The story of a Google developer expert who rose from an Indian slum

Author | SANTOSH YADAV

Translator | Nuka-Cola

Planning | Liu Yan

Getting in touch with computers allowed Santosh to take the first step out of the slums, and getting in touch with and embracing open source profoundly influenced and changed the fate of Santosh and his entire family. On the road of computers, Santosh has gained a lot of support every step of the way. Therefore, he decided to devote himself to open source contributions and give back to the open source community.

Software development has become a bright path out of poverty. Santosh knows that a little support can change his fate.

The following is Santosh’s readme.

out of the slums,

first contact with computer

Hello everyone, I am Santosh Yadav, an Angular Google Development Expert (GDE ), GitHub Star, Auth0 Ambassador, participated in the contribution of Angular and NgRx, and also wrote technical columns. I also run my own Tech Talks with Santosh podcast, creator of the ng-deploy package, source code heatmap analyst, and core team member for NestJSAddons and ngWorker.

I have spent most of my life in a small dwelling in a Bombay slum. Until 2002, our family couldn’t afford a TV, and I didn’t know where my future was. Neither of my parents had any education, so they didn’t know how to channel my upbringing. The only thing they can do is to urge me to study hard.

But everything seems to be God’s arrangement: I applied to the university, and although I failed to enter the most anticipated electronics major, I was admitted to the computer science major. I have never touched a computer before, but I am willing to give it a try.

I was really lucky to be accepted, but my campus life was not easy. All classes are taught in English, but my mother tongue is not English. I remember crying in class because I couldn’t understand anything. But I know that I must persevere, and there will be a turning point if I persevere.

At this time, I met an engineer. His advice to me was, “No matter what you want to do in the future, get your diploma first.”

Around the same time, I learned that my father had lost his job a year ago, but he didn’t tell his family. Life is hard now, and he thinks I might have to drop out of school. Fortunately, my mother is quite well-organized. She knows that a bachelor’s degree can open the door to a new world for me, so she fights for it. My dad finally figured it out, and managed to help me raise tuition fees for the next three years—I don’t know how they did it. In short, I successfully got my bachelor’s degree.

During the years of school, the cost of textbooks far exceeded my financial means. At first, I couldn’t study without books, until a few kind professors helped me borrow the books I needed. This is really a timely help, and it has become one of the biggest motivations for me to study hard. This experience has strengthened my determination to help others when I have the ability.

I have never touched a computer before, but I am willing to give it a try.

From startup software engineer

to the team leader

In 2012, my daughter was hospitalized prematurely. This little premature baby was very strong and gave me hope to accept reality. I felt that if such a small baby could survive three months and be out of danger, I would surely be able to rescue her from the slums. We had no insurance when she was hospitalized, and there was no money on the bank card. During those weeks, I worked hard to make money and vowed to give my family a better life.

The year before, I had just taken a job at a startup as a senior software engineer. They have helped me a lot during this difficult time, friends have lent me money and I have taken loans from banks. In short, the economic pressure is huge, but fortunately, my work attitude has always been very serious, so it has paid off. I quickly rose from senior software engineer to team lead, and the higher ranks allowed me to actually cover the expenses of the whole family.

to become an individual contributor,

Learn Angular

After five years at a startup, I started managing three or four departments, but I really didn’t want to be a manager anymore.

In 2016, I started to return to the role of individual contributor and moved to another city, Pune. I found myself more interested in front-end development, so I started learning Angular and took all the courses I could get through my employer.

In 2017, the fourth version of Angular was officially released. Not many people had heard of Angular at the time, so I was able to teach.

By the end of 2017, I had made enough money for myself and my family, at which point I felt it was time to start giving back to the community. I got help when I needed it most, and I didn’t lack the support of others to take my first steps. Now I want to give back to this community and help more people learn knowledge .

decided to devote

open source contribution

In 2018, I had a good job at Deutsche Bank when my daughter unexpectedly got tuberculosis. Our manager was very supportive and allowed me to travel from Pune to Mumbai every month to visit my doctor. The manager said, “Don’t worry about work, take care of your daughter.” Sometimes my wife can only travel alone with my daughter, but the whole family is trying to help her recover. Thankfully, my daughter eventually made it through.

By the end of 2018, I heard that the Angular conference was coming up, so I immediately decided to attend. I met some really great people at that event, including the Angular development team. They decided to support and discuss my work without even knowing me very well. I thought, “Wow, these guys are so passionate.” They even helped me draft my first blog post, and it went viral.

Five days after that meeting, I submitted my first PR – to NgRx, the Angular claims management framework. After the merger, I decided to devote myself fully to open source contributions. So I’ve been contributing to NgRx: I’ve picked issues from Angular, continued to contribute, and created some open source packages and utilities.

On November 13, 2019, I became an Angular Google Developer Expert (GDE) : It was a very special day, which happened to be my birthday.

In 2020, I gave a talk at the Angular conference. Of course, with the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, everything came to a halt. I’m pretty disappointed, I really enjoy speaking at conferences. But the community came up with a good way to move the meeting online, and I continued to actively participate in various activities. I became the first GitHub Star from India – I am very proud of it. I am the first representative from India.

Create a software education community

After being invited to become a GitHub Star in 2020, I decided to try some other career options and worked for another client for half a year. Then, thanks to the GitHub Star program, I turned into a consulting business. Many people are willing to work with me. At this time, I am no longer a passive player in job hunting, but can actively choose olive branches from all parties.

At the age of 36, I decided to come to Germany, where I had a good job. I love this new company and the compensation it offers will improve the quality of life for me and my family. My daughter lived in the ghetto for 8 years before moving out entirely. Now she’s 10 years old and I’m already doing Celonis development full-time in Germany .

Also in 2020, my friend and GitHub Star Lars Gyrup Brink Nielsen and I launched the “This Is Learning” initiative with the goal of building a community that promotes free, open, and honest software education. In 2021, I joined as a co-founder and it is still in development. There are now over 150 contributors who help us publish blog posts, newsletters and podcasts.

In early 2022, I contacted Free Code Camp to see if they would like to collaborate. They liked the 18-hour Angular tutorial I made (450,000 views in five months) and decided to take over the launch. More and more peers contact me with questions or help with Angular, open source, and giving back to the community.

The positive participation of everyone has given me a lot of confidence because we all go through difficult times. We had no money, no one to depend on, and we even slept on the floors of friends’ houses. But that time made me stronger. I too used to have nothing, but now we have a little accumulation that can help others. So, now is the time to act.

Continue to give back to the community,

Choose a career you love

I’m a night owl: I create content after my family is asleep. I remember in 2019, my schedule was to start working from 11pm to 2am. I like to work at night, especially easy to concentrate. My wife is also very understanding and never complains. She knows that everything I do is for this family. Now that I’m at home 24 hours a day, I can finally spend more time with my family.

Looking back on everything, I am grateful to my parents, who knew that education was the only way out of the slums . They made the right choice and gave everything they could, and now it’s up to me to take responsibility. My daughter is getting good grades, but I don’t intend to push her too hard – it’s best to let her make up her own mind. I will also continue to give back to the society, accompany my family, and strive to let my daughter pursue her dreams and choose a career she loves.

The text and pictures in this article are from AI Frontline