With no prior professional working experience, Yash Sonkiya, a 25-year-old graduate from Madhya Pradesh’s Indore will be joining his first job in the dream firm Microsoft. Now, soon to be a software engineer at a big tech firm, Sonkiya said he did not know about coding until recently.
After graduating in 2021 with no job at hand, Yash started upskilling himself and learning coding from YouTube. Doing so was tougher for him than most as he is visually impaired. He lost his vision at age of eight due to congenital glaucoma – a rare disease due to genetically-determined abnormalities.
Not his degree but his self-learned skill of coding helped him land a job with Microsoft. The selection round at Microsoft consisted of coding challenges and three interviews.
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“After passing out of college, I prepared for interviews. I knew very little coding, not enough to crack a job at Microsoft. The job is not via campus placement. I studied and practiced coding at home after passing out of college. My coding was not up to the mark and hence wanted to polish my skills. I, therefore, studied coding using YouTube and with the help of his friends who work in good companies as well,” said he.
The 25-year-old fresher will now join the job at the MNC with a Rs 20 lakh plus package with incentives including stocks in Microsoft among others as additional benefits. Yash informed that he will get a Rs 15 lakh base package, Rs 5 lakh bonus, and USD 35000 worth of stocks which will be unlocked for four years.
For selection at Microsoft, there were three rounds of coding interview, which include improved thinking round. For example, if there is no Netflix tomorrow, how will you design such an app? They were interested in logic, how a person thinks about a problem
Talking about the four rounds of selection to get a job at Microsoft, he said he first took an online test, followed by interview rounds with each round being elementary. “There were three rounds of coding interview, which included improved thinking round. For example, if there is no Netflix tomorrow, how will you design such an app? They were interested in logic, how a person thinks about a problem,” he explained.
The online interviews took place in April and May. Yash will join Microsoft on September 5 as a software engineer. “Initially it will be work from home. The office is in Bangalore. It will depend on my manager as to when they will call me to the office,” he said.
Yash’s father, who runs a canteen in the city, educated his son in a school for children with special needs up to class 5, and later enrolled him in a regular school. After passing class 12 from Garima Vidya Vihar, Indore, with physics, chemistry, and math in 2017, Yash got admission to Shri Govindram Seksaria Institute of Technology and Science (SGSITS), in BTech in Computer Science by cracking JEE Main. He graduated in 2021.
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