DEV Community: SAVITA WADJE

Why I Left a Good Job in India to Study in Germany at 5+ Years Into My Career

SAVITA WADJE — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:48:37 +0000

This one is not a coding post. It is a story I have wanted to write for a while.

Everything was going well, but something was missing

I had almost 5 years of experience working in India, and honestly, my job was going well. Good team, good work, nothing to complain about. But somewhere inside, I was not fully satisfied.

I always had this small dream of doing my Masters. It stayed in the back of my mind for years, quietly. Slowly, that dream started fading, the way dreams do when life gets busy and comfortable.

The conversation that changed things

One day I was talking to a close friend, just casually, and it hit me that it might be too late to chase that dream now. But then I thought, it is not impossible. It is just late. And honestly, it is better to be late than to spend years regretting that I never tried.

So I took the risk.

Why Germany specifically

I started applying, and the question everyone asked me was, why Germany? For me it came down to job security. The job market here felt more stable, and wherever I was going to move, I wanted to land somewhere that gave me a real chance to build a life, not just a degree on paper.

It was more spontaneous than planned

Because I was still working full time at my last organization, I genuinely did not have the time to apply to multiple universities the way most people do. I applied to just one. And I got lucky, I got the admit.

Looking back, it feels like such a spontaneous decision for something this big. But sometimes that is just how life works out.

Life here, and what it taught me

Now I am studying alongside a lot of Gen Z students, and I learn so much just being around them, not just academically but life skills too, survival skills you only pick up when you are figuring things out on your own in a new country.

I live alone here, and that alone has given me a kind of confidence I did not have before. I have also done quite a few solo trips since moving here, and every single one has taught me something new.

Every day feels like I am building a new version of myself. New experiences, new lessons, sometimes uncomfortable ones, but all of it adding up to someone I am genuinely proud of becoming.

From MEAN Stack Beginner to Falling in Love with Frontend 💻

SAVITA WADJE — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:23:31 +0000

Every developer has that one moment where something just clicks. This is mine.

Where it all started

I began my career at a small company as a MEAN stack developer. It was a small team, so you end up touching a bit of everything. That's actually where I got properly introduced to frontend development.

Why frontend hooked me

Honestly? It was the instant feedback. Whatever I wrote, I could see it right there on the browser, immediately. No waiting around, no guessing if it worked. It made me feel like I was actually building something real, not just writing code that disappears into a file somewhere.

That feeling is what made me fall in love with frontend from the start.

Then JavaScript happened 🧠

For a while, I could make things work, but I didn't always know why they worked. That changed once I went deeper into JavaScript.

Suddenly I could actually picture what was happening in the browser. Like, you click one button, and now I could trace it: which event fires, what it triggers, how everything reacts after. That mental picture becoming clear was such a good feeling. Frontend stopped being magic and started making sense.

The path that got me here
Nothing planned, it just happened in this order:

HTML for the structure
CSS for making it look alive
JavaScript for making it behave
Frameworks & libraries for building on top of all that

Each one made the next easier to get. I'm glad I didn't skip around.

Still learning, still building

I'm nowhere near done, still figuring things out as I go, still learning new stuff.

Angular vs React: How I Decide Which to Use for a New Project

SAVITA WADJE — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 15:15:22 +0000

The wrong question

"Angular vs React, which is better?" is the wrong question. Both are mature, well-supported, and can build the same things. The better question is: which one fits this specific project, team, and timeline? Here's how I actually think about it.

When I reach for Angular

Large, long-lived enterprise apps — Angular's opinionated structure (modules, services, DI) pays off when a team of 10+ devs needs consistency over years, not just weeks.
Teams that want batteries included — routing, forms, HTTP client, and testing tools all come built-in. Less time spent choosing libraries, more time building.
TypeScript-first teams — Angular is TypeScript by default, so if your team already thinks in strict typing, it feels native rather than bolted on.

When I reach for React

Fast-moving products, startups, MVPs — React's flexibility means you can ship quickly without committing to a rigid structure upfront.
Teams that want to pick their own stack — state management, routing, styling — React lets you choose (Redux vs Zustand, React Router, Tailwind vs CSS-in-JS), which is powerful if your team has strong opinions.
Hiring pool matters — React's ecosystem is larger, so if you're scaling a team fast, there's usually a deeper talent pool to pull from.

The trade-off nobody talks about enough

Angular's structure feels restrictive early on but saves you from "a thousand ways to do the same thing" chaos later. React's flexibility feels great early on but can turn into inconsistency across a codebase if the team doesn't agree on conventions upfront.

In other words: Angular front-loads discipline. React front-loads speed — and asks you to add discipline yourself, later.

My rule of thumb

Enterprise app, long timeline, larger team → Angular
MVP, startup, small team, need to move fast → React
Not sure? Default to whichever your team already knows well — consistency beats "the better tool" almost every time.
What's your experience?

I'd love to hear how others make this call — especially if you've switched from one to the other mid-project. Drop your take in the comments.