Are you a qualified engineer but unable to find work due to lack of skills needed for jobs in today’s world?
Or, are you one who have the right skill sets and want to work in the Silicon Valley or with some big MNCs but unable to and settle in jobs that require much less skill and with less pay? True, unemployment among thousands of engineering graduate is common. Nevertheless, in both the above cases, you now have a solution from a startup called Pesto.
A Delhi-based edtech startup, Pesto is helping accelerate India’s software engineering talent through its 12-week bootcamp. The intensive training program helps Indian software engineers break into international tech careers via full-time remote jobs. The startup helps the young talent from Tier II & III towns and remote areas to get a platform where their skills and competencies can be polished so as to make them compete with the best software engineers from not only top colleges in India but from anywhere in the world.
Working as a career accelerator, Pesto, through its 12-week bootcamp, train software engineers with minimum two years experience in soft skills by connecting them to mentors in the US.
Image Source: Pesto Facebook
You wonder how it works?
It starts with a screening process where they test the students software engineering fundamentals, English communication skills and an intense eagerness to learn. Once selected in screening, students are asked to move to Delhi to begin the 12-week training program. During training, students dive deep into software engineering best practices, get paired up with engineering mentors from the US, contribute to popular open source projects and learn the soft skills required to be an effective remote employee.
Students that pass out of training work with the placements team to prepare for interviews, write resumes, negotiate salaries and get introductions directly to top Silicon Valley startups.
How much does the program cost?
Pesto does not charge anything up front. Instead, they take a percentage of each students’ future income for the training program. Students have to sign an income-sharing agreement at the time of joining. Once the trained software engineers earn over Rs.15 lakh per annum at a full-time remote job in an international tech company, they have to pay 17 percent of their annual income as training fee for the next three years on a monthly basis. However, if the students are not making over Rs.125,000 (Rs.15 lakh per annum) in any given month, the training is entirely free. Students don’t have to pay anything to Pesto for the training. The agreement also caps payment at Rs.20,00,000 so students will never pay more than that.
Who are Pesto’s instructors?
Pesto’s instructors are dedicated, full time, expert engineers that have worked on products that have touched millions of people. The company also live stream expert engineers from Silicon Valley to do tech talks and guest lectures. The mentors have developed an India-specific curriculum that not only teaches software development but also focuses on bridging cultural gaps.
Dedicated to accelerate career for Indian software engineering talents, Pesto is said to be currently working on building software tools to automate the process of selecting applicants and focusing on increasing the frequency of the batches. The founders reportedly claimed to have received more than 10,000 applications so far. Needless to mention, the average gross salary of a Pesto alumni is currently Rs.31 lakh per annum. Pesto’s hiring partners include Mimir HQ, Vaynermedia, Fossa.io, Scale API, Embibe, and Zinc.io.
For more details about the company, visit pesto.tech
