I, Anmol Mehra located in Gurugram, recently hired by Cactus Global as a Software Engineer.

Remembering my initial days, I took lockdown as an opportunity, I gave time to myself, invested it in studies, helped my family and explored different phases of my career.

Eventually, I decided to do a year-long residential software programming course and went to Navgurukul, Himachal Pradesh during Lockdown.

Navgurukul, a meaningful alternative to college education, trains youth from humble backgrounds for free awarded Certificate in software Programming.

I learnt programming languages, frameworks, tools along with swimming, cooking, laptop/fan/ladder repairing, wi-fi router management. As per rules, we need to take and deliver a number of classes/activities for making bonds and decorum in the campus. I did handle the academics of junior students, mentored them with a cascade of communication skills. 

I was the Food and Kitchen coordinator looking after the groceries and hygiene in the kitchen. 

Living in the mountains, trekking became my hobby. I spent my spare time packing bags, picking up the tent and exploring the mountains. 

In a nutshell, NavGurukul gave me an equation of hard work and life. 

Anjali Prajapati, who always works with me in a team since childhood and school, be it the communication skills, presenting ourselves or our studies and these were the things that really made it easy when I was sitting for my interview. I didn’t realise I got the highest package in NavGurukul as a fresher.

After going through the interview process, I am hired as a Software Engineer with 5LPA salary along with a 50k joining bonus.The company also reimburses for Wifi, technical accessories and work from home office essentials. Working with Cactus is a feeling of cherishment. Everyday, there is something new I put my hands on and work towards that. 

Cactus Global (https://cactusglobal.com) is a company founded by Mr. Abhishek Goel. They offer AI-powered scholarly publishing solutions to academic publishers and collaborate with researchers across academic disciplines and their headquarters is in Mumbai and offices in US, UK, China, Korea, Denmark, Singapore etc. 

I am grateful to my school, Vidya for giving me lessons for life, and the life changing mentor teachers who believed in me in my worst and supported me and my family in every way possible. I learnt the power of starting small by taking baby steps in school itself.

My nerves lie in my laptop. I aspire to work on developing skills to build websites and efficient coding skills.