way to solve it, and just leave it there. I basically solved the problems only using the approach that I knew, whereas, in programming, one problem can be solved in multiple ways.

I started to realize that this wasn't the correct approach. In the end, I was just applying what I already knew and wasn’t learning anything. By doing this, you just end up building your confidence & not your skills.

So what I did instead was, after solving a problem using my method, I started to look at the solutions from other people. This method lets you learn about the different perspectives and ways to solve the same problem.

Using this method you’ll learn new concepts effectively and be able to gain a lot of knowledge in your domain. You’ll be amazed at the solutions that other people come up with to the same problem.

Q2. Should beginners focus on learning just 1 technology or experiment with Multiple Technologies?

I think that whether you’re just starting out, or you’ve already been in the industry for 10+ years… You should never commit yourself to a single technology.

Technologies, programming languages, or frameworks are constantly evolving at a rapid rate. When that happens, you won’t really be able to keep up with the change.

I would recommend people to always have an open mind and learn whatever is required to solve a particular problem. Identify what is the perfect technology to solve a particular problem efficiently & use that.

You always need to keep learning to stay ahead of the curve!

Q3. What advice would you give to your 20-year old self?

One major issue that I see with a lot of freshers is that they start beating themselves up when they can’t solve a problem. I went through the same phase, if I couldn’t solve a problem I used to be very disappointed in myself.

What you need to understand is that this sort of thinking doesn’t help you in any way.

You need to remember that any problem that you come across is solvable, it may take some time, but you’ll always find the answer as long as you don’t give up. And that’s exactly what I would tell my 20-year-old self.

Whenever I’m stuck with a problem for too long, I just tend to push it to the side for a couple of hours or a day. This allows me to come back to the problem with an open mind the next day and I’ve noticed that I’m suddenly able to solve this unsolvable problem very easily.

Also, Watch  video on a Deep discussion in to Software World with Software Development Engineer:

Q4. How can freshers get started with Web Development?

First thing is to understand the roles & responsibilities of a full-stack developer. Being a full-stack developer is not just about building the frontend or the backend, it’s about being able to understand the product really well & building it end to end.

Before you jump into all of the libraries and frameworks, try to get your concepts clear in terms of programming, algorithms, and problem-solving skills.

Once you have that in place, you can start identifying what are the technologies that are trending or have the best community support and get comfortable with it.

But doing just this is not enough because you won’t have an idea of how to build a product.

So what I recommend after that is, build something of your own or take on a few projects that will help you implement the things that you have learned.

For e.g. during my college days, I built an alumni portal for my college. This gave me a good experience in full-stack development & also helped me get better at understanding the dynamics of a good product. This will also add to your portfolio and give you some credibility when you’re trying to apply for your first job.

Q5. What do you suggest for students who are Graduating this year, given the situation right now?

There are a couple of things that students can do.

The first is, there are still a lot of companies out there that are looking to hire freshers or interns. If you’re a fresher who is finding it difficult to get a job then you can start looking for a paid or an unpaid internship (depending on your situation). The reason for doing this is that you’ll get an experience of how real-life problems, how a company works & what skillsets you need to build.

Once you have that experience, you can start working on building these skills & building your own projects to become a better developer. You can also push these projects on GitHub & start driving traffic to them through social networks like LinkedIn & Twitter.

Once you get more visibility and credibility, people will start approaching you & you might also be able to apply for freelance or remote jobs. There are a lot of companies within India and abroad that hire freelancers on a regular basis.
The main thing is to work on yourself and keep improving always. There are a lot of opportunities out there, just keep taking some sort of action and become more. Good luck!

Abhay Gupta & Rahul Bhansali spoke in-depth about a lot of other things including his B.Sc. journey, how he got hired into companies like BookMyShow & Amazon, his early career, his transition into data science, and a lot more.

Watch the whole interview here: A Deep Dive Into Software world with Software Development Engineer from Amazon