My Journey to Zenefits SDE
In conversation with Navin Ojha, a student of Programming Pathshala who has recently gotten placed with Zenefits as their SDE after working with a Product based start-up previously. Read his story of success in this blog.
#100Stories is a series of transformational stories of courage and indomitable will to excel, picked from the lives of tech students, particularly in India. Initiative by Programming Pathshala.
Hi Navin, How have you been?
Hey, I am doing great thanks!
Great, so can you please Introduce yourself?
Sure, so hey everyone, My name is Navin Ojha and I did my Btech from AIT (Acharya Institute of Technology) Bangalore, prior to this I was working with Plansource as Software Engineer and about to join Zenefits as SDE now.
So Navin you’re about to join Zenefits as their SDE soon, How’s the feeling?
Honestly, it feels great! I never imagined I would join Zenefits or join any other company as I wasn’t looking for a switch as such or with much Enthusiasm. I remember being on a vacation when I got the Interview call from Zenefits and I could just make this happen for myself. It definitely feels amazing.
That’s Amazing Navin, so how has been your journey to Zenefits?
Starting from college, there came many companies for our placements, and I did get placed in a few service-based companies like Cognizant, TCS etc, however I did not move forward with joining either. I started practicing by myself and soon joined a Product based startup. I worked there for around a year but thought to make a shift to some other company or to just enhance my skills for future Interviews. I got on a call with Anoop bhaiya and he told me everything about the course, I soon enrolled for the same and started preparing. Today I have been able to make this change for myself and I feel so great about it.
Oh that’s great, and How did you get connected with Anoop, basically how did you get to know about Programming Pathshala?
I actually came through Programming Pathshala via LinkedIn posts, and back in those days Programming Pathshala wasn’t much talked about. I saw a Demo lecture by Vivek bhaiya and was just in Awe of his teaching skills. I could only imagine how great he would teach in the course if just the Demo lecture was so great. Soon I joined the course and it has been an amazing journey till date :)
And how has been your Interview Experience with Zenefits? Could you solve all the questions given to you by the Interviewer?
For Zenefits, I got the referral through Programming Pathshala itself and soon I got a call from their recruitment team. There were 3 rounds in the Interview. The 1st round consisted of questions related to DSA, those I could solve easily as it gets covered in the course in-depth. The second round was the System Design round in which they asked questions related to why will you design that particular thing, How will you design it and which Frontend will you use etc. I was able to ace my design round and just after that I got a call from the HR to schedule the third round which was the Managerial round. Managerial round was half an hour long and soon after that I received my offer letter from the HR.
To rate my Interview in terms of difficulty levels, I would say it was easy for me as I studied from Programming Pathshala, had I not gotten this opportunity then definitely it would have been really difficult for me to crack the Interview and land an Offer.
So Navin as you mentioned, your Design round went great! Would you like to throw some light on how you felt about the HLD, LLD concepts taught here at Programming Pathshala?
It’s amazing, I believe no one else can explain the LLD (Low level Design) as good as Vivek bhaiya, even after not completing that full module, I could solve any question related to Design, so yea it was pretty great.
Amazing Navin, coming to your Problem solving skills, as you mentioned earlier you needed to brush up your skills to sit for Interview, so could you do that for yourself while being a part of our course Renaissance?
Definitely, there’s no doubt about my skills being enhanced a lot since I joined the course. I could make out what to put where and how to approach a problem. Earlier nothing of this was easy to me but now it feels like a cake walk after being a part of Renaissance by Programming Pathshala.
As you have been a part of Programming Pathshala for a year now, there must have been times where you might have felt demotivated or like giving up, could you tell me how you got out of those?
Definitely, there was a time where I felt like I was settled in my previous company, the pay was good and It made me not feel like studying anymore but after having a word with Anoop bhaiya, he told me to prepare for just 6 months and see the difference, that’s exactly what I did and here we are today, I am happy to have kept studying with Renaissance and excited to join Zenefits as their SDE soon.
Thank You so much sharing your experience Navin, but before you leave, any piece of advice for our Fellow SDE’s in making?
Yes, I would just like to advise everyone to keep at it with the course, keep working hard and do not miss any Live classes taken by Vivek bhaiya, trust me if you just keep watching each and every live lecture, You will feel so much prepared and would not feel like the need of approaching any other medium for your Interview preparations.
Thanks Navin, All the best for your Future ahead and Take care!
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