Rajendra Shrestha is a recent graduate of Nepal College of Information Technology (NCIT), with a Bachelor of Engineering in Software Engineering. He’s also approaching his first full year as a mobile app developer at Proshore. 

For Rajendra – who’s also currently completing a master’s degree in computer engineering – part of Proshore’s appeal is the flexible working arrangements. This means he can study and work in software development at the same time. 

Continuing our ‘employee stories’ series, we spoke to Rajendra about his experience of working for Proshore, what he’s enjoyed most, and where he would like to take his career next. 

What did you do before Proshore?

Since I was young, I’ve had a passion for mobile development. I built apps and tried coding many things for my phone. 

In mobile app development, technology moves quickly! When I first started training, the main programming language was Java. Today, I mainly work in Flutter – the open-source UI kit created by Google for cross-platform applications. 

The mobile app development sector has always fascinated me. Before joining Proshore, I worked for a fintech company for almost three years. They provided banking solutions through mobile apps, with a product aimed at banking corporations within Nepal. 

What led you to Proshore?

I’d actually been following Proshore for a long time. A friend from college, who worked for the company, recommended it to me. They enjoyed working as part of the team. Now approaching my first year with the company, so do I!

What really appealed to me about joining Proshore was working on international projects, and learning how to handle them. I was also keen to learn how to develop software iteratively to keep improving products.     

Where will your skills and experience take you next?

Right now, I’m focussed on two things: finishing my master’s degree and honing my skills as a mobile app developer. 

However, in the future, I would like to move sideways and learn other aspects of software development. That’s because as developers, we cannot be complete with only one skill set. We need backend and frontend knowledge, especially if further down the line we want to become full-stack developers. 

In terms of my next steps, eCommerce is everywhere right now. So what I’d most like to do is something new. I’m really interested in the possibilities of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). At college, I did a project which involved ML, where I had to train the modules and integrate them into an app. This really sparked my interest.  

As a developer, I’d like to become more independent and self-reliant, which will come as my knowledge and experience grow. I’d also like to develop my knowledge of other programming languages, and with this knowledge, heighten my project management skills. Because Proshore works on so many different types of projects, opportunities are certain to come up. In the future, I’d also like to mentor junior developers. 

What do you enjoy most about Proshore?

There are so many answers to this question! The flexible working arrangements mean I can study and work at the same time. The learning environment here is also very positive; my teammates are very helpful. I guess you could say that it’s been a very fruitful environment to both learn and work!

There are opportunities to learn many things around software development. That’s because Proshore has many different projects, in a range of programming languages, with many international partners. As a team, we also have the opportunity to take part in social activities, such as football. 

Right now, most of Nepal’s economy is agricultural. So I’ve really enjoyed working on a poultry app. Basically, it enables farmers to optimize food production by surveying their flock and recording the features of individual hens. The data collected is used to help improve their farming techniques. I like the way it combines a traditional occupation with cutting-edge tech.

So far, what’s been most challenging about your role?

We have such a helpful team that so far anything I’ve found challenging has been easily overcome. I also think anything can be solved – or I can Google it! One area that I have found tricky is localization. That’s when an app needs to integrate multiple languages. 

Traditionally, we put different languages side by side within the frontend of an app. To overcome this, I’ve engineered a piece of code that enables different languages to be handled in the backend of the app and shown in the frontend. Now, we don’t need to manually enter different languages. This was a huge challenge for me, but highly rewarding.   

If you could code any piece of software, what would it be and why?

I’ve dreamed of designing an app that helps farmers to grow plants. It would give instructions on planting and caring for different kinds of plants to optimize their growth and yield.

We live in a time when many workers switch jobs every couple of years or so. This is especially true in software development, where projects typically last months or even a matter of weeks. So when an employee reaches their 10-year milestone – it’s an exceptional achievement – and one worth celebrating.  

In 2022, Team Leader and avid futsal fan, Angel Maharjan, celebrated his tenth year at Proshore. A graduate in Computer Engineering from the Pokhara University-affiliated Nepal College of Information Technology (NCIT), he also holds a master’s degree, earned whilst working flexible hours at Proshore.

For this installment of our series of employee stories, we sat down with Angel to learn more about his career so far. We discovered what he likes most about his role, and where his love of learning about tech will take him next.

What led you to Proshore?

Since school, I’ve always been interested in computing. The teacher would provide difficult programming questions, and I would usually be the first among the class to solve the problems. So it soon got my interest! 

At that time, I decided IT was the thing I should work on. That’s what led me to study computer engineering at university. After graduating, I worked as a programmer for around 10 months at another IT company, which took on projects from a variety of industries. At that time, the CakePHP framework was popular. I liked that framework so much that I didn’t want to switch.

Then in 2012, I heard from a colleague that Proshore was somewhere I could learn to do new things with CakePHP. I’m always learning – I love reading books –and I wanted a new challenge, so I made the move to Proshore, and I haven’t looked back.

How has your career progressed at Proshore? 

10 years is a long time! CakePHP was one of the reasons I joined Proshore, but in my time here I’ve worked with a range of different frameworks and languages like Angular and Node.js. The company really believes in me and at one point offered me the chance to become a Project Manager.

I did that role for a few months and soon realized that I was better suited to the technical side of the business. It was then that I decided to complete my master's. The great thing was that because of the flexible working arrangements, I was able to study around my work at Proshore.

Then about 2 or 3 years ago I felt ready for my next challenge. I was considering my options when a new project arrived at Proshore – one I’m still involved with today. I’m pleased to say it’s given me a lot of new skills – and confidence.  

Right now, I’m a Team Leader for a small team of developers based in Nepal and the Netherlands. A large part of my role involves helping the team to overcome technical challenges. I also help to guide the junior developers using all the things I’ve learned over the last 10 years. In fact, I’m really happy to teach the new guys. I’d describe what I do as a mixture of programming and technical support for my colleagues.

What do you enjoy most about working at Proshore?

One of the things I really love about my job is problem-solving. I’m mostly involved with testing and development, so when other developers have a query or a problem, I help them solve it. 

Also, since the pandemic, we’ve taken a hybrid approach to working. I like the flexibility to work from home. I find there can be fewer distractions at home, but being in the office is also useful for having face-to-face conversations with colleagues.

Our field is changing constantly. New challenges come along all the time. So when you get into the job and tackle these challenges – that’s very satisfying.  

In 10 years, what’s been most challenging about your role?  

In IT, one of the biggest challenges can be having to make quick decisions for the customer. 

Every customer is different, so when we get the process right, it can help take care of a lot of the decision-making. Sometimes we work with customers who have an idea, but they’re not sure how to execute it from a technical perspective. In other cases, the customers are very technically-aware and know what’s needed to create their product. 

Communication is the key to success, so the customer and the development team need to understand each other correctly. When it comes to programming, there are usually multiple ways to build a solution. This can sometimes create uncertainty around the best approach to take. By having an Agile mindset, we can develop iteratively, and respond to changes when needed. 

In our regular Sprint Review meetings, we discuss the next set of improvements, and during Sprint Refinement meetings, we go over the customer’s requirements. It’s here that I can bring my expertise to help guide the development and suggest possible solutions.

What are your plans for the next 5 years or so?

In software development, you’re always learning something new. I’m really interested in learning more about AWS and microservices. 

Blockchain is also something that fascinates me. I’ve been teaching myself about blockchain by reading books and watching YouTube. I don’t want to create my own blockchain; I’m interested in the potential applications of blockchain technology. 

There are countless applications for blockchain, it can be used in many fields, and it’s likely to change the whole world. It’s so broad that it covers everything from preventing vote tampering during elections to storing important documents, so they cannot be altered. 

It’s still an open field right now, and it will require a lot of resources to work effectively, such as making payments in real-time using cryptocurrency. 

If you could code any piece of software, what would it be and why?

Nowadays, futsal is really popular in Nepal, especially around Kathmandu. We have around 30 courts in my local area. I organize and play a lot of futsal games, and some of the Proshore team get together once a week to play. We also take part in competitions with other IT companies. 

Right now, when you make a booking for futsal, you have to make phone calls to find out if there’s a court available. The problem is that at certain times, the courts get booked up really quickly. If I had visibility over all the open slots in the area, I could book a court faster and more easily. So I’d definitely code an app for booking futsal courts!