Introduction

Hi everyone. I'm Akshat Arora, and this is going to be the start of my tech blog where I'll document my coding journey and in the process, try to give something back to the developer community.

By profession, I'm a Software Engineer with expertise in Full-Stack Development and a passion for Data Science. And if you haven't guessed it already I'll be sharing content related to these fields in the future.

On a personal level, apart from exploring new technologies and participating in hackathons, I am a hardcore gamer and a comic book geek. So if you ever feel like teaming up in Rainbow Six Siege or just discussing how long it's going to take Rockstar to release GTA 6, hit me up on Discord.

Education and Professional Background

I am based out of Amritsar, the "Tourist Hub" of the state of Punjab in India. I completed my Master's in Computer Applications from Guru Nanak Dev University, here in my hometown. Similar to other engineering degrees, I was taught subjects like Data Structures or Micro-Processors, the use of which I'm yet to see in real-world scenarios 😜. I volunteered to be the class representative in my first year of University. I was also selected as the "Head Boy" of the School during my last year. The truth is I have always enjoyed leadership positions and even today, I look for opportunities to manage people and operations.

After I completed my Bachelor's, I got a job as a Backend Developer at a startup in my hometown. Since the team was really small, there was a lot of staying at the office for longer hours and having multiple responsibilities (even those that fell out of my knowledge). After 7 months, I decided to leave the company as attendance was becoming a problem at my University. But even in this short stint, I got to learn way more than I did in my classes.

After that, I got an offer from a company in Mohali for the post of Software Developer. As they allowed a "flexible" schedule and remote option that wouldn't affect my studies, I decided to accept. The larger team size, well-distributed responsibilities, and structured work approach were a welcome change. During my time there, I got to contribute to (and launch) two large-scale projects and learned how teams (both developer and cross-functional) work together in a professional setting.

Goals and Challenges

Fast Forward to a few months ago, I decided to leave and explore something new, Freelancing. Consequently, I have moved from just development to networking, pitching and content creation too. In fact, one of the main purposes of my blog is to establish credibility and showcase my skills. As scary as this field can be it also has its rewards. For example, as part of my ongoing contract with a company, I get to manage a team of a couple of devs, a brand designer, a content manager, and a tester. Thus, satisfying my leadership kinks 😜.

I'm also looking forward to contributing to open-source during this time (something I've been procrastinating about since my University days). In fact, I've participated in this year's Hacktoberfest (I also had a pull request merged yesterday 🎉) and will try to meet the target of at least 4 contributions by the end of this month.

Wrapping up

That's a bit about me. I hope to keep posting about my learnings and experiences, as part of learning and growing in public. But let's not stop here, let's connect in comments or on LinkedIn.

Until next time ✋🏻!!!