During the last 4 months, I have read more than 500 Hashnode articles. There were articles from beginner bloggers, seasoned bloggers, and also from hardcode bloggers.
Of course, there were huge differences in terms of topic, readability, structure, and matureness in these articles, but there was one common in all of them:
They were not just able to grab my attention but also to keep it till the end of the article.
As I read the articles week by week many names started to appear again and again which made me curious. I wanted to know a little bit about the background of these great hloggers and I am pretty sure I am not the only one who would love to read about the creators of these excellent articles.
Hundreds of new articles appear on Hashnode each week cause of this it is very hard to stand out and reach the readers no matter how good are the articles we write.
I have learned about self-branding in the past and one of the main takeaway for me was the following:
If you would like to sell your product, no matter whether it is a photograph, a physical product, or an article in our case, it is not enough to have a quality product you have to make people interested in you.
Sharing personal stories, thoughts, or our everyday struggles will result in much more engagement from our readers as they realize we are also a human similar to them having the same everyday struggles as they have.
As my name Mikls means Claus and I also have a quite big belly, I decided to put my red hat on and become the secret Santa. From now on, I will approach bloggers of the Hashnode community and interview them regularly.
That's enough from the backstory, let's see who is the first Hashnode blogger. 😊
The Hlogger: Saroj Behera
If you read my Hashnode weekly articles, then you know I am not really into blockchain and crypto, still, I decided to make the first interview with Saroje Behera who is writing harticles about the blockchain.
I am not into blockchain and crypto so much that I have bought Team Fortress 2 keys for 17 bitcoin several years ago when bitcoin was not really known to the public.
Such an idiot, I guess that is what you think now. Still, I have no nightmares about that and can talk about it without having any bad feelings.
Blockchain is much more than crypto and being a beginner in the field Saroj Behera's article can help you to understand the fundamentals of blockchain technology.
Dear reader, please welcome Saroj Behera.
The Interview
Hello, Saroj! Let's start! Can you tell us a few words about your childhood? Where did you come from? How was your life before you became a software engineer?
Well, My childhood is very different from what I am today. :) I was born in district Angul in Odisha state, India. In my family, I am the elder son, including my younger sister we are 4 members. I was very distracted and always used to roam outside, enjoying and chilling In my childhood. Till the 12th standard, I studied in a private school. After 12th I got interested in computer science. Then I joined city govt college for the degree course. After that again I did my Master in Computer Application(MCA) at a private university in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
From MCA until now, I am doing my professional career in Software Industry.
What was your first memorable moment related to your profession?
Yepp! It's interesting. When I used to learn first time coding, my trainer used to give me tasks every day. And I was not able to complete those on time. I used to forget all things.
Then I asked my mentor, and then he suggested trying the Forgetting Curve methods while learning new skills. After applying these methods, I completed all tasks on time.
Can you tell me a little bit about what your job entails? What does the day-to-day look like?
As you know, I work for Maveric Systems Limited, Bangalore, India as a Software Engineer. In Maveric, I used to work on different tech stacks like JavaScript, Node, React, etc.
My day starts with a coffee and looking through what I have to do for the day. I always make a list one day earlier. My team mainly used Jira as a ticketing system, and we have sprints.
A sprint will be a week or two. In that amount of time, I need to complete my given work to be on track with my goal. Then it comes to coding! While doing code, I always care about the test cases, code quality, and other essential factors.
Every day we used to have a stand-up meeting with my team to learn about how the project was going on and what issues are facing like that.
What was your worst moment related to your profession?
Eight months back, one day, I got an outside project. I accepted it and started working on it. My friend and I used to do that project. I handled the frontend part, and the friend is the backend part. On the day of our first demo, my friend's PC got some windows problem, and it was formatted. That day I am remembering, I was blank. Somehow I convinced the client, and we postponed it to a new date.
What was your best moment related to your profession?
Well, best moment! Once in my previous organization there is an issue with some AWS authentication logic, 2 developers were tried for 4-5 days. After that, my manager gave me that task, then luckily I did it in 1 day. That was one of the best moments in my professional life.
Do you think a degree is required to be a software engineer these days?
Great question! If you know the skills, there is no need for a degree. Of course, you should be good at logic building and a great problem solver. Yaa, the degree also matters. If anyone is looking for a degree that can help to get a job in software, then I will be recommended for Software engineering or computer science.
Also, just a degree wont get you the job. With a degree, you must also have the skills and programming languages like Java, C, C++, etc.
Again, the most important is your passion. If you are passionate about software engineering, then only you can deliver the work. You wont succeed without a great passion. Passion for learning new skills, passion for having patience, and passion for exploring new tech.
Please tell me 7 things you would like to share about yourself!
7 things! Its interesting. Well, firstly, I can say I am passionate about programming. Every day I try to write something.
Second, I always believe in myself. I think if we imagine one thing, then we can achieve it. We need hard work and focus.
Third, I love to read books, any books that may be technical, self-help, or any story. I love to read. I believe every day we should read something. I called it brain exercise.
Fourth, I can't say NO.
Fifth, I love to stay with my parents and family. I believe work can be done anywhere if we know the right skills.
Sixth, I have a shallow friend circle. We will be the average of 5 people around us, thats why I always choose the right people.
Last, my long-term goal is to make a charity where I can give free education to the needy.
Thats all my 7 things!
Do you have a specific area of interest?
Thanks for this question. I am always a learner. Every day I try to learn something new that can help my career. Currently, I am exploring blockchain and its applications. I think you already know what blockchain is. Blockchain is a great technology that may change the future.
How do you think blockchain will change the future?
Well, blockchain is an open, distributed ledger that can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way. It works on the decentralized network model. It means, that both data and functionality(business logic) of an application reside on multiple servers that are not owned and managed by a single entity.
With the help of this, we can build great applications. Currently, maximum applications work on central databases, where our data are not safe. But in blockchain, there is no single authority that controls our data. It works on a peer-to-peer network, where every peer acts as a server. Blockchain is immutable, which means any new data added to the blockchain network is permanent, and no one can modify or delete it. In this way, blockchain will help you to build robust apps.
Interesting! As far as I know, you are not just learning about blockchain, but you also share your knowledge with the community. Where can our readers find your writings?
Yes, I have a blog; you can find it here on Hashnode, and you can also read me on medium.
Here I write articles about blockchain and other crypto-related topics.
Can you share some insights about how you write your articles?
It was a kind of new habit for me. Till 2021 November I never ever wrote even a single article. At that time I used to train under one mentor on an online platform. He was a kind of writer also. He motivated me a lot in this new world.
After that, I tried writing one article, and luckily I got a huge response, but then I never stopped.
Normally I used to write articles on Blockchain-related domains. I believe Blockchain is a future technology.
Do you have some advice for new or wannabe bloggers?
Yes, I will advise new bloggers like, they must focus on one category like I am focusing only on blockchain-related. The also most important thing is consistency, at least try to write one article in a week and keep doing it. That's it.
Why do you like Hashnode?
Well, I like hashnode. Because it is mostly for software professionals. Also in the Hashnode, I can find great articles every day. I love the hashnode UI and personal blog domain feature.
Yepp! I also used to write articles on different platforms, but mostly I used hashnode!
Cool. Do you have a favorite fictional character? Why he/she/it is your favorite?
I believe in Ankur Warikoo. Ankur is an Indian author, investor, and businessperson. I always follow him.
Who is your favorite real-life idol? Why?
My Mother! She is working as a school teacher. Also, she always cooks for us, not only cooks but all other minor work. She is always my real-life idol.
Do you play video games? What do you do in your free time?
Interesting. I very rarely play these types of games. Instead, I love to read books in my free time and always try to learn new skills so that they will help in my professional career.
Thank you, Saroj. It was a pleasure to talk to you. Do you have any message or some closing words for our readers?
For readers, I will always say one thing, focus on your goal, and love what you are doing, always keep trying till the work is done.
Also thanks to you Miki, for giving your time to me for this great interview. it was one type of great moment for me. I hope I'll meet soon with you :)
Dear readers. Thank you for taking the time to read Saroj Behera's interview. You can follow him on Hashnode, on LinkedIn, and also on Twitter if you do not want to miss his posts.
Top comments (0)