If you follow me on LinkedIn, you probably would have seen my post about connecting with Jagatjyoti, who is a Senior Software Engineer at Fusemachines (One of the leading IT companies in Nepal). This blog is a general summary of the things we talked about. To sum it up, we talked about technology (obviously), a little comparison between the IT sector in India and Nepal, our interests, and a few other things.
First, please let me introduce him.
Jagatjyoti is a very humble person and a keen tech enthusiast. Like me, he believes in networking and is open to connecting with people who share common interests. He started his journey with Designco Nepal and is currently working on Fusemachines as a Senior Software Engineer for 4.5 years. Also, we both graduated in Computer Science and Engineering from India. He has expertise in Full stack development JavaScript / Typescript and is interested in keen blockchain, data science, and mobile development.
Here is his LinkedIn profile if you want to connect with him: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jagatjyotig/
I asked him many questions, but I will try to include only relevant ones that make sense to keep this blog short.
Fusemachines is one of the leading IT companies here in Nepal. How did you get in? Do you feel proud of that?
“Indeed, I do feel proud. Taking ownership of projects and optimally delivering them is what thrives and inspires me. I find that very interesting, and I am learning a lot too. I was asked by a friend who suggested I drop my CV here. My interviews were extensively technical, and I was honestly very nervous. I remember I started with Node and Ember JS projects.”
I heard from a close friend that Fusemachines conducts a Knowledge Sharing session every week to learn and research new things. Is that true?
“Yes, it is. Fusemachines as a company is extensively research-driven so having Knowledge sharing sessions enhances everyone’s ability to research and learn new things. Plus, we are an AI-based company, and R&D is the heart here.”
Do you think data Structures and algorithms are important for full-stack developers?
“I think it is an absolute requirement because, behind the scene, everything is based on it. These days, frameworks have made life easier, but you should know the internal workings of the framework as a software engineer. This also is true for machine learning engineers because even though there are packages readily available, what separates you the most is your understanding of how things work in the background. In general, it helps you make robust decisions. People usually ignore it, but I would say this is very, very important.”
How do you handle the project’s code when there are more than a dozen people working?
“We try to maintain coding standards as much as we can. We help each other to lean towards better practices. On personal levels we use linters and each pull request goes through two other developers which only gets accepted if that section makes sense. Test cases much exist and there are few other practices that one should abide by. I personally feel this is very important because this indeed will help future contributors to be comfortable with the codebase faster. But, this is also one of the trickiest things to get right. Maintaining constraints for 70-80 engineers is a very difficult job to do. Efficiency and best practices are two vital components for us.”
What India has for college students?
I would like to introduce something out of the blue here which is very prevalent in India. India has a lot of companies and a lot of engineers. To fill the demand and supply gaps, the companies there have kind of a partnership with the colleges. These are also called “College Placements”. This means you will have a job in your hands right when you graduate. This was the case for me too. In fact, I joined Codemantra 2 days after my final exams. These days placements of some companies are very lucrative to be honest. Given the right skillset, some were placed at 25+ Lakhs per annum this year from several tier A colleges.
How is the salary here in Nepal, especially for Software Engineers?
“I have a non-disclosure agreement that forbids me to talk about my salary, but in recent years the IT field has shown good growth, and the salary levels have also seen substantial increments. However, the fluctuation is huge and can widely vary.”
Similar is the case in India too. The IT field has seen enormous growth, and the salary ranges also vary from place to place. I have seen people getting 40+ lakhs per annum with ~4 years of experience and I personally have worked with people with ~10 lakhs per annum with the same experience. So, yes, the margin varies widely. There is a trend going in India these days. Startups that have secured some funding are paying really well to the developers compared to India’s tech giant. For example, Cred and Swiggy pay way more than TCS, Wipro, etc.
Since we are talking about salary, with that comes tax too. I have worked in India, and I understand what tax deductions you can avail of, but unfortunately, I have no clue about the structure and beliefs here. Please let me know if you can help. I hear that the tax deduction system in Nepal is messed up, and nobody really provides a clear answer. For example, in India, we can claim tax deductions by investing in mutual funds. Can we do that here too?
Please let me know if you want to know about the salary ranges for different places. I will try to write another blog and refer to sites with all this information.
What are your views on cryptocurrencies?
“I believe in the concept of cryptocurrencies and the underlying tech that it runs on. In fact, in my free time, I research it and try to learn new stuff. I think that the power should be in the general public’s hands. With that said, there are scams like pump and dump happening worldwide, and some coins are just trolls. I assume that the future is bright for this, but the road is bumpy.”
What would you suggest to a beginner who is just starting out or is a fresh college graduate?
“My main tip would be - Do not just copy and paste code from GitHub or StackOverflow but try to understand what that code does as well. Be aware of what happens behind the scene. A developer needs to know what the code does. Do not just run after results but make sure you understand what you did to get the result (The final thing that works). Also, another thing you should do is, get your basics cleared in your college days and have something to show. Do not run after companies and think that you will learn whatever is needed when you get in. Companies these days are looking for interns who have done something by themselves before. If you have something to show, then that really makes you stand out from the crowd.”
I couldn’t agree more on this. Taking my example here, before graduating, I had a bunch of projects to show off to companies that really made a good impression on me. I had projects in blockchain, PHP, react, and a few other things, including my portfolio. This, till today, gives me a head start when reaching out to companies or impressing someone in the community.
I would like to bring this blog to an abrupt stop as it is getting lengthy. It is quite hard to summarize a 2-hour long call, honestly.
As usual, please reach out if you want to talk tech. I love to network and connect with people.